Brian Daboll gave large receiver Kadarius Toney solely seven snaps in Sunday’s season-opening win over the Titans, regardless that the coach stated Toney is wholesome.
Toney performed two offensive snaps all the first half and didn’t see his first contact till the fourth quarter. He touched the ball twice all sport, speeding twice for 23 yards.
And he appeared to wrestle along with his lack of enjoying time, understandably. At one level, Toney stewed alone on the defensive bench – on the other finish of the sideline from the remainder of the offense – earlier than rejoining the group.
GM Joe Schoen and Daboll have postured publicly in protection of Toney ever since their commerce calls on him had been made public within the spring. But it’s laborious to view his lack of enjoying time as something apart from a insecurity within the participant’s reliability.
“We’ll see,” Daboll stated of getting Toney extra concerned. “We’ll do whatever we think we gotta do for that week. We’ve got a bunch of receivers active. We’ll figure out ways to get him in the game. Maybe it’s less, maybe it’s more. Each week’s different. Who’s inactive might be different. It depends on everything leading up to it, and that’s why we make those decisions.”
Toney’s lack of utilization was obtrusive. So was Daboll’s reference to future inactive lists.
Toney, final 12 months’s first-round choose, performed fewer snaps than rookie Wan’Dale Robinson (9), who left the sport for good with a proper knee damage within the second quarter. Toney’s enjoying time didn’t enhance after Robinson was dominated out.
Daboll stated Monday that it wasn’t as a result of an absence of religion in Toney’s information of the playbook. But he made clear “everybody’s gotta earn their role.”
“We had more than just seven plays for him but they weren’t called, and we’ll see what happens this week,” Daboll stated. “The guys that had been on the market, we had confidence in. We believe in Kadarius. Our receiver place is a aggressive state of affairs and will probably be evaluated on a week-to-week foundation.
“Relative to inactives or play time or amount of plays, everybody’s gotta earn their role,” the coach stated. “One week it might be a whole game, one game it might be less. But Kadarius has done a good job of learning our stuff. I have no concerns about him learning our information.”
Receivers Kenny Golladay (46 snaps), Sterling Shepard (43) and Richie James (42) performed most, adopted by David Sills (27), Robinson and Toney. Darius Slayton was inactive.
It wasn’t an entire shock Toney wasn’t closely concerned. In apply throughout the week, Toney was catching passes from backup QB Tyrod Taylor – not Daniel Jones – because the final ‘Z’ receiver working routes throughout particular person durations.
Still, in Toney’s protection, it might be comprehensible if he noticed inconsistencies in how he was handled this summer season in comparison with how little he performed Sunday.
No one sees what goes on behind the scenes, however on the sector, the Giants seemingly enabled Toney’s habits and gave him the liberty to be himself in camp.
They appeared to place him by minimal strenuous work. They carved out a apply interval to have a low-impact catch of the soccer with Toney and Kenny Golladay. They had particular person coaches personally evaluation play calls with them.
They gave Toney loads of days off from group durations (first coming off an offseason knee process, then after a mid-camp hamstring damage). They let him kneel on the bottom or take his helmet off usually when others had been standing and on the prepared.
Again, nobody is aware of what was stated to Toney behind closed doorways as camp progressed. His talkback to offensive coordinator Mike Kafka throughout a drill in late August needed to have elicited some suggestions.
But it’s clear Schoen and Daboll are rather more discerning and bottom-line of their decision-making than their public personas painting them to be. That’s factor, assuming the GM and coach are constant and clear in how they function.
It’s encouraging at the least, frankly, that they didn’t play Toney 40 snaps after giving Slayton a pay reduce and making him inactive – given the variations in participant work ethics and observe data.
Trust and enjoying time must be earned.
But once more, in Toney’s protection, after Daboll performed the receiver’s rap songs and acted like every thing was nice this summer season, it won’t have been simple to look at from the sideline Sunday.
Toney didn’t interview after the sport, however he’s anticipated to talk early this week.
“I don’t know exactly how many snaps it was, but we had personnel packs,” Daboll stated of Toney. “Seven, there you go. We had personnel teams for all our receivers. We’ll do this for each sport. Maybe it’s extra, possibly it’s much less. It simply will depend on what we’re calling, what we see.
“He’s in plenty of them. We didn’t get to some of them. But I thought the plays he was in on, he did his job. Made a good decision on the one play down there at the end of the drive to take care of the football and get yards.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com