Not On Tynes

New kicker Lawrence Tynes will be the first to tell you that he hasn’t exactly had a dream training camp to date. Tynes has missed more than he’s made of late, often pushing routine kicks wide right.

“This isn’t normal for me,” he said. “I’ve been awful at times. I’ve had a couple little nagging injuries that have been a pain in my butt. We’ve switched about five different snappers. But we still have a long way to go.”

New York sent a conditional seventh-round draft pick to Kansas City this offseason for Tynes, who made close to 80 percent of his field-goal attempts in his three seasons with the Chiefs.

Tynes would be lucky if he were at much more than 60 percent through camp’s first three weeks. In all fairness, he lost his snapper, Ryan Kuehl, who’s been flawless in his Giants career. While the Giants have yet to place Kuehl on season-ending Injured Reserve, it sure doesn’t look good for him.

“People may look at it on paper and say, ‘oh, big deal the long-snapper got hurt,’ ” Tynes said. “But you don’t replace a 12-year veteran. You can’t. Those types of guys play so long because they’re so good and take pride in what they do.”

Tynes is normally so good at what he does that he’s not going to let a bumpy camp mess with his confidence.

“I feel good about where I’m at,” he explained. “We’re settled in with our snapper. Jay’s (Alford) doing a good job and Zak (DeOssie) has done a great job on punts.

“I think it’s gotten better as the days and weeks have gone on. Jeff (Feagles) is such a great holder. He makes up for a lot of the snapping mistakes.”

It’s been a whirlwind offseason for Tynes, whose wife Amanda, delivered twin boys on July 6. As tough as it is being away from his family, he knows he needs to focus in order to hold off Josh Huston, who was briefly New York’s starting kicker before the Tynes trade. The veteran Tynes said he welcomes the battle.

“He’s done a good job,” Tynes said of Huston. “He’s a very, very talented guy. Competition is good. It’s good for anyone at any position in any type of job because it’s going to push you to do better. If he has a good day, you’re really going to want to have a good day. It’s good for you.”

While Tynes has no doubt he’ll be doing New York’s kicking come opening day, he sees a bright future for Huston as well.

“I think both of us will be playing this year,” Tynes said. “I’ve been around some guys that I know that Josh is better than. And I think Josh knows that. He’s a confident kid. He’ll play. We’ll both play. It’ll all work out.”