NY Giants down another linebacker at Thursday’s practice
Just one day after suffering two major injuries, the NY Giants were down another linebacker at training camp practice on Thursday.
As has been the case in numerous recent years, when it begins to rain injuries at NY Giants camp it pours. Just one day after losing linebacker David Mayo and safety Xavier McKinney to serious injuries, prized free-agent addition Blake Martinez was absent from practice on Thursday due to injury.
Making matters more confusing is that no one actually knows what type of injury the NY Giants linebacker is suffering from as head coach Joe Judge was very vague when asked about the first-year Giants’ absence.
"“He’s just checking with the trainers on something,” said Judge, who wants Friday’s scrimmage to mimic a typical third exhibition game as a dry-run for the real thing. “At this moment right here, I’m not overly concerned. He’s just kind of checking on something right now. We’ll let you know more information as we go.”"
Bill Belichick would be proud of that answer.
Ryan Connelly back working individual drills for NY Giants
As discouraging as the recent injury news has been, one positive development transpired at practice Thursday as last year’s darling rookie finally made his way back to the individual portion of team drills.
After bursting onto the scene as a rookie before tearing his ACL in Week 4, a healthy Ryan Connelly to help sure up the middle of the defense – specifically in pass coverage – would be a major boost given the long offseason of injuries and arrests its been for the NY Giants defense.
Blake Martinez’s injury doesn’t figure to be serious, and when the two do line up next to each other at inside linebacker they figure to compliment each other well.
Martinez is known for being more of a run stopper and tackling machine while Connelly flourished in coverage as a rookie in 2019.