Injuries are nothing new nor necessarily headline-making in training camp, given the length and intensity in which practices are run.
But when injuries start to pile up when the coaching staff is trying to make evaluations regarding who is roster bound and who isn’t, navigating through injuries can be tricky.
The Giants went into last week’s preseason opener with 16 players nursing some sort of physical ailment and who were not cleared to play. They added three more players–guard Shane Lemieux (toe), cornerback Cor’Dale Flott (groin), and offensive lineman Jamil Douglas (ankle)–to that group, bringing the total number of players who are limited or unable to practice to 19 or roughly 21.1 percent of their current 90-man roster.
And that’s of the players we know of to be injured, as head coach Brian Daboll also mentioned that receiver Darius Slayton tightened up a bit during the preseason opener, thus making his stats a question mark.
“I think that’s always something you talk about,” Daboll said. “You like to have as many guys out there as you can. Again, our ultimate goal is to get to Week 1 as healthy as we can with the right roster. Anyone that is healthy that’s ready to go, we’re going to play.
“And the guys that we don’t think are quite ready or maybe need a little bit more time, we’re going to help them get as good as they can so that we’ll get the best version of themselves when they’re ready to go.”
Like the rest of the NFL, the Giants will have to reduce their roster from 90 to 85 by 4 p.m. Tuesday. While five players don’t seem like a lot, injuries often influence what a team does regarding its numbers at every position.
“You talk about injuries every week. There’s constant roster management–who’s going where. That’s just part of the business,” Daboll said.
Daboll said that the three guys on PUP–receiver Sterling Shepard, offensive linemen Nick Gates and Matt Peart–and outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari, who is on the NFI list with a hamstring strain, are all making progress. While Daboll has refused to attach a timeline for their returns, Ojulari seems to be the closest to returning to practice.
The overall health of the team is just one of the storylines ahead of the upcoming week, which begins with padded practices on Sunday and Monday, Sunday being the last practice open to the public. Here is a look at some other storylines to watch.
Cornerback Depth
Aaron Robinson looked so good in training camp, playing physically and getting involved in pass breakups against the Giants’ projected starting receivers.
Yet in the preseason opener against the Patriots, who played their backups, Robinson had a night to forget. He gave up three of five pass targets for 44 yards and a touchdown, drawing a defensive holding penalty on the score he gave up no less, and finished with a 128.3 coverage rating.
Woof!
But as former NFL scout David Turner recently said on the LockedOn Giants podcast, you use the first preseason game to note where guys are at rather than to make a definitive decision on his role and place will be moving forward. And you hope for improvement regardless if the guy has a rough outing.
“There are some good things that he had, I think, and some things we can get better at,” Daboll said of Robinson, a second-year player.
“Aaron’s had a good camp, and it’s a good competitive situation. Corners are going to get beat once in a while, and it’s how you respond the next play, the next game. And have a lot of confidence in A-Rob.”
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Robinson wasn’t the only cornerback to have his struggles. The depth behind him and Adoree’ Jackson, the two projected starters on the outside, was uninspiring.
Daboll isn’t panicking yet, promising to make sure that all the players continue to be coached up on whatever deficiencies the film revealed.
But can the Giants find some solid depth among an otherwise young and inexperienced group whose members are one snap away from being asked to play if there’s an injury to a starter?
“I think they all competed,” Daboll said of the youngsters. “We played a lot of man-to-man coverage, so it was a good evaluation.
“Made some good plays and then we have to do a good job of finding the ball and locating it in the deep part of the field. I thought those guys competed, tackled fairly well, tight in coverage. We’ve got to keep working on making plays on the ball.”
The Running Back Competition
One of the most pleasant surprises to emerge from last week’s game was the competition for the third running back spot behind starter Saquon Barkley and backup Matt Breida.
Breida was one of the injured players who missed the game, so that opened things up for the guys behind him on the depth chart–Gary Brightwell, Antonio Williams, Jashaun Corbin, and Sandro Platzgummer–to put their talents on display.
“I think the running back room has good competition,” said Daboll. “They’re tough, they’re doing a good job with the system, they’re a supportive group even though it’s a competitive group, they run downhill with power, and they break tackles.
“There are certainly things that we can clean up, pass protection, physicality without the ball, but it’s been a good group to work with.”
Besides carrying the rock, special teams and pass protection figure to factor into which of the reserve running backs makes the roster and who goes to the practice squad. The competition will continue this week.
What’s Up with Kenny?
Thus far, it’s been an underwhelming camp from receiver Kenny Golladay, the $72 million man trying to put last year’s touchdown-less campaign out of everyone’s mind.
Unfortunately for Golladay, he got off to another rough start in the preseason opener, catching one of three pass targets for six yards (one yard after the catch)–hardly No. 1 receiver numbers.
Golladay also had a big drop in the red zone after running what appeared to be a poor route. The Giants then had to settle for three instead of six.
But again, no one on the Giants is panicking after one preseason game, and Daboll reiterated the importance of continuing to coach these guys up.
“I think as a coach, you do that with every player you have, not just with Kenny,” he said. “Whether it’s receivers, running backs, or tight ends, you try to figure out what they do well and use it to your advantage.”
He added, “Again, in these games, too, you’re running some basic plays, and you’re trying to get as much of an evaluation of all the players as you can.”
Okay, maybe so, and maybe the absence of game planning, pre-snap motion, and all the other stuff this staff has up its sleeve was a factor. But shouldn’t an experienced receiver be able to perform consistently against the basic stuff?
