Giants and Cowboys both hit with COVID-19 positives ahead of Sunday finale

NEW YORK — The Giants and Cowboys both received news of COVID-19 positive tests on Thursday night, but only Dallas had to cancel its Friday practice.

The Cowboys went completely virtual in the NFL’s intensive protocols, meeting remotely with no on-field activities. They placed two players on the reserve/COVID-19 list: safety Darian Thompson and defensive tackle Justin Hamilton.

The Giants, on the other hand, were able to practice despite offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo testing positive for coronavirus.

DeGuglielmo actually was able to observe the team’s Friday morning walk-through live from his hotel room through an iPad set up behind the Giants’ offensive huddle.

“They actually put the iPad behind the huddle and Guge can sit there and watch and have feedback in and out,” head coach Joe Judge said. “It’s a different deal but hey, it’s something that we’ve become accustomed to.”

Right guard Kevin Zeitler was asked if the offensive linemen could actually hear DeGuglielmo’s coaching points coming from the iPad mid-walkthrough.

“Of course,” Zeitler said.

The Giants had two close contacts to DeGuglielmo: one was reportedly assistant O-line coach Ben Wilkerson. But Wilkerson is now scheduled to coach the O-line in Sunday’s finale after clearing protocol.

The other individual was a high-risk close contact and is a staffer, not a coach, the team said.

DeGuglielmo is the third offensive coach to test positive since Dec. 17, joining coordinator Jason Garrett and assistant Stephen Brown.

Judge hired DeGuglielmo during the bye week after firing Marc Colombo for insubordination following a heated argument at the team’s facility.

The Giants’ offensive line had made some progress midseason but gave up eight sacks to the Cardinals three weeks ago, six sacks to the Ravens last Sunday, and had a rough outing in Baltimore overall.

The obvious question is whether DeGuglielmo’s absence will hurt the offensive line on Sunday against the Cowboys, but considering Cam Fleming and Zeitler committed back to back false start penalties on the Giants’ first offensive series against the Ravens, the bottom line is the players need to play better whether he’s there or not.

The greatest impact of any coach’s absence normally would be in-game adjustments or corrections, which Wilkerson is more than capable of making.

Judge and the Giants do rotate tackles and guards every third offensive series, and Judge said he gives DeGuglielmo autonomy to manage that. So it will be interesting to see if Wilkerson handles that any differently.

Zeitler called DeGuglielmo’s positive test “a big surprise” but said the Giants are “prepared.”

“It’s been a crazy year with COVID. We knew anything could happen at any time,” Zeitler said. “I think we have a resilient group here and we’re ready to keep moving and getting better and get ready for Sunday.”

Judge said his decision to hire DeGuglielmo to replace Colombo earlier this season, rather than promoting Wilkerson, is not a reflection of his opinion in the assistant.

“My decision a couple months ago was in no way reflective in any confidence or lack thereof of Ben Wilkerson,” Judge said. “I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Ben. He’s a good coach. … The players respond to him very well. He’s great on the field with technique instruction, and he’s very good in terms of communicating and forming relationships off the field.

“Look, this is a guy, to be honest with you, when I got here last year, Ben was down at the East-West Shrine Game coaching,” Judge continued. “We had more requests put in for Ben Wilkerson last year while he was down there. This is a deal where I talked to him before he went down there, I said, ‘I won’t make any moves on the staff without talking to you first.’ Then we agreed when he got back that I would like him to stay, he wanted to stay, we made some arrangements with the contract, and I’m glad to have him on our staff.”

Wilkerson will be charged not only with helping the line correct its leaky pass protection but to get back to some dominant blocking in the ground game.

Since the Giants’ season-high 190 rushing yards in a Week 13 win in Seattle, they have managed 78, 74 and 54 yards rushing in three straight losses, respectively. Last week’s 54 rush yards in Baltimore was the Giants’ second lowest total of the season. Only their 29 yards on the Steelers in Week 1 was worse.

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Daniel Jones was a full practice participant all week and didn’t even show up on the Giants’ final injury report Friday for the first time since his Nov. 29 hamstring injury in Cincinnati.

Jones looked great running and was even sled-blocking an assistant coach early in Friday’s practice. So this calls into question whether the QB was bluffing this week when he publicly lamented his immobility and said the game plan again would call for him to stay in the pocket.

From the looks of Jones on the practice field, it appears he’ll be able to take off and run when necessary. He’s not completely healthy, but it does seem he’ll be ready for some designed or impromptu runs on key downs.

He was listed as a full participant all week with that right hamstring strain. His left ankle sprain was removed from the injury report altogether.