New York Giants OTAs: Biggest takeaways from Week 1 | Sporting News

The New York Giants commenced organized team activities (OTA) this week, taking another step toward playing football on Sundays.

Though the Giants aren’t permitted to have live contact or wear pads during OTAs, there are still plenty of storylines taking place at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford.

With the first week of OTAs now behind us, here are the biggest takeaways regarding the Giants:

Biggest takeaways from Week 1 of Giants OTAs

Daniel Jones is moving well

The Giants’ starting quarterback is still working his way back from the torn ACL that ended his 2023 season early, but he’s making solid progress. The $40 million man worked in 7-on-7 drills throughout the entire first week of OTAs and appeared to be moving well without a brace on his knee during portion of practice open to the media Thursday.

“Just getting back in the swing of things, playing football against a defense, against guys moving around. Thought it was good today. Continue to kind of progress and continue to work on things,” Jones said Thursday.

We’ll see if he progresses at all to doing 11-on-11 drills, but it appears he’s on track to participate fully in training camp.

Drew Lock struggles

While Jones sat out during 11-on-11 drills, it was Lock who stepped in with the first-team offense. The Giants signed him in free agency to give the offense a viable backup after Tyrod Taylor took a deal with the Jets. Even so, Lock struggled with consistency.

Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News reported that Lock looked rough during the practice open to the media.

This was only one indoor OTA practice in May with Jones limited to 7-on-7 throws. But Lock had a rough day running the first-team offense in the 11-on-11 periods.

He made a dangerous throw into traffic, missed a few passes high to open targets, delivered a near interception deep into coverage and looked generally uncomfortable. A deep touchdown pass up the seam to rookie first-round pick Malik Nabers was Lock’s only silver lining.

Lock has had his moments in spot-start situations but right now, there shouldn’t be any controversy about who the starting quarterback will be.

Starting offensive line coming into shape?

With OTAs starting up, we got our first look at the starting offensive line rotation. The left tackle and center positions are set with Andrew Thomas and John Michael Schmitz, respectively. The other three spots are a mystery. At least, they were.

During the first week of OTAs, veteran Jermaine Eluemunor was working at left guard with Jon Runyan Jr. at right guard and Evan Neal at right tackle. We’ll see if that order sticks, but it will be something to monitor after the unit surrendered 85 sacks in 2023.

Cor’Dale Flott has inside track

The Giants didn’t make any major additions to the cornerback room this offseason outside of drafting Andru Phillips in the third round. However, Phillips is expected to compete for the nickel role, leaving competition open for the boundary spot opposite Deonte Banks.

Through the first week of OTAs, Flott is the projected starter opposite Banks.

Darius Slayton, Darren Waller remain absent

To little surprise, the Giants were without two key members of the offense. Both Slayton and Waller remain away from the team during voluntary OTAs. Slayton is looking for a new contract entering the final year of his current deal while Waller remains away from the team as he contemplates retirement.

Head coach Brian Daboll didn’t have a potential return date in mind, but mandatory minicamp will be the first time they are required to be in attendance.

For more Giants coverage, check out Kevin Hickey’s work on Sporting News.