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The New York Giants are dropping like flies and that’s creating some problems for special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey.
With Jabrill Peppers (knee, ankle) out for the season and C.J. Board (forearm) on injured reserve, the numbers are getting low. The Giants will be forced to start two new return men in Week 8, but McGaughey is confident in whoever gets the nod.
“We’ve got Dante (Pettis), we’ve got Darnay (Holmes), John Ross, we’ve got some guys. We’re not completely dead yet,” McGaughey told reporters on Thursday.
Ross will factor into the kick return game but will not be fielding punts. Dante Pettis and Darnay Holmes will get the looks there, although McGaughey would love to put rookie Kadarius Toney on punt return duty once he gets healthy.
“Absolutely. That’s what he’s here for,” McGaughey said. “You can’t draft a guy and say, ‘Oh, this guy has great return ability. He can do all of this,’ and then as soon as he gets here, ‘Oh, we can’t put him on punt return. He’s made out of glass, he’s going to hurt himself.’
“He’s a football player. You watch him catch the ball, catch a slant, he’s hard to bring down. Guys like that are a threat. The Tyreek Hill’s of the world are threats. They have coaches up at night thinking about how they’re going to stop the threat. No, we’re just going to try to use our best players and try and win games.”
The Giants have been waiting for Toney to get up to speed, but due to injuries and others issues, his development has been on the slow side. He finally caught up on offense before going down hurt, which paused the timer on him taking over as the punt returner.
“As a special teams coach, obviously, you want things to happen. You want to play certain guys, but you’ve also got to manage a roster, too,” McGaughey said. “You’ve got to be smart in how you do it. We see how dynamic 89 is when he gets the ball in his hand.
“We’re just trying win games, but you also got to be smart in how you make sure he’s healthy and he feels good, and he feels comfortable being back there because at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing. The player has to feel comfortable doing what he’s doing. That’s what we want. I’m not forcing anybody to do anything. I want him to feel like, ‘Okay coach, I want to go back there and make a play. I feel good, I want to play, I want make a play for this football team,’ and that’s what we’re looking for.”
But in order for Toney to eventually take over as the return man, he’ll need to get some more reps in. And that obviously can not happen from the sideline.
“It’s one thing to come out here and do it and catch balls off the JUGS and catch balls from Riley (Dixon) in practice,” McGaughey said. “It’s a whole other different thing to get in the game and see that ball under the lights, see it turn over and then be able to just let your natural instincts kick in. I think once he starts to get game reps at it, it’ll be different.”