T-Rock's Take on the Giants

The final score in the softball game was 14-1. Enough said.

Of more interest was the interview time with the assistant coaches. I'll be writing a story in the paper (and on the web) about QB coach Chris Palmer's work with Eli Manning this offseason, so I'll keep that to a minimum. Here's a smattering of the subjects covered:

-- Palmer said in his first meeting with Manning that the QB had six areas he wanted to improve upon. Palmer wouldn't tell us all six, but said one was making better throws while moving to his left. What they worked on there was getting the mechanics down -- hips square, left shoulder under the chin. I'm the other five areas were things a bit more particular to Manning, but Palmer didn't say.

-- Palmer also said that he considers a QB young until their sixth or seventh year. He cited Phil Simms, who didn't break out until his fifth season, as a QB who didn't follow the third-year-as-a-starter breakout pattern. "It's wrong to say the third year is the magic year," he said.

-- WR coach Mike Sullivan on Steve Smith: "He has excellent hands and he catches the ball extremely well. There's a sound -- actually, it's the lack of a sound -- that the ball makes when he catches it. That's what you want."

-- OL coach Pat Flaherty on Guy Whimper: "He's improved in 2007 in a lot of facets: Strength, footwork, knowledge, the mental part of the game. Now what he needs to show is, when the pads come on, the consistency of making the right moves every play, whether in individuals or team work."

Flaherty wouldn't go so far as to say Whimper wasted his rookie year. "That's for him to say," Flaherty said. "He knows now that he needs to fully concentrated on his opportunity -- and what an opportunity he's got. I know he's turned the page on 2006, which is what you want to see."

-- DB coach Peter Giunta on E.J. Underwood: "He's starting all over again. He got to the third preseason game and he got hurt, and then he couldn't do anything. He got a taste of what it's like to be part of it and then it was taken away from him. Hopefully that will motivate him."

Giunta on the DBs adjusting to Steve Spagnuolo's more physical coverage scheme: "The guys like it, because they get to be physical instead of sitting back and reading and reacting. We couldn't do a whole lot in the OTAs because of the league rules (restricting contact), so we'll see how we do with the pads on."

-- Special teams coach Tom Quinn on the wide-open punt return spot: "R.W. (McQuarters) has done it, he's in there. Aaron Ross, Ahmad Bradshaw, Sinorice Moss, Michael Jennings -- they all have a chance to compete for it. What it comes down to is showing you can do the job in the pressure situations, which are the games."

-- LB coach Bill Sheridan answered lots of questions regarding Mathias Kiwanuka and to a lesser extent Antonio Pierce, but he beamed when I asked him what kind of spring Kawika Mitchell had. "Great. Maybe the best spring of any (LB)," he said. Sheridan said Mitchell has shown tremendous instincts and an ability to get to the ball in the OTAs and mini-camp.