The New York Giants welcomed Blake Martinez and Darnay Holmes back to the practice field on Sunday after the two went down with injuries.
The New York Giants returned to the practice field on Sunday for the first time since their scrimmage on Friday night. Sunday’s practice was pretty much an hour and a half of walkthroughs as the team did not practice in pads.
The good news for the Giants is that both linebacker Blake Martinez and rookie cornerback Darnay Holmes both participated in practice. Holmes left Friday’s scrimmage early with a lower-body injury, and Martinez missed the last several practices including Friday’s scrimmage with an undisclosed injury.
Following Sunday’s practice, head coach Joe Judge was asked what injury Martinez was dealing with.
“I can’t go into everything on account of HIPAA, but I would say he’s fully healed. He’s ready to go. It was good to have him back out there with us today,” Judge told reporters.
Judge was then asked if he could elaborate further on Martinez.
“I’m not going to go into the specifics of any injury or reason they’re off the field. But I’ll tell you what, I’m relieved to have Blake back out there with us. It was good to have him out there today.”
Giants offense doing walkthroughs today at practice. pic.twitter.com/LYKR46bh9e
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 30, 2020
Having Martinez back is crucial as the season will begin in two weeks. The newly-signed Martinez will be the quarterback of the defense. Time is of the essence for the Giants as they will have three more practices and then another scrimmage on Thursday before Judge and general manager Dave Gettleman cut the roster down to 53. Having their starters on the field to build continuity is paramount.
Judge was asked if he plans on running Thursday’s scrimmage similar to how he ran Friday’s scrimmage.
“We’re going to replicate some of the in-game things in terms of communication, tablets, some of the operational things, just so we have another go-around as a coaching staff and building some of the communication on the sideline with our player,” Judge explained. “But it will look a lot more like some of the practices you guys have been at. More like the first scrimmage than the second one if that makes sense.”
“We’re going to go ahead and work offense vs. defense, we’ll build in some specific situations we have to hit, and then we’ll just have the move the field periods where we go ahead and let them play ball. It’s not going to be an exact simulated game like you saw the other night, but we’re going to try to replicate all of the operational stuff for the team.”
You can understand why Thursday’s scrimmage will be less intense than Friday’s as Judge wants to prevent injuries if possible. The Giants are thin at several positions.
One development to watch for this week is if the Giants intend to sign former Tennessee Titan cornerback Logan Ryan, who has reportedly lowered his contract demands.
