John Harbaugh is wasting no time putting a hard edge on the Giants’ training camp in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., and the message is simple: nobody gets to operate on their own terms.
That showed up quickly with Cam Skattebo, who took heat for doing a backflip at Fanatics Fest while working back from a major leg injury. Skattebo said the correction came from his coach and that he took it seriously.
“Obviously I do some dumb things here and there, but I learn from it,” Skattebo said this weekend in a rare moment of accountable reflection. “My coach talked to me, told me how he felt and I learned from it.
And will I go do that back flip again? Probably not.
We live and we learn, and we move on.”
But this isn’t just about one player and one mistake. Darius Slayton said Harbaugh has already been addressing players directly in the opening days of camp, using those conversations to set a standard across the roster.
“Already in this camp, he’s expressed that at the end of the day, in this life, if somebody’s not doing something up to the echelon that you want them to do, you go to them, you make that clear to them that that’s not what we’re going to do around here, then they have a chance to respond,” Slayton said. “And that’s something that he’s already done in our first few days of camp and has gotten a positive response out of the individuals that he’s done that with.”
Slayton said the tone has been clear from the start.
“Overall, there’s just no room for anybody to just do whatever they want,” he said. “That’s the best way I can put it to you.
Everybody’s accountable. Everybody has to be on time.
Everybody has to show effort at practice, or you would be held accountable.”
The point, of course, is that accountability has to start at the top. It means little if a coach only steps in when a younger player makes the wrong kind of headline. Harbaugh has already shown he’ll address veterans, too, including Paulson Adebo, who carries a $24.1 million salary cap hit and missed the start of the spring offseason program.
When asked about Adebo’s absence on April 7, Harbaugh didn’t dodge it.
“I’m not exactly sure, but it’s his right,” Harbaugh said. “It’s his reason.
Whatever his reason is, I’ll be interested to hear it. But it is what it is.
It’s OK.”
The same standard is being applied to Jaxson Dart, and that’s been obvious from the way offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan and Dart himself have described the early work. The quarterback is being pushed hard on details such as footwork while learning a new offense that demands a lot from his command. He’s also been warned about taking care of his body and understanding when to take a risk and when to pull back.
Harbaugh also had a conversation with Dart after the quarterback thought it was a good idea to introduce president Donald Trump at a rally. The coach kept Dart out of the worst of the public fallout, but the message inside the building was clear: his choices affect more than just him.
That’s the kind of foundation teams try to build in the first days of camp, when standards are either set or lost. Harbaugh appears to be making sure the Giants know exactly where the line is. And if that holds, nobody should have to explain away Malik Nabers going to a Travis Scott concert while in the concussion protocol.
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