In a New York Minute: Giants Rookie Mini-Camp Round Up: Pick Limas Sweed Whiffs

Former Pittsburgh Steelers 2nd round pick Limas Sweed was brought into the Giants first practices of the year to see if he had anything left in the tank. Sweed said all the right things (he talked about how he loved football and how he’s still a young man and can make a name for himself), but could not prove it on the field. According to Mike Garafolo of the Newark Star Ledger (and my personal favorite beat writer out there–Bob McGinn is good too for the Packers), Sweed dropped three passes today–two of which were very catch-able footballs and did not impress overall.

Sweed was drafted in the second round and was expected to be a big down the field threat for the Steelers (he was drafted to be what Mike Wallace has become), but struggled with drops. The Giants have a deep stable of Wide Recievers: Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz, Rueben Randle are all locks to make the team. Domenik Hixon, Jerel Jernigan Ramses Barden seem to be the front-runners for the other three spots, but there might be some room for a player to sneak onto the roster the Giants have a recent history of that where players like Duke Calouhn came out of nowhere to make the team (but didn’t stick past his first year) and of course Victor Cruz–but that player won’t be Limas Sweed.

Also at Giants rookie Mini-camp Rueben Randle has been impressive.

“After the first practice of this camp, coach Tom Coughlin, though not wishing to single out any player after such a small sample, did admit, “I was very impressed with Randle out on the field this morning.’’

The Giants have also announced that Chase Blackburn will enter training camp as the starting middle linebacker. The Giants, however, will experiment with Michael Boley, Keith Rivers, and give Greg Jones and Mark Herzlich an opportunity to win the job.

Lastly, Rutgers Running back/full back Joe Martinek has been one of the early standouts. The Giants have David Wilson and Bradshaw as the #1 and #2 running back but there will be opportunities behind them as D.J. Ware has yet to truly impress and Darrel Scott might be expandable now with Wilson providing the same type of dynamic.

“He’s been pretty good the whole camp, very steady,” said Giants coach Tom Coughlin. “Probably can play both spots. I think he has some position versatility.”

I’ll be starting some 2013 early position reviews coming up over the next week or so–be on the lookout for that.

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