Giants rookie wide receiver Geremy Davis adjusting to special teams
New York Giants wide receiver Geremy Davis #9 runs the ball during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015. Credit: Brad Penner
It's not even a game of inches for Geremy Davis. It's half-inches.
That's what the rookie is learning in training camp, especially when it comes to his special teams duties. Assistant special teams coach Larry Izzo has taken Davis under his wing to teach him the exactitude of every detail when it comes to covering punts, blocking kicks and all of the other skills that go into the job.
"He over-coaches me, which is really good," Davis said, illustrating how subtle the tweaks can be by shifting his foot less than an inch to the outside. "He sees the importance of all of those things and is trying to make sure I take it on to the practice field and the game."
A sixth-round pick and the most prolific receiver in the University of Connecticut's Football Bowl Subdivision history, Davis has had to learn those nuances of special teams at the pro level. The Giants would like to have him play all four major units within the group and see him at his best as a gunner.
That, too, is where Davis enjoys playing the most.
"It's pretty fun," he said. "It's the hardest as well, trying to work through that double team."
He said working on escaping that coverage has helped him in his wide receiver releases too. And on Wednesday, when Victor Cruz, Odell Beckham Jr. and Rueben Randle all missed practice, he was lined up with the starters on the offense.
That's not where you should expect to see him when the regular season games begin, though. At least not unless there is a full-blown crisis at the position. Davis will start his career on specials, and the Giants think he'll be pretty good at it. That's why they are spending so much effort to get his techniques perfect.
"He's progressing," coordinator Tom Quinn said. "He really works hard at it and has a lot of upside. He didn't do a lot of it in college so a lot of it is new to him, but he's really taken to the coaching."
There are plenty of players in the league who spend their careers as special teamers, and a number of examples right on the Giants' staff. Izzo did with the Patriots, going to three Pro Bowls as a special teamer. Former Giants wide receiver David Tyree -- and the player Davis is most often compared to -- made it to the Pro Bowl as a special teamer before he made his iconic Super Bowl catch. Giants long-snapper Zak DeOssie has accepted his role and gone to a pair of Pro Bowls because of it.
But Davis said he wouldn't necessarily be satisfied with a career like theirs. At least not now.
"I love playing receiver, I'm not gonna lie," he said. "I love playing wide out and I want to contribute to the offense. But if the team's goal for me is to help the team on special teams, I'm going to do that and not be selfish about it."
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
