Giants Will Continue to Be Cautious with Running Back Saquon Barkley

The Giants running back will likely continue to be limited when the team heads to Cleveland for joint practices.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 15, 2021 3:06 PM EDT

The New York Giants will hit the road this coming week for the first of their two planned joint practices with their remaining preseason opponents, and while things are subject to change, Judge said that running back Saquon Barkley probably won't take part in any live drills this week.

"We’re going to sit down with the doctors later today and go through that," Judge said Sunday. "He responded well last week to the volume and the load. I thought the plan of obviously putting him through a couple of days, backing him off, ramping him back up, so obviously they have a really good feel for his body working with him throughout these last few months through the rehab process."

Barkley was activated off the PUP list last Monday and had been slowly ramping up his workload to where the hope is to have him participate in full-team drills before the end of the summer.

Judge, however, has consistently insisted that the team will not rush Barkley onto the field before he is ready to be there.

"At this point, the focus is really to kind of get him moving more and more within the football movements," Judge said.

"I wouldn’t anticipate him being in any kind of live drills this week. As of this point, that would be the plan, but we’ll see where it goes as we go on down further and further when his body is ready for all the football."

Judge also revealed that the plan as of now is to bring all the injured players to Cleveland, a list which includes first-round draft pick receiver Kadarius Toney, who has been dealing with an undisclosed ailment.

"The purpose being going out there and letting them do some of their rehab and recovery while we’re out there either at Cleveland’s facilities or on the field while we’re practicing, so that will be the plan right now," Judge said.

"If something changes or someone has a unique situation that could include a person, two people, whatever may come up right now that we don’t have listed as an issue. But as we go through medical meetings today and tomorrow, that’s something we’ll have to address."