Daniel Jones On Track to Practice This Week
Giants head coach Joe Judge has spoken before about sometimes needing to protect an injured player from himself, and sure enough, that’s precisely what he had to do with starting quarterback Daniel Jones, who spent last week recovering from a hamstring strain.
But while Jones was disappointed in not getting the green light to play in the Giants' biggest win in the last three seasons, Judge said that the second-year quarterback would have his chance this week to show the hamstring strain is behind him.
“We’re going to give him every opportunity to go on the practice field this week and show that he can defend himself on the field properly,” Judge said. “If that’s the case, then we obviously want him to play. But we’re going to make sure we do the right thing by him.”
In wanting Jones to defend himself, Judge explained that he wants to be assured the quarterback has enough mobility to escape any dangerous situations when he drops back.
“When there’s pressure in the pocket, can he sidestep, can he step up? If he has to leave the pocket and scramble, if there’s a gap open for him to go ahead and tuck that ball and run to get a first down, are these things we’re okay with him doing and we’re confident that he’s going to go out there and do it without getting hurt worse?” Judge said.
“I want to make sure that when his natural instincts kick in as a player, that he’s not limited somehow physically, or someone has an advantage over him on the field. That’s just not fair for us to do.
"These are great athletes on the field, they’re playing very aggressive, and he’s at the toughest position in terms of holding the ball every play and everybody trying to take your head off. He has to be able to have some kind of mobility.”
Judge said the Giants would hold a walk-through practice on Wednesday afternoon to allow the players to re-adjust following their weekend jaunt to the West Coast. They’ll then have full practices on Thursday and Friday to get ready for Arizona.
“We’ll see how he looks in there, and we’ll make the best decision for him going forward,” Judge said.
In other injury news, Judge said offensive tackle Matt Peart tweaked his ankle during the game, but the injury was not significant enough for Peart to take a seat.
Meanwhile, inside linebacker Blake Martinez tweaked his back, but Judge mentioned that all the injured players sought treatment immediately after the game, and he didn’t sound too concerned at this point about Martinez’s availability for next week’s game against the Cardinals.
“We’re hoping there’s nothing serious,” Judge said, speaking about all the nicked up players in general. “It doesn’t look like there is necessarily anything serious. But we want to give them a day to kind of go ahead and see where they’re at.
"A big testament will be when we come off this flight going back to see if any of the inflammation really increases with these guys.”
Per a source, Martinez's injury is not said to be serious.
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