Giants OL Coach Dave DeGuglielmo Tests Positive for COVID-19

The Giants will be without their offensive line coach and possibly more as two close contacts have also been identified.

New York Giants head coach Joe Judge said that the plan is for Ben Wilkerson, the Giants assistant offensive line coach, to fill in for offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo, who tested positive for COVID-19.

However, The Athletic is reporting that Wilkerson is one of the two potential close contacts currently isolating, but it is unknown if Wilkerson has been deemed a high-risk close contact which would put Wilkerson's availability to coach Sunday in jeopardy. 

If Wilkerson is not a high-risk close contact, he'd be eligible to coach if he produces two straight days of negative tests. 

Wilkerson played four years in the NFL with the Bengals and Falcons. He was previously the offensive line coach with Grambling State (2012-13) before jumping to the NFL as the Bears assistant offensive line coach (2015-17). 

He was hired by former Giants head coach Pat Shurmur as the team's assistant offensive line coach in 2018 and was retained by Judge for the same role.

Judge, who decided to leave Wilkerson in his current role after the team moved on from Marc Colombo, said that he has the utmost confidence in Wilkerson, an up and coming assistant coach.

"Ben is a good coach, a good young coach who draws from a knowledge of playing the game. He's a very good communicator, and has a very good passion for the game. The players respond to him very well. He's great on the field with technique instruction, and he's very good in terms of communicate and forming relationships off the field."

Judge also revealed that Wilkerson drew interest from other teams around the league last off-season.

"When I got here last year, Ben was down in the East-West Shrine game coaching. We had more requests put in for Ben last year while he was down there, and this was a deal that I talked to him before he went down there and said, 'I won't make any moves on the staff without talking to you first.'

"We agreed when he got back that I would like him to stay and he wanted to stay. We made some arrangement with the contract and I'm glad to have him on our staff going forward."

Judge also said that the two potential close contacts currently self-isolating were not players. 

Meanwhile, DeGuglielmo has remained involved virtually in getting the team ready for its big game Sunday against the Cowboys.

"He already ran several meetings this morning, virtually," Judge said. "We just had a walk-through, and it's a deal where they actually put the iPad behind huddle and, he can sit there and watch and have feedback.

"It's a different deal, but hey, it's something that we've become accustomed to."  

The team's Quest Diagnostics Training Center remains open, and the team is set to follow its normal practice and meeting schedule today.

DeGuglielmo is the third Giants coach to test positive for the COVID-19 virus this year. Earlier, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and offensive assistant Stephen Brown tested positive for the virus and had to miss the game against the Browns.

Garrett has since recovered and has been back at work, admitting that he had no idea how he came down with the virus.

"Like most of us, we’re pretty much reclusive all during the season, so I haven’t really seen anybody," Garrett said this week. 

"I don’t know how it happened. The people that are close to me have not tested positive. For whatever reason, it popped positive so I had to deal with that the last week and a half or so. But I’m feeling fine, ready to go. I thought our guys did a good job in my absence, but it’s fun to be back."