Florham Park, NJ – The New York Giants and New York Jets held a joint practice on Wednesday afternoon, and if you’re a fan of good defense in the spirit of the Big Blue defense, then this was not the day for you.

To put it simply, the Jets offense, led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers, dominated the Giants’ struggling defense, which had one of its worst practices all summer.

Before we get into the details, the defensive secondary was missing David Long, Jr. and Cor’Dale Flott, and Deonte Banks and Nick McCloud were the cornerbacks on the outside. McCloud in particular was no match for Jets receiver Garrett Wilson, who had a day completing multiple long passes with Rodgers.

Rodgers started with a long pass to Xavier Gipson, who stunned Giants slot cornerback Darnay Holmes on the contested catch. Later, his old friend Tyrod Taylor threw a long touchdown to Jason Brownlee on another contested catch, beating Giants cornerback Mario Goodrich.

The highly anticipated duels between Giants receiver Malik Nabers and Jets cornerback No. 1 Saue Gardner, however, did not take place, as Nabers mainly competed against DJ Reed.

And that was probably one of the worst practices that Nabers engaged in. according to his own statementby having drops he would have liked to get back, including a potential touchdown by Daniel Jones where Nabers got behind coverage and dropped the ball.

On another play, the Giants’ undrafted rookie defensive back Alex Johnson was in coverage against Brandon Smith, who outran him on a corner route. The Jets finished the day with two touchdowns on two different two-minute drives, moving the ball down the field with ease.

On one play, linebacker Bobby Okereke intercepted a deflected pass from Brian Burns, but Dru Phillips’ penalty for holding in the end zone negated the loss. Rodgers finished the drive by hitting Allen Lazard in the back of the end zone for a high-point touchdown.

The Jets had a tough time with their backups, as former Giants backup Tyrod Taylor scored a long touchdown with Jason Brownlee. Mario Goodrich and Alex Johnson were in coverage.

There were some good

All was not lost for the Giants. Burns dominated the one-on-one drills and managed to get through to Rodgers, who recorded at least one sack. Kayvon Thibodeaux held his own against Max Mitchell. Dexter Lawrence prevailed against center Joe Tippmann.

Quinnen Williams, one of the best center backs in the league, won his one-on-one duels. Rakeem Nunez-Roches drew with Wes Schweitzer. And Azeez Ojulari beat his man.

Giants offense is successful, but lacks explosiveness

On the other hand, the Giants offense had a solid day overall. The focus was clearly on getting easier finishes and keeping the offense on schedule, and they did that.

Daniel Jones had a rough start to the day, throwing behind Malik Nabers in seven-on-seven after beating DJ Reed up the middle. Tight end Daniel Bellinger took over quite a few snaps with the second team offense.

At the end of the day, however, Jones seemed much more relaxed and even gave Malik Nabers the opportunity for a touchdown in the two-minute drill, but Nabers dropped the ball.

After the first few quarters, Jones got better after a few checkdowns. As confidence built and the offensive line picked up the pass rush better, Jones started to assert himself and throw better balls.

There was a play where Jones stepped into the pocket and threw a ball along the sideline to Theo Johnson, who was covered by Zaire Barnes, for a big gain. Jones also attempted another deep ball to Johnson, but the rookie dropped it.

The Giants offense spent a significant portion of practice executing almost exclusively rollouts, which Jones had success with, whether he chose to keep the ball himself or pass it.

The trick was effective, as we saw the Giants perform boot slides or play fakes multiple times, aided by movements before or during the snap.

Backup quarterback Tommy DeVito spent most of the day catching passes as they came his way.

The offensive line before DeVito (from left to right) consisted of Joshua Ezeudu, Jake Kubas, Jimmy Morrissey, Jalen Mayfield and Evan Neal.

On several occasions, the Giants had open receivers and the ball was thrown in a good spot, only to have the pass dropped. Tight ends Jack Stoll and Daniel Bellinger both dropped the ball.

Running back Eric Gray had his shoe taken away by Jets safety Chuck Clark, but he immediately jumped back up.

Special teams, special players

The Giants and Jets only allowed their special teams to play a limited amount of minutes, but it was notable that the Giants broke up a long return early. Ayir Asante returned the kick, with Eric Gray as the lead blocker.

It’s hard to say how far the return went before the whistle was blown, but it appeared Asante remained untouched and scored a touchdown.

During the entire training session, we did not see Graham Gano miss a single shot, either in individual or team training.

Injury updates and lineup notes

Before practice, Giants head coach Brian Daboll said several players were left for rehab, including guard Jon Runyan Jr. (shoulder), tight end Lawrence Cager (hamstring), receiver Gunner Olszewski (groin), cornerback Cor’Dale Flott (quadriceps), cornerback David Long (unknown), safety Jonathan Sutherland (unknown) and linebackers Matthew Adams (groin) and Dyontae Johnson (ankle).

Drew Lock participated in individual drills but was held out of team practices. Daboll was also asked if Runyan’s shoulder issues were a concern heading into Week 1, and he said no.

Tyler Nubin once again started with the starters and looks to have overtaken Dane Belton for the starting safety role. Evan Neal worked primarily with the second offense and now appears to be in the running for the swing tackle vacancy.

Bellinger worked with the second offense and scored a red zone touchdown by quarterback Tommy DeVito.