After they played twice on the road in a five-day span, the Giants are in the middle of an 11-day break. They will host the Seattle Seahawks (2-1) on "Monday Night Football" in their third primetime outing in the first four weeks of the season.
Coach Brian Daboll took the podium on Tuesday to kick off the extended week and provided early injury updates among other news and notes about the team. Here's what you need to know:
🔹Running back Saquon Barkley, who suffered an ankle injury late in the wild comeback in Arizona and missed the ensuing game in San Francisco, is in the "day-to-day" category. "Feels a lot better today, but we'll kind of take that all the way throughout the week and see how he improves."
🔹The first official injury report will be released Thursday, which will be like a normal in-season Wednesday. Daboll said everyone is "making progress." Aside from Barkley, outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari (hamstring), guard Ben Bredeson (concussion), and left tackle Andrew Thomas (hamstring) were unable to play last Thursday night. Rookie cornerback Deonte Banks (arm) and defensive lineman D.J. Davidson (elbow) left Week 3 with injuries.
🔹Bredeson is progressing through the concussion protocol. Tuesday counted as his non-contact practice, Thursday will be a contact practice, and the final step is clearance from an independent consultant.
🔹After changing their offensive line three times in three weeks, the Giants are on track to return to their Week 2 lineup – on the interior at least. With Bredeson progressing, Daboll said Marcus McKethan will remain at his right guard spot. Meanwhile, they will await the status of Thomas, who has missed two games.
🔹McKethan has "done a good job" in his first NFL action after missing all of his rookie year. "Improving. Big body, moves well, so again, the experience that he's played in the first couple of games will help him."
🔹Joshua Ezeudu, who started the past two weeks in place of Thomas, can "play four spots" for the Giants. "So, both tackle spots and then he can also go inside and play, having done that some, so I think he's done a good job of filling in, but he has, I'd say, four-position flex for us."
🔹Daboll was asked about Ezeudu's value as a starter vs. versatility in emergency scenarios. "That's why we move guys around a bunch during the preseason and training camp months because you can. If you're not starting five, you better have some position flexibility to play multiple spots, so certainly an important aspect for us."
🔹Tuesday was an extra day for mental reps. "The guys have been in working in the weight room, doing their conditioning stuff. We've been working on Seattle, so this is a really good day to go ahead and implement the game plan, the first and second down stuff. Come out here and have a good mental day and then we'll treat it (like) the normal week. So tomorrow will be like a Tuesday and Thursday will be like a Wednesday."
🔹The Giants will be in pads we'll be in pads on Thursday. "You are always focusing on your fundamentals, so we do that every practice, whether that's press coverage, tackling, ball disruption, shedding blocks. Those are things that you work on. Same thing with the offense, double teams, pass protection, games, pass protection for the backs, press releases, those are things that you constantly evaluate. Leading up to a week and getting ready for, in this case Seattle, you always adjust practice and things individual wise or maybe team wise of things that you are really putting an emphasis on."
🔹The Giants have been outscored 63-6 in three first halves this season, the worst in the league by 16 points (Chicago Bears). How do you fix that? "You can do a lot of different things. Something we need to do better collectively and something that will be, it's always a point of emphasis, hasn't shown up, understand that. No excuses for it, so we are working on that."
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