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The Giants‘ tall task of beating the high-powered Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, October 10 just became more difficult.
On Friday, the Giants released their official injury report for Week 5, and ruled Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton and Jabrill Peppers out due to hamstring issues. Left guard Ben Bredeson will also miss his second straight game with a hand injury.
With Shepard and Slayton down for the second straight contest, the Giants’ offense will once again look to Saquon Barkley, John Ross, Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney to carry the load against a strong Cowboys defensive unit.
Luckily, quarterback Daniel Jones, who is fresh off capturing the NFC Offensive Player of the Week Award, endured the best game of his career by utilizing the group of active skill players previously mentioned.
And a big reason for this was due to Jones’ running back Saquon Barkley finally appearing to be healthy for the first time since tearing his ACL in September of 2020. The fourth-year tailback racked up 126 total yards and scored two touchdowns, including the game-winner in overtime to top the New Orleans Saints by a score of 27-21.
On the other side of the ball, Peppers has struggled this season, but with Blake Martinez out for the year due to a torn ACL, the Giants’ defense has been getting pushed around. This makes Peppers a prime candidate to serve in a money backer/hybrid role that allows him to roam around the line of scrimmage.
Unfortunately, we will not receive the chance to see this happen against the Cowboys since he will be inactive.
Peppers’ Replacement
With Peppers unavailable this week, Logan Ryan and Julian Love will be handling the duties at strong safety.
This also creates an opportunity for Love to roam around the line of scrimmage and blitz the passer, as Dallas’ offense has a balanced attack that features a strong running game and a quarterback who likes to air it out down field with deep passes as well.
The Giants failed to record a sack last week against the Saints and their pass rush has virtually been non-existent through the first four games of the regular season.
It will be up to defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to find ways to contain Cowboys signal caller Dak Prescott in the passing game by applying pressure. And Graham must also draw up a scheme that will stop running backs Ezekiel Elliot and Tony Pollard on the ground.
Despite Peppers being out, the Giants still have the ability to deploy three safety looks with Xavier McKinney, Ryan and Love.
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Tryouts
According to NFL Insider Field Yates, the Giants hosted a pair of kickers on Friday including a familiar face in Aldrick Rosas, as well as Summit, New Jersey native Michael Badgley.
Rosas signed with the Giants back in 2017 and beat out veteran Mike Nugent for the starting kicker job prior to the season. He then went on to make the Pro Bowl in 2018 after converting on 32-of-33 field goal attempts and 31-of-32 extra points.
Following a rough 2019 campaign, Rosas was arrested for high-speed hit-and-run in June of 2020. The Giants released Rosas in July of 2020 and he later wound up pleading no contest to three misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to three years of probation.
Since leaving the Giants, Rosas appeared in six games last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Most recently, Rosas was filling in for injured New Orleans Saints kicker Will Lutz and faced off against the Giants last week.
But after going 1-for-4 on field goal attempts this season, Rosas is once again looking for a new home, and the Giants at least seem open to kicking the tires on giving him a second chance.
As for Badgley, he spent three seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers, before getting released at the end of training camp on August 31, 2021. Badgley then signed on with the Tennessee Titans practice squad and replaced injured kicker Sam Ficken on the active roster in Week 1. However, once Ficken returned, Badgley was ultimately released.
Due to Graham Gano’s success, the Giants’ motive of giving the latter two kickers a look is most likely as insurance for their starter.
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