The New York Giants were always going to be cautious when it came to easing star running back Saquon Barkley into the fold after recovering from a torn ACL suffered last season.
While he was activated off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list last Monday, it looks as though Barkley will not be participating in live drills building up to the Giants’ second preseason game against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon.
By no means does that suggest there has been a setback in Barkley’s ramp-up to a reintroduction back into New York’s backfield; rather a meticulous plan that seems to be paying off well, according to Giants head coach Joe Judge.
“I thought the plan of putting him through a couple of days, backing him off, ramping him back up, so obviously they have a really good feel for his body working with him throughout these last few months through the rehab process,” Judge told the team’s official website. “At this point, the focus is really to kind of get him moving more and more within the football movements.”
Barkley will meet with the Giants’ medical steps to decipher his next steps.
“In terms of what that’s going to mean for him this week in Cleveland, we’ll have to wait and see,” Judge said. “I wouldn’t anticipate him being in any kind of live drills this week. As of this point, that would be the plan, but we’ll see where it goes as we go on down further and further when his body is ready for all the football.”
The rather vague response is nothing new for a team that has yet to label a concrete timeline of when Barkley will see actual game action. At this rate, it looks unlikely that it will happen during the preseason, meaning the All-Pro rusher might not see the field until the previously speculated stretch between Weeks 1 and 3 of the regular season.
