The New York Giants aren’t quite ready to rule out star running back Saquon Barkley just yet despite Barkley suffering an ankle injury during the Giants’ 31-28 comeback victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll spoke about Barkley’s status, as well as the team’s faith in his recovery process, while talking with NFL journalists on Monday. The Giants are preparing to take on the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night football.
“I wouldn’t count on that,” Daboll said when a reporter suggested that Barkley would miss some time. Daboll double downed when pressed that Barkley would likely miss Thursday night’s game against the Niners.
Barkley was projected as a “did not practice” on Monday and Tuesday.
“I’m not saying that he’s out yet,” Daboll said. “He’s a quick healer. I’m not saying he’s in, he’s out. We’re going to take it all the way up with him to Thursday.
“But he feels a lot better [Tuesday].”
Daboll said that, ultimately, the decision would go all the way up until Thursday, but it still remains likely that Barkley will indeed miss time because of the injury. A number of reports, including one from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, initially projected that Barkley could miss around three weeks.
“I just say with every injury until you are with the player, you see the player — you might heal a little different than I heal, he might heal different than another player heals,” Daboll said. “Again, Saquon is a lot better than I thought he would be, or some other people thought he would be [Tuesday].
“We’ll just take it day to day with him and if he can make it, great. If he can’t, we’ll see if he can get better by the following week.”
Should Barkley not be available on Thursday, the Giants will turn to Matt Breida, Gary Brightwell and Eric Gray.
“The three guys we have behind Saquon, they are all here for a reason. We’re comfortable with all those guys, whether that is run or pass. … We have confidence in them.”
