EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — While the New York Jets and New England Patriots stole national headlines with the arrival of a certain back-up quarterback, the New York Giants had an arrival of their own, albeit not to the enormity of Tebowmania , wide receiver Hakeem Nicks.
After skipping out on optional OTAs with restricted free agent teammate Victor Cruz, Nicks — and only Nicks — was present the first day of the team’s mandatory three day mini-camp on Tuesday and appeared happy to be back with Big Blue.
“It feels really good to be back around my teammates and being in the locker room for the mini camp. I’m excited about it,” he said in front of a modest grouping of media members.
And teammates were happy have him back, like punter Steve Weatherford, who tweeted a picture Tuesday morning confirming Nicks’ presence.
The reasoning behind his absence is still unclear as Nicks chose not to comment on the topic stating “he’s not here to talk about that”. There is speculation that the Super Bowl champion wideout is unhappy with his current contract — which is in the final year of its deal. But again Nicks wouldn’t comment, only offering “I don’t really talk about my contract in the media.”
Eli Manning, who’s last worked with Nicks in April at Duke University, seemed focused on getting the offense on the whole instead of the arrival of an individual — even someone as pivotal as Nicks.
“I don’t know if it’s a relief. We have three days of practice and we haven’t had a practice yet, so I think we just have to continue going about our business as we’ve been these last few months and all we can do is go out there and keep trying to get better, keep working on our offense making sure everybody is doing the right things, in the right spots and having success,” he said.
Some one who may be taking a sigh of relief is head coach Tom Coughlin, who was left in the dark by Nicks and general manager Jerry Reese about his absence of OTAs.
“I could have done a better job at reaching out, but I did,” Nicks said in regards to informing Coughlin about his absence. “We finally got to talk. We got things straightened out on that end. Coach Coughlin…that’s my guy. That relationship can’t go south. I felt where he was coming from. I should have done a better job at reaching out to him.”
Despite the missed time, Nicks isn’t worried about missing a beat in the schemes as it’s his fifth year in offensive coordinator’s Kevin Gilbride’s offense.
“Nothing too much is new for me in this offense, so it’s just basically getting back into the routine with the offense. We had a jog-through earlier. I jumped in there earlier and everything is just like clockwork to me now with this offense,” Nicks said.
Nicks nixed the notion of missing last week’s OTAs because of the broken foot he suffered in last year’s OTAs, saying he “feels great” and that he spent that time training in his home state of North Carolina. The broken foot was the beginning of a series of injuries that slowed his 2012 season to 13 games and dips in receptions and receiving yards.
