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New York Giants Notebook | A Hard Reset, Wide Receiver Concerns and More

Leftovers from Friday's Giants media sessions.

Giants head coach Joe Judge will make his head coaching debut on Monday night, which will be a significant milestone in his career.

But for Judge, how the moment applies to him is irrelevant. He is too busy wrapped in ongoing game planning and preparation for the game itself to ponder how important it will mean to him and his family.

"At some point maybe later down the road, I’ll stop and look back on a lot of things," Judge said.

"But my mindset is always kind of looking ahead at what’s coming up, and right now, we have the Steelers rolling into town. Any kind of personal or individual things that may be special to anyone directly in my family individually, that’s for down the road for me."

A Hard Reset

On Thursday, Judge abruptly stopped the team’s practice to gather the players and coaches into a huddle and loudly expressed his dissatisfaction with how the team started practice and made them start the practice again.

Running back Saquon Barkley and linebacker Blake Martinez expressed their approval for Judge's decision and claimed that the team took it positively.

On Friday, Judge gave his take on his decision to start practice over, downplaying the decision.

"It really wasn’t much. Sometimes I schedule a second stretching period after the first couple periods of individuals, so a normal day for us right there," Judge said.

"I thought the guys responded really well. We actually had a really productive, really good practice. I was happy coming off the field. Sometimes we just have to go ahead and keep in mind that it’s important that we lock in and start fast."

Judge has made his coaching philosophy very clear throughout training camp, and his players have shown no sign of resistance so far. Now all that's left to see is if that approach translates to success on the field.

"I think we’re always working on refining and improving as a team. I’m pleased with the way the guys have worked," Judge said. "We have had a physical training camp, we have been hard on the guys. That’s to get them physically, mentally, emotionally ready for the games they are going to play.

"You talk to the guys who have played or coached in Pittsburgh, Mike (Tomlin) gets the guys ready. They have a hard training camp. They hit on each other a lot, they get after it. They don’t back down from contact.

"That’s the culture and the identity they’ve had as an organization for as long as they have been around. In terms of us and our own culture, our identity is still being formed. That will keep on being formed throughout this year."

Injury Update

The Giants released an updated injury report from their initial release on Thursday.

Outside linebacker Markus Golden made his return from illness as a full participant in practice, as did safety Adrian Colbert.

The Giants' three players dealing with hamstrings, wide receiver Golden Tate, tight end Levine Toilolo and rookie linebacker Tae Crowder remained on the list as limited participants.

Wide Receiver Situation

With Tate remaining on the injured list, the status of the Giants' receiving core for Monday night is anything but certain.

Tate's presence would allow the Giants to see their full complement of offensive skill players (quarterback Daniel Jones, running back Saquon Barkley, tight end Evan Engram, wide receivers Darius Slayton, Sterling Shepard, and Tate) all on the field together for the first time.

Judge seems optimistic that will be the case and did not indicate that Tate won't be available for Monday night.

"[Tate] has been moving well right now," Judge said. "We’ve been mixing him into some of the things we have been doing in practice--individuals, a little bit of team work, some group work. He looks like he’s coming along nicely. He’s working hard every day and doing what he can to get back."

If Tate isn't ready to go for Monday, the Giants will have to explore their other options at wide receiver.

One candidate to see some snaps if Tate is out is fourth-year man C.J. Board, who was claimed off waivers by the Giants back on August 13.

"I think [Board] gives us a lot of versatility," Judge said. "First off, he’s got top-end speed. That’s something that sticks out to you. But he’s a guy with a really good work ethic, he’s made plays, and he’s been productive in practice.

"We have several coaches on staff who have had past experiences with him in other organizations, so he was somebody that was familiar with our coaches. But he’s somebody that has a skillset to really work with and develop."

Chiefs-Texans Set the Bar

The NFL's season opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans on Thursday was a display of sound football without many mistakes.

That showing dispelled the theory that the product might be inferior this year because teams didn't have preseason or off-seasons.

Judge has been aware of this from the start and has emphasized disciplined and fundamentally sound football all training camp.

On offense, the Giants won't have much room for mistakes against a punishing Steelers defense, especially one that led the NFL in sacks last season. The Giants certainly have the firepower on offense, but they will have to play fundamentally sound to take advantage of their talent.

"That is a perception going into it, not having any live preseason games to kind of get that feel and iron out some things. But I think it’s going to be on us," tight end Evan Engram said. "It’s going to be on execution and our attention to detail and how fast we come out.

"It’s definitely not something that we’re expecting on either side of the ball. We’re expecting the Steelers to come out very sharp, fresh, and ready to go. We have to do that ourselves as well."

On defense, the Giants have arguably even less room to play sloppy.

The Giants' defense is one of the youngest in the NFL and only boasts on Pro Bowler with defensive lineman Leonard Williams.

Safety Jabrill Peppers will be critical to that side of the ball for the Giants. As a young veteran, he will have to hold his younger teammates accountable and help them get in the right mental space to play fundamentally sound on Monday.

"At this point in our lives, I think we all know what it takes to get the job done. I think that excitement before games has always been in us," Peppers said. "Every guy is different, everybody has different processes that they go through on game day. We all want to come out knowing what we have to do and ready to play at a high level."