Kenny Phillips takes 12 Giant steps ahead

ALBANY -- They were the most important 12 plays the Giants have run thus far in training camp, which entered its second week yesterday. No matter what had gone on before and what takes place in the month to come prior to the regular-season opener, the return to health of safety Kenny Phillips is the fulcrum on which the Giants' fate sits.

No player is more vital to the cause. With Phillips once again a star-on-the-rise capable of the football equivalent of leaping tall buildings in a single bound, the defensive shambles of 2009 can be transformed into real dominance. With Phillips hobbled or ordinary, the secondary is a player short and once again has holes to fill.

For the first time in 11 months, Phillips participated in practice with his team, an event safeties coach David Merritt called "another little Christmas present" and newly-imported safety Antrel Rolle said had Phillips "grinning from ear-to-ear, and we were also grinning from ear-to-ear for him." The long road back has finally placed Phillips on the field, and as long as he stays there, the Giants defense as a feared entity is back in business.

Coming back from microfracture surgery last September on his left knee, Phillips, only 23 years old, had worked on the side and waited in the wings for this day to arrive. In the morning, he participated in individual drills -- also a first for him this summer -- and then sprinted in for two plays with the second-unit defense, playing alongside safety Michael Johnson. Two plays in, then off the field. He followed that script six times for a total of a dozen plays. The agreed-upon plan was 10 plays for Phillips, but when the four-minute drill commenced he couldn't resist.

"He wasn't supposed to go in . . . so I may get a tongue-whipping by Coach [Tom] Coughlin," Merritt said.

Doubtful. Coughlin is as anxious as anyone to see Kenny Phillips in action. On back-to-back running plays, Phillips with all eyes glued to his every movement, slipped and fell to the grass, causing hearts to pause. He quickly regained his footing.

"I'm just going to blame it on the cleats," Phillips said, smiling. "I'm not going to wear those cleats anymore, that's all it is."

It was rust, more likely. The vast majority of his plays were rushing attempts that didn't involve him, but he was tested once. On a Jim Sorgi pass to tight end Scott Chandler, Phillips broke perfectly, dove and deflected away the pass on the left sideline, nearly coming up with an interception.

"I was really trying to get it," Phillips said. "I read his hips and I went for it -- came real close. Maybe next time I'll get it."

Not once, Phillips said, was he thinking about his knee, and there was no pain, no swelling -- nothing. He was hoping for a deep ball thrown his way ("Something to really test my knee out," he said), but for that he'll have to wait. He acknowledged "it actually felt weird" for him on the field and that he was locked into his own assignments.

"I think it's going to take a while for me to open my vision back up and start making plays like I used to, but I have time," he said.

Merritt said from what he saw from Phillips, it's all systems go. Of course, Merritt is biased. He calls Phillips "Superman," as do many of his defensive back teammates. Phillips loves it, but said he hasn't felt very super.

"I tell them I feel like Clark Kent right now -- I'm working on putting back on that cape," Phillips said.

Deon Grant, 31, was signed as insurance and is currently starting at safety alongside Rolle. The plan is for Phillips to take Grant's spot. Coughlin said "there is plenty of time" for that to develop. A consistent veteran, Grant knows the deal.

"One thing about this league, an injury don't take you out of the starting position," Grant said. "He's got great range, he will come down and hit and he got a mind on him. When you got all those talents as a safety you got a great safety."

That's the plan and Phillips is 12 plays closer to making it reality.

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(nypost.com)