NY Giants’ Kadarius Toney makes big step towards return from COVID-19

Rookie Kadarius Toney returned to the NY Giants Tuesday, but he might not return to practice anytime soon after testing positive for COVID-19

NY Giants first-round pick Kadarius Toney returned to the team facility Tuesday as his teammates checked in for training camp, head coach Joe Judge revealed.

Toney, who tested positive for COVID-19 upon checking in as a rookie for camp last week, had been in the league-mandated protocol but now will get back on the field with his teammates.

However, don’t expect to see video of Toney participating in practice or getting into full-team drills just yet.

“He’s with us today in the building,” Judge said Tuesday. “We have a number of guys, for different reasons that we’re going to take it a little slower coming off of that protocol.”

Judge revealed that there are players who were exposed to COVID-19, perhaps as a result of Toney’s positive test, that have yet to return to the facility. More importantly, Judge says that every member of the NY Giants’ coaching and support staffs have been vaccinated, and that he has stressed the importance to his players of doing the same.

Kadarius Toney’s return timeline will be set by lessons NY Giants learned from 2020

As the Giants learned from last year’s COVID season, Judge says that Toney’s return plan will be tailored to his individual needs, rather than setting a blanket timeline for anyone coming off the COVID-19/reserve list.

"“Last year we learned with the number of players on our team,” Judge said. “We’re going to go ahead and move [Kadarius] around the field, make sure when he’s ready to go, then we’ll go ahead and integrate him with the rest of our team.“We aren’t going to go ahead and rush anything to get in the process, he’ll be in the meeting with all of our players. He’ll be able to go out there and operate in some of the meetings to get a little more on our feet … In terms of practice itself, we aren’t going to do anything with him fully on the field with the team, until he’s fully ready.”"

Toney’s rookie offseason has been a series of fits and starts.

The No. 20 overall pick in the NFL Draft, Toney was absent from some voluntary OTA workouts, had an issue with his cleat that limited his ability to participate during rookie minicamp, and missed time due to injury during mandatory camp.

"“Toney’s timetable will be different from a lot of people’s that we learned from last year,” Judge says. ” One thing we took away from last year is these things are very specific to each person … Comes down to what their individual symptoms were, what their exposure was, but that time away from training is what’s critical.”"

For Toney, missing any time on the field as a rookie could have consequences to his development, but Judge and the NY Giants aren’t going to rush him back for the sake of immediate gains.

Matt Lombardo is FanSided’s National NFL Insider and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday. Email Matt: Matt.Lombardo@FanSided.com, Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL