draft approaches and the offseason program begins"Happy Sunday Corey Ballentine Buffalo Bills Jersey , New York Giants fans! It finally feels like spring outside, the NFL Draft is approaching and your Giants begin their offseason program on Monday. With those things in mind, let’s offer a few thoughts as we impatiently wait for the draft.About the Sterling Shepard signingThe Giants’ signing of Shepard to a four-year, $41 million extension — which the team should make official in the coming days as the offseason program gets underway — is one I very much approve of.Since GM Dave Gettleman and coach Pat Shurmur took over the Giants have been undergoing a process of figuring out which players they want to go forward with, and which ones they preferred to move on without. Without belaboring those choices, it is apparent that the Giants have removed some talented players from their roster.It is apparent they are trying to shape their roster not only around good players who fit the style they want to play, but also around good people. Shepard checks all of those boxes. Good player. Good teammate. Good locker room guy. The kind of player an organization wants to give a second contract to, wants to become a part of their core.Matt Waldman of The Rookie Scouting Portfolio put it this way while appearing on the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast a few days ago:“I think it shows they’re looking for someone they want to build this receiving corps around and they feel like he’s the type of worker, the type of route runner, the consistency factor in his game is good enough that you want to lock him up for a while. And I get that.”As do I. In all honestly, I’m not concerned with the contract or with his fit next to Golden Tate.The contract, at an apparent annual value of $10.25 million, put him 20th in the league among wide receivers, per Spotrac. I’m not going to complain about that being exorbitant for a quality 26-year-old receiver just entering his prime.I am also not going to obsess about his fit with Tate. As Waldman pointed out during our show, while Tate was used heavily in the slot by the Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles, he was highly productive playing on the outside for the Seattle Seahawks early in his career. Players move around, and I have confidence that Shurmur will find ways to create good matchups for both players.The Patriot modelThe New England Patriots have been the dominant franchise in the NFL for nearly two decades. They have had staying power in an era designed perhaps not for total parity, but designed not to allow for extended dynasties.Yes, Tom Brady and Bill Belechick have been at the center of it all. The Patriot way of constructing a roster has remained consistent throughout that time, though, and I have often wondered why NFL teams have not learned more from it. New England doesn’t overpay for players. They will take two or three good ones at lesser cost instead of one great, or potentially great, one at an exorbitant cost. They believe in finding smart players who can do multiple things, not just collecting athletes who test well. They horde draft picks by trading down or by allowing other teams to overpay for their veteran players and happily accepting the compensatory pick they get in return.Think about some of the moves the Giants have made since Gettleman became GM, and there are hints of the New England model in some of them. Tate, Shepard and a bevy of other low-cost veterans at receiver instead of Beckham. The younger and less expensive Jabrill Peppers instead of Landon Collins. Moving on from many high-priced veterans, albeit while taking on more dead money than the Giants would like. Trying to instill a business-like, team-first culture.The ultimate success or failure of Gettleman’s time as GM is going to be determined by whether or not he can replace Eli Manning with a guy who can be a top-tier quarterback capable of championship-level performance. Still Color Rush Corey Ballentine Jersey , when you study what he has done so far it isn’t hard to see some New England influence in what he has tried to do.T.J. Hockenson, anyone?Would the Giants throw a major curveball in the draft and select Iowa tight end T.J. Hockenson with the sixth overall pick?Pat Traina asked me to come up with a curveball scenario during an appearance on the ‘Locked on Giants’ podcast last week. I tossed out the idea of pushing the need for defense to the back burner and taking Hockenson.Talking to me on the ‘Valentine’s Views’ podcast, Matt Waldman of The Rookie Scouting Portfolio said Hockenson would be a good choice for the Giants:On Friday, our Dan Pizzuta tossed out a mock draft with Hockenson as the choice at No. 6 for the Giants.Hockenson is the fifth-ranked player on the NFL.com big board. Lance Zierlein writes:Would the Giants really do this? I wouldn’t bet money on it, but if you are looking for an unexpected scenario this is one to keep in mind.Draft cluesAll of us who write about NFL teams for a living try to use whatever means we can to get some clues about what might or might not happen in the draft. That’s not easy to do, though. As one evaluator told me “No one knows anything. If they say they do, they are lying.”So, there’s that.I am always fascinated by this idea of players rising and falling on draft boards as we get closer and closer. To me, it’s more myth than reality. It is more the media or draft community, which has its own notions of how draft prospects should be valued, beginning to catch up with how NFL teams may value those players. The differences in those perceptions is what likely accounts for rising and falling, not necessarily changing grades on the players themselves.I like to watch many of the well-connected NFL insiders — Peter King, Albert Bree, Daniel Jeremiah, Mel Kiper, Todd McShay among them — for trends. As many of them begin to coalesce around a single idea, it’s a pretty good guess that there is more behind that than simple opinion.Just something to keep in mind as you see the rumor mill continue to swirl and final mock drafts begin to be presented.Something to leave you withI don’t have much to say about this, except that it might be the funniest Giants-related thing you watch during the buildup to the draft. ‘Kudos’ to Chris for bringing it to my attention. Daniel Jones shows off running ability, more takeaways from Tuesday’s practice" />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhiteBig Blue Viewa New York Giants communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpFanpostsFanshotsSectionsLibraryGiantsOddsAboutMastheadCommunity GuidelinesStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections New York Giants NewsGiants Training Camp 2016Giants vs. Eagles 2015, Week 17Filed under:New York Giants NewsMini-camp takeaways, Day 1: Competition, and a QB with wheelsNew,99commentsDaniel Jones shows off running ability, more takeaways from Tuesday’s practiceEDTShareTweetShareShareMini-camp takeaways, Day 1: Competition, and a QB with wheelsKyle Lauletta throws to Reggie White Jr. early in Tuesday’s practice.Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY SportsEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Day 1 of mandatory mini-camp is in the books for the New York Giants. Here are some of the takeaways from Tuesday’s workout.Daniel Jones flashes the wheelsThe rookie quarterback is often compared to Eli Manning, but the Giants don’t run the read option with the slow-footed 38-year-old Manning. They did on Tuesday with the sixth overall pick Youth Corey Ballentine Jersey , who ran for 1,323 yards and 17 touchdowns at Duke.Jones didn’t disappoint, keeping the ball, turning the corner and going for a long run. Touchdown? No touchdown? Who knows? With the red jersey on no defender could touch him. Still, the run got enthusiastic whoops from his offensive teammates.“Oh man, he pulled that thing and picked the knees up. He looked good,” said wide receiver Sterling Shepard.“He got himself out into space pretty quickly,” said head coach Pat Shurmur. “He obviously moves around well. He’s down there around 4.6 ... he can move around.”But, how’d he do throwing the ball?I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow practice description, but Jones made some nice throws. He threw a “wow” deep ball to undrafted wide receiver Reggie White Jr. at one point, and had several nice connections with veteran receiver Cody Latimer. He also airmailed a couple of throws.In general, my observation of Jones has consistently been that he has plenty of arm strength to get the job done. He showed that Tuesday on the deep ball to White and also on a couple of sideline throws. The concern is in what Mark Schofield might call “processing speed.” There are times when he appears indecisive, taking an extra hop or giving the ball an extra pat before letting it go. The hope has to be that as he learns the playbook and gains experience against NFL defenders that bit of indecision goes away.Jabrill Peppers brings energy ... and trash talkOdell Beckham Jr. used to be the “energy guy” for the Giants on the practice field — dancing, messing with teammates, keeping the excitement up. Who would fill that void with Beckham now a member of the Cleveland Browns? Turns out, one of the guys stepping into that void is the player acquired for Beckham — safety Jabrill Peppers.“Just seeing if I can get in guys heads,” Peppers said of the on-field trash talk with teammates. “I know how defenses play the game, so if they’re used to it in practice they’ll be used to it in a game.“Competition brings the best out of everybody.”Peppers said he always wants to bring energy to the field.“No matter how hard the days get, we don’t gotta do it, we get to do it,” Peppers said of playing football. “There’s a lot of guys who would love to have this opportunity.”Shurmur loves the competitiveness of practiceThe Giants are in short and, theoretically, there is no contact during these practices. There were big plays on both offense and defense Tuesday, though, and Shurmur was pleased that practice was “very competitive, very spirited.”“It needs to be competitive,” Shurmur said. “If one side of the ball is making all the plays I don’t know what kind of team you have.“When the quarterbacks are trying to be aggressive with the ball and the defense is getting their hands on balls and both sides of the ball are making plays and competing that’s a good thing.”“We don’t accept mistakes”The Giants have a youthful, inexperienced defense that can be expected to make some mistakes along the way. Shurmur doesn’t want to hear about accepting that the young players will make mistakes.“We have made a lot of changes the last year and a half and a lot of the guys we have added are young. They have fresh legs and are good players. They are spirited guys that are out there competing. We are just going to go out there and play ball Womens Corey Ballentine Jersey , see what happens,” Shurmur said.“We don’t accept mistakes, but we understand at times they happen. The mindset here, regardless of how old you are and how experienced you are, is listen, you play fast with no anxiety, you make a mistake, you admit it and you find a way to correct it and move on fast. That is the message for the guy that has played plenty of years, just like it is the message for the guy that just got here.”About that competitionThere were the aforementioned big plays to White and Latimer. Backup quarterback Alex Tanney completed a couple of nice deep balls, one to rookie Darius Slayton and one to Bennie Fowler. Manning threw an excellent deep ball to tight end Rhett Ellison, who had a step on Grant Haley.The defense had its moments, too. Jones, Lauletta and Eli Manning all had passes intercepted during the day. Lauletta was picked clean by linebacker B.J. Goodson during a half-line passing drill. Manning and Jones were intercepted on tipped balls.Evan Engram heads injured listThird-year tight end Evan Engram had a full sleeve on his left leg and did not practice. He was one of several players riding stationary bikes at the beginning of the day. Shurmur said Engram is “just a little sore, he’s fine. He’ll be ready to go here soon.”Also not practicing were defensive lineman Olsen Pierre, left tackle Nate Solder, right tackle Mike Remmers, tight end/quarterback Eric Dungey, wide receiver Brittan Golden and safety Sean Chandler. Remmers worked inside for a while and Solder did some drills with a trainer. Edge rusher Markus Golden did individual drills but was held out of the 11-on-11 portions of practice.“Nobody long term,” Shurmur said. “We feel good about having everybody back here very soon and definitely by the time we start (training) camp.”A few other observationsUndrafted rookie punter Ryan Anderson probably isn’t taking a job away from Riley Dixon. The left-footed Anderson is impressive, though, and it wouldn’t surprise if he finds work somewhere in the league during the 2019 season.First-round picks Dexter Lawrence (defensive end) and DeAndre Baker (cornerback) worked with the first team. Baker didn’t make any splash plays, but he always seemed to be in position even when balls were completed in his direction.With Solder and Remmers still not practicing, Brian Mihalik and Chad Wheeler continued at left and right tackle, respectively.Running back Paul Perkins, on IR (pectoral) last year, was the No. 2 running back on Tuesday. He caught several passes and appeared to have a nice day.Linebacker Tae Davis took first-team reps in nickel packages.What’s next?Mini-camp will continue on Wednesday and Thursday. Practices both days are scheduled to begin at 10:10 a.m. ET. The Giants will hold their remaining OTAs next week, then be off until training camp begins.