New York Giants Olivier Vernon
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

The New York Giants hope to have their best pass rusher Olivier Vernon when they take on the Dallas Cowboys Sunday night at AT&T Stadium.

There was some encouraging news coming out of the New York Giants facility on Wednesday as it appears there’s a chance outside linebacker Olivier Vernon will make his 2018 debut against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.

Prior to the team’s practice on Wednesday, head coach Pat Shurmur spoke about how Vernon is progressing dealing with his high ankle sprain.

“OV will be out there running around today, so you’ll get a chance to see for yourselves. We’ll see. He’s making good progress, he’s going to do more this week than he did last week and we’re hopeful that he’ll be back soon.”

There’s a question of how much or if Vernon even practiced on Wednesday.

ESPN’s Jordan Raanan reported that Vernon was riding a bike and then worked with trainers. Later in the day, the Giants confirmed that Vernon did not practice.

Vernon hasn’t practiced since suffering a high ankle sprain during practice on Aug. 26. The Giants were hopeful to have him back for the season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he was ruled out on Friday.

Ankle sprains plagued Vernon last year as well, causing him to miss four games. Vernon finished the year with 38 tackles and seven sacks.

Whether the Giants have their best pass rusher or not on Sunday, it will be difficult to generate a pass rush off the right edge since they’ll be going against arguably the best left tackle in the league in Tyron Smith. Of course, the Giants are better with Vernon on the field.

If Vernon is unable to play look for the Giants to do what they did last week and split snaps with Connor Barwin and rookie Lorenzo Carter.

Jason's first love was football while growing up in northern New Jersey. For the past three years, he has covered the New York Giants, as well as several boxing events along the East Coast.