Giants get glimmer of hope in Daniel Jones’ injury rehab

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Joe Judge will have to check the tape to see Jabrill Peppers twisting his body in the air like a contortionist and Colt McCoy connecting with Kaden Smith down the seam.

The Giants’ head coach didn’t see those plays live Thursday because he spent the bulk of the 20 minutes allotted to stretching and individual drills on a side practice field watching over quarterback Daniel Jones’ rehab. In his return to the field with a right hamstring strain, Jones repeatedly dropped back, planted his leg and stepped into throws during drills led by trainers.

“He’s preparing tirelessly,” Judge said before practice. “He’s doing everything he can like it would be any other day. I know mentally where he’s at. We just have to check physically where he’s at and make sure we make the right decision for him.”

Judge said he received “positive reports” on Jones’ work away from the field Wednesday and thus progressed him to the next step, so Judge left his usual post watching the offense during individual drills. Hamstrings tend to tighten in cold weather – it was 40 degrees – so it would be silly to put Jones outside just to create a smokescreen for the Seattle Seahawks.

Jones officially did not practice on the injury report but appeared to be moving smoother than expected – including as he shuffled through a foot ladder – given the way he crumbled to the turf Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Even without taking team reps, the Giants could list Jones as “doubtful” on Friday’s final injury report, fly him to Seattle and make him a Sunday game-time decision.

“I plan for him to travel,” Judge said. “The only thing that would ever supersede that is if there was any issue with COVID where we thought it was a bad measure for Daniel to go, or for anyone on the team to have extra players there. Or if there was a situation where we thought that the flight out there would impact the injury worse, that it would go ahead and slow the recovery.”

Saquon Barkley has taken road trips since suffering a season-ending torn ACL because Judge values his leadership. Same principle applies to Jones.

WRs Darius Slayton (shoulder/foot) and Sterling Shepard (shoulder/toe), DB Nate Ebner (knee) and ILB David Mayo (knee) were limited in practice. LB Cam Brown (illness) did not participate.

Logan Ryan is the Giants’ team nominee for the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, created in 2014.

McGaughey and offensive coordinator Jason Garrett expressed sympathy Thursday to the family of former Giants, Jets and Cowboys strength coach Markus Paul, who had a heart attack on the job and died last week. He was memorialized Thursday. Garrett also acknowledged the passing of his former Princeton teammate David Rose. 

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