Following a 23-21 victory over the New England Patriots in Week 1 of the preseason, the New York Giants returned to the practice field on Sunday.
Head coach Brian Daboll kicked things off with his daily press conference and went to work breaking down the team’s excessive injuries. He also outlined what’s coming up next week, including the elimination of one padded practice.
Meanwhile, Sunday was the final day of practice opened to the fans until 2023.
Here are seven quick takeaways from training camp practice No. 12.
Lemieux injury may linger
Daboll delivered less than stellar news on guard Shane Lemieux, who suffered a foot injury (the team originally said a “toe” injury) against the Patriots last Thursday.
The coach said Lemieux will not practice on Sunday and will likely miss the remainder of the week. Daboll even indicated that the injury may linger into the regular season.
Daboll said Lemieux won’t be out there today and probably not the rest of the week. Douglas won’t practice today either. “We’ll see” if Lemieux’s injury lasts into the regular season.
— Dan Salomone (@Dan_Salomone) August 14, 2022
Daboll said Shane Lemieux won’t practice this week. Asked if this injury could impact Lemieux’s availability for the regular season, Daboll said, “We’ll see.”
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) August 14, 2022
Given the injury to Lemieux and others (we’ll touch on those in a moment), Ben Bredeson took first-team reps at left guard.
Other injuries
In addition to Lemieux, there is a whole slew of other players dealing with injury issues. Among them is rookie cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, rookie offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu and wide receiver Kadarius Toney.
None of those players practiced on Sunday.
Daboll said they’ll see where Flott is physically at the end of the week.
— Dan Salomone (@Dan_Salomone) August 14, 2022
#Giants Daboll – ezudu working thru "some stuff"…bredeson will work some at LG….flott is day to day
— GiantsWFAN (@giantswfan) August 14, 2022
Daboll said Kadarius Toney will “probably not” practice this week.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) August 14, 2022
But wait, there’s more! Several other players sat out on Sunday including tight end Ricky Seals-Jones, linebacker Blake Martinez, rookie safety Dane Belton and a handful more.
Gates, Peart, Shep, Seals Jones, Miller, Lemieux, ezeudu, Breida, proehl, toney, Douglas, Leo, Belton, Flott and Blake won’t practice today.
— Patricia Traina (@Patricia_Traina) August 14, 2022
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the Giants have major injury issues.
Ojulari back
The one tiny bit of positive injury news came by way of edge rusher Azeez Ojulari.
Ojulari has been on the non-football injury (NFI) list with a hamstring issue since the onset of camp, but that run is now over. Daboll said the second-year pass rusher is healthy and he returned to the practice field on Sunday.
With Ojulari back at practice (in a red jersey), the Giants have a three-week window in which to add him back to the active roster.
Smith, Feliciano hurt...
Just when you thought we were done with the injury news, we aren’t.
Just a short while into practice, edge rusher Elerson Smith appeared to suffer a foot or ankle injury. He was looked at by trainers and then promptly headed into the building with his cleat having been removed.
Smith was followed by linebacker Jihad Ward.
Jihad Ward also went in with Smith. Unclear what happened to Ward.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) August 14, 2022
Not to be outdone, center Jon Feliciano also left practice with an apparent injury as the day wound down.
Ben Bredeson in at center replacing Jon Feliciano, who left the field with an apparent injury.
— Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) August 14, 2022
Transactions
In addition to Ojulari passing his physical and being activated from NFI, the Giants also made several other transactions.
Defensive back Michael Jacquet and offensive lineman Josh Rivas were each waived. Defensive back Jarrod Wilson had his contract terminated.
With the first preseason cutdown day coming up on Tuesday (90 to 85), the Giants may opt to practice a few players short over the next few days.
Last day for fans
This year, Giants fans returned to training camp for the first time since 2019 but that came to an end on Sunday. Beginning on Monday, all practices will be closed to the public.
Last day of fans 🥹
Not going to be the same without you! pic.twitter.com/Ki0y5Lo2fj
— New York Giants (@Giants) August 14, 2022
Sack party
It was a bad day to be Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor, Davis Webb or basically anyone else with the ball in their hands.
Wink Martindale’s defense resumed its domination of the Giants’ offense with a fierce and unrelenting pass rush. It was the theme of the entire day and a glaring indictment of the team’s injury-riddled offensive line.
Every rep seems to be a sack so either Wink is brilliant or this offense needs Jesus pic.twitter.com/80SLJLmOja
— New York Revival (@NewYorkRevival) August 14, 2022
Painful day for the #Giants offense at practice. Unwatchable. Free rushers at Daniel Jones all over the place.
— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) August 14, 2022
At some point, Giants should start calling plays dead in practice. Daniel Jones is taking a million would be sacks and then throwing the ball 2 seconds later.
— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) August 14, 2022
