David Douglas catches passes and the eyes of the coaches

You may be surprised to know that rookie wide receiver David Douglas has caught the eye of the Giants’ coaching staff in the first week of practice. David Douglas certainly was.

“To be honest, I didn’t even know that until I came here,” Douglas said yesterday when he was swarmed by the media because Tom Coughlin had offered him unsolicited praise a day earlier. “A lot of being a rookie is just learning and taking it one day at a time and giving it your all at practice. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of great guys to learn from so you just try to pick up as many things as you can and work hard every day.”

Douglas was so caught off guard by the attention placed on him that he wore a tank top to lunch and the interview area where he assumed he would breeze right through unmolested. He had to scramble to find a nice Giants pullover to wear during his on-camera interviews.

Douglas looked far more prepared for his time in the spotlight on the field. We made a big deal about Domenik Hixon’s catch at the end of the practice yesterday, but Douglas made a catch that was just as amazing. Perhaps even more. Running a go route down the right sideline in a 7-on-7 drill, Douglas laid out in a dive for a pass from Ryan Perrilloux. Safety Janzen Jackson was there with pretty good coverage to tip the ball, but all he did was deflect it slightly and Douglas was able to make a remarkable one-handed catch as he hit the ground.

“You have to take advantage of every rep that you get in,” Douglas said. “When you’re not one of the first or second string guys you’ve definitely got to take advantage of the reps that you get in there but you’ve just got to take it one rep at a time. You can’t look too far ahead. You’ve just got to go out there and make the most of it every time you get in.”

It was Wednesday when Coughlin noted that Douglas was having a strong camp. The last time he offered that kind of out-of-the-blue name of an undrafted wide receiver to keep an eye on was two years ago when he tapped a kid from Patterson. Victor Cruz.

Douglas may not blossom into Cruz. But he wouldn’t mind being his teammate this year.

“You see players like Victor Cruz that came up and got a shot while he was an undrafted free agent, and you’ve seen the things that he was able to do,” Douglas said. “The Giants do things the right way and it was a great opportunity to come up here.”