New York Giants rookie wide receiver Kadarius Toney was nowhere to be seen on Saturday night against the New York Jets — he didn’t warm up, he didn’t appear in the game and he wasn’t even seen on the sidelines.
What gives?
Following the 12-7 loss, Giants head coach Joe Judge revealed that Toney had suffered a setback during practice last week and missed the game as the result of an undisclosed injury.
“You know, he’s been dealing with it for a little bit. Something was aggravated in practice towards the tail end of this week, so he was unable to play tonight,” Judge told reporters.
Despite Toney’s injury, Judge remains optimistic that the rookie could return to practice as early as this week.
“Yeah, I’m not gonna disclose any person’s individual injury at this moment, but we hope to get him out there this week,” Judge added.
Judge also explained that injured players are not permitted on the sideline with the exception of running back Saquon Barkley and other team captains and leaders.
“Any injured player who was not going to be able to play in the game [Saturday night], we didn’t put on the sideline,” Judge said. “Everyone who was on the sideline was healthy enough to play in the game. The only exception being Saquon, and if it’s a captain there is a different deal, sometimes I let them on the field.”
All told, it’s been a strange start to Toney’s NFL career. He dealt with a cleat issue during rookie minicamp, skipped practice because his contract wasn’t signed, missed additional time due to the passing of his grandmother and later spent time on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
There have also been some other bumps and bruises along the way, but Toney told reporters last week that he doesn’t feel behind in his development at all.
Missing a preseason game certainly sets his clock back some, so it’ll be interesting to see if Toney does manage to make it back to the practice field this week when the Giants hold joint sessions with the Cleveland Browns.
