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The New York Giants are running out of time to get their injured players back on the field prior to a Week 1 game against the Denver Broncos, and there’s no guarantee that it will happen this week.
Despite optimism that running back Saquon Barkley (knee), tight end Kyle Rudolph (foot), offensive lineman Nate Solder (shoulder) and wide receivers Kenny Golladay (hamstring) and Kadarius Toney (situations) are getting closer, they may all miss joint practices with the New England Patriots.
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Or they might all practice. Who really knows?
“Every player is unique and every story is different. I couldn’t give you some kind of arbitrary timetable for any player coming in of when they can make an impact. That’s really all based on the player, how they prepare and how they execute on Sundays,” head coach Joe Judge said of his injured players before addressing some individually.
Solder will make the trip to Foxborough and he’s expected to do more this week, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll practice.
“I’ll talk more with the doctors later. He’ll definitely be on the trip with us. We expect him to do more than he did last week in practice. I’ll see physically where he’s at in terms of entering the game,” Judge said.
The same applied to Toney.
“In terms of his health, he’s progressing, he’s working hard, he’s doing everything our training staff is asking him to do. We’re pleased with the progress he’s making,” Judge said. “He’ll definitely be on the trip with us, along with several other players who are continuing their rehab. We’ll talk [on Monday night] to see if we can build him more into some of the early practice individuals and see if at that point he’s ready to go ahead and progress and do anything more competitive, whether it’s seven-on-sevens or one-on-ones or anything of that nature.”
The update on Golladay was a bit more pessimistic. Although he’s making strides in recovery, it sounds like he’ll be sidelined until at least Week 1.
“They keep telling me how he’s progressing very well in his rehab, he’s really building up and doing much better on a weekly basis. I don’t think you’re going to expect to see him in 11-on-11s this week,” Judge said. “That being said, as we progress to the regular season, we’ve got just about three weeks call it, ballpark, until the first game.
“We’ll see where he goes physically and, again, anybody we put on the field we want to make sure they get on the field and stay on the field by playing healthy and playing effectively at 100 percent. I don’t have an answer for you long-term on that, but I am very pleased with how he’s working. He’s doing everything we ask him to do and he’s making progress on a daily basis.”
And what about Barkley? Could at least one of these injured players come with a positive and optimistic update?
Well… Kind of.
“The priority will be to continue ramping him up and doing more and more. Last week in Cleveland, he did some one-on-ones, some pass drills with our guys and against our defense early in practice. We were keeping him out of competitive periods last week, that was by design. We’ll see where he is,” Judge said. “He keeps advancing in his rehab.
“His foot is tapping every day, wanting to do more and more, and physically he keeps progressing and showing us he can do more and more. So, once we talk to the doctors today, we’ll formulate a plan for what he’s going to do in Foxborough through the practices and the game, but I would expect it to be more than what we saw last week. Now, I can’t say that means 11-on-11 or seven-on-seven, I can’t give that answer right now, but as soon as we find out we’ll let you know before the practices happen what we expect him to do that day.”
So there you have it. Injured Giants may or may not practice this week against New England and we’ll only know the plan once it plays out on the field.
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