A 3-1 start to the season is better than anyone could have tried to predict for the NY Giants. What’s going to hurt the G-Men this week, though, is how they overcome injuries as they prepare for Week 5.
Big Blue was dealing with injuries prior to Sunday and now the list has gotten even longer. It’s still early in the week, but the Giants are going to need some luck with the injuries they’re dealing with.
Head coach Brian Daboll has a lot to balance this week. He needs to get his team prepared for this week’s opponent while also figuring out who’s got a chance to play. With that being said, here are four NY Giants injury concerns the team is focusing on right now.
4. QB Daniel Jones
Somewhere in the later portion of the second half, Giants QB Daniel Jones was shaken up after a sack and he had to limp off the field a few plays later when the team would punt. It seemed to be an ankle injury. One he’s had issues with before. Jones missed two games in 2019 with a high ankle sprain and missed one game in 2020 with an ankle sprain. His injury on Sunday didn’t seem too significant, but it was enough for coach Daboll to bring in Tyrod Taylor to protect Jones from further injury. That is where the bad got worse just shortly after.
Taylor would start the next drive for the Giants. He was scrambling for a first down and then took a big hit from two Bears defenders and the ball came free. While still on the ground, he had multiple players jump on top of him to try and get the loose ball. Shortly after that he was put into concussion protocol and the Giants were forced to play Jones again with no other QBs on the active roster.
Taylor will likely have a very small chance of playing due to being in concussion protocol, while the Giants worked out QBs, including A.J. McCarron and Jake Fromm. That’s one thing the league will not take lightly after seeing what happened to Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa last Thursday night. With Jones dealing with his bum ankle, it’s unknown if he’ll start this weekend or not.
3. CB Aaron Robinson
It’s been a slow start to the 2022 season for the third-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Aaron Robinson has only one complete game for the Giants this season. That game came in Week 1 vs. Tennessee.
He missed the next two games after he needed to have his appendix removed and left the game on Sunday in the second quarter with a knee injury. Rough news arrived for Robinson on Tuesday, with NY placing him on Injured Reserve. With this, he’ll miss the next four weeks at least.
With Robinson out, the Giants have found some much needed help at CB with veteran Fabian Moreau. He played in 16 games for the Falcons last season after spending four years in Washington. Moreau played in 49 of the 62 defensive snaps for Big Blue in Week 4. The Giants will certainly need their CBs to play at a high level against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
2. WR Kadarius Toney
NY Giants WRs have seen their fair share of injuries through four weeks. Wan’Dale Robinson and Kadarius Toney have both missed multiple games in a row and now Kenny Golladay finds himself on the injury report as well. He left the game on Sunday in the third quarter with a knee injury, and it doesn’t look promising for Golladay to play this week.
The three remaining WRs left from the original 53-man roster are Richie James, David Sills, and Darius Slayton. Coach Daboll said that both Robinson and Toney are “making progress.” Maybe one of them will be able to play on Sunday? Big Blue is desperate for a WR who can come in and help keep the offense moving.
With Toney, the injuries continue to prevent him from really finding his footing with this team. The 2021 first-rounder showed a ton of potential last season when healthy. Thus far, it has been a 2022 to forget for the speedster.
1. OLB Azeez Ojulari
Giants second-year pro Azeez Ojulari missed the first two games of the season with a calf injury. He then made his season debut against the Cowboys in Week 3 and played in just under 50 percent of the Giants defensive snaps vs. the Bears. Ojulari left the game with a calf injury on the last drive, but he expressed optimism postgame that he would be fine. Calf injuries are tricky for a player like Ojulari that relies on a massive amount of lower-body strength and explosiveness.
The team will have to monitor how he does in practice this week. It could be a case of where we don’t see him much in practice and he saves his energy for London. Additionally, rookie OLB Kayvon Thibodeaux left the game on the last drive with back spasms., but he said he is fine. He played in 46 of the of the Giants 62 defensive snaps vs. Chicago.
The hope is that both Ojulari and Thibodeaux will be as close to 100 percent as possible for this matchup. The pass-rush will need to be on point for this one, as the last thing NY can afford to do is give Rodgers too much time to scan the field.
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