Injury bug slamming Giants early in Brian Daboll’s first training camp

It was painful to watch, with pass rushers frequently in the quarterback’ s lap and interceptions made by corners Adoree Jackson and Darnay Holmes. “We’ ll see,” coach Brian Daboll said before moving Ben Bredeson into Lemieux’ s spot. Wide receiver Kadarius Toney will“ probably not” practice this week after missing last week’ s preseason opener in New England, as well,...

Sunday was the worst practice of training camp for Daniel Jones’ first-team Giants offense. It was painful to watch, with pass rushers frequently in the quarterback’s lap and interceptions made by corners Adoree Jackson and Darnay Holmes.

But something else is wrong in East Rutherford: The Giants are dropping like flies with injuries.

They turned over the front office and the coaching staff this offseason. They stopped running laps. And still, numerous players are getting hurt.

Starting left guard Shane Lemieux (foot) could be in jeopardy of missing regular season games.

“We’ll see,” coach Brian Daboll said before moving Ben Bredeson into Lemieux’s spot.

Wide receiver Kadarius Toney (leg) will “probably not” practice this week after missing last week’s preseason opener in New England, as well, Daboll said.

This year’s spring program was noticeably light on players’ bodies, especially those rehabbing from injuries. The Giants cut June’s mandatory minicamp a day short. The start of training camp was a steady ramp-up, too.

This was all by design. This was the plan to keep guys healthier than the team was last season.

This was the plan put in place by the Giants’ medical staff, led by head athletic trainer Ronnie Barnes, in collaboration and communication with GM Joe Schoen and Daboll.

“The medical staff since we got here, they had a great plan, the strength staff as well, mapping out not only the spring but to get us to this point,” Schoen said at the start of training camp. “There is a calculated plan to get us through August to week one so we are fresh. So that’s the three of us basically constantly communicating on that. We have tweaked it a lot. The main thing is getting the guys healthy for Sept. 11 when we play Tennessee.”

It’s not Sept. 11 yet, but that date will be here in a blink. And the Giants have an alarming amount of players sidelined, plus more going down every day.

The Giants were unable to fully practice 20 of their 87 players on Sunday. Plus another three left in the middle of practice with apparent injuries: center Jon Feliciano along with edge rushers Elerson Smith and Jihad Ward.

Daboll only had 11 healthy offensive linemen at the start of Sunday’s practice before Feliciano went down and walked inside, too.

The full injury/limited players list is long, and it is alarming:

Offense (13): Toney (leg injury), Lemieux (foot), G Jamil Douglas (ankle), G Josh Ezeudu (injury), TE Andre Miller (broken forearm), RB Matt Breida, WR Darius Slayton, WR David Sills, WR Austin Proehl, TE Ricky Seals-Jones, C Nick Gates (leg, PUP), T Matt Peart (ACL, PUP), WR Sterling Shepard (Achilles, PUP)

Defense (seven): DL Leonard Williams, LB Blake Martinez, DL Justin Ellis, CB Cor’Dale Flott (groin), CB Rodarius Williams, S Dane Belton (broken collarbone), LB Cam Brown

Rookie tackle Marcus McKethan also went on season-ending injured reserve already with an ACL injury suffered in the team’s Aug. 5 joint practice at MetLife Stadium.

It’s not clear if Williams and Martinez have illnesses or injuries. Martinez had been practicing on a pitch count while returning from an ACL injury, but now is nowhere in sight.

Williams, Breida, Ellis, Flott, Sills and Slayton all were on the field doing something with trainers. Sills and Slayton did some individual work before stepping off for rehab or rest.

Gates, Peart and Shepard, obviously, are holdover injuries from last season. Bredeson thankfully appears OK after having Patriots D-lineman DaMarcus Mitchell fall on the back of his legs in the fourth quarter of last week’s preseason opener.

Left tackle Andrew Thomas is continuing to practice despite managing his surgically repaired left ankle.

And in Sunday’s best injury news, starting edge Azeez Ojulari (hamstring) came off the non-football injury list for his first practice of camp. Linebacker Carter Coughlin was back, too.

But Daboll said twice on Aug. 5 that his team’s “conditioning” needed to improve as he began turning up the heat on camp. And it’s worth monitoring if his players’ bodies start reacting better to the workload of real football or if the injury bug will continue to plague them.

Unfortunately, the reality is that the Giants haven’t been a consistently healthy franchise in the last decade, regardless of who the head coach or GM has been.

On average the past nine seasons, they’ve been the 22nd healthiest team in a 32-team league, per Pro Football Outsiders’ Adjusted Games Lost metric.

That includes ranking 32nd from 2013-15, eighth in 2016 and 2018, 25th in 2017, 16th in 2019, 23rd in 2020 and 27 in 2021.

It’s not Sept. 11 yet. So the Giants still have time to get healthier and prepare their bodies more for the rigors of the regular season.

But that’s not even a month away, and they need to fix this downward spiral on player health quickly.

Hopefully it’s not too late.

UNWATCHABLE ON OFFENSE

Kenny Golladay was locked up by Giants No. 2 outside corner Aaron Robinson on Sunday as Jones struggled to find completions for myriad reasons. Either Jones was sacked, or pressured off his spot, or sailed a throw, or his receivers weren’t open, or they dropped the pass. With Toney out, the pass catchers were camp standout Collin Johnson, Richie James, C.J. Board and rookie Wan’Dale Robinson. It was difficult for the offense to complete a pass or execute a single play, let alone find any splashes. Saquon Barkley rattled off one or two encouraging runs but also got stuffed several times. The offense’s energy was low, especially for the final open practice of camp for fans. Daboll knew he had a lot of work to do here, but it’s likely no one in the Giants’ building envisioned an offensive practice this bad this late into camp, Daboll included.

THREE PLAYERS CUT

Schoen cut three players on Sunday. He waived corner Michael Jacquet and offensive guard Josh Rivas, and he cut safety Jarrod Wilson. That brought the Giants to 87 men on the active roster with Ojulari back from NFI. NFL teams have to have their rosters trimmed from 90 to 85 by 4 p.m. Tuesday. It was interesting that the Giants cut Rivas before a practice in which they were so shorthanded on the line, at guard especially. Jacquet was spotted on the field at first but then didn’t complete practice.

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