The nuts and bolts of the first full-squad OTA

I have plenty more that I'll drip on the blog in the coming days, but to cap this afternoon's flurry of information from the OTA I figured I'd give you a few nuggets from the actual practice and a look at who was where and with whom, etc.

The starting defense, as I started to mention earlier, included Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka at defensive ends, Chris Canty and Barry Cofield at defensive tackles, Jonathan Goff at middle linebacker flanked by Clint Sintim and Michael Boley, Terrell Thomas and Corey Webster at cornerback and Deon Grant and Antrel Rolle at safety. Osi Umenyiora took some reps with the starting group and was playing opposite Kiwanuka with Tuck on the sideline.

The two starting wide receivers were Steve Smith and Mario Manningham (Hakeem Nicks is still sidelined but expected back soon). Manningham dropped a pair of passes that he should have caught.

Filling in for Kevin Boss at tight end with the first unit was Bear Pascoe, but Travis Beckum was playing in the slot with the ones. Beckum said that that year he expects there will be even more of a difference between what he and Boss are asked to do and he doesn't even consider them to be playing the same position.

Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs and Andre Brown all took reps in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills. All three of them are coming off of surgeries. Jacobs said he feels better now then he did at this time last year when he was still dealing with the lingering effects of a PCL injury he suffered against the Ravens. Bradshaw said he's feeling great too.

Back to middle linebacker, Phillip Dilard was running the second unit while Gerris Wilkinson was with the third grou that included Kenny Ingram and Adrian Tracy. Micah Johnson also switched in the middle for a few reps.

It was very hard to tell who was who at linebacker since just about all of them have changed jersey numbers.

Jason Pierre-Paul made a nice play on defense in 11s, somehow winding up with a loose ball in the backfield. How it got loose I don't know since we were so far away. But the fact that he had the ball is a good sign.

Michael Johnson did not participate in the practice with a quad injury. He spent the day standing next to Kenny Phillips, who was wearing his shorts and helmet and looked like he was ready to jump in at any moment. The Giants are being very cautious with him, of course, but Phillips said he's confident he'll be ready to go full speed by the start of training camp.