Presser Points: Brian Daboll updates injuries, previews Commanders

The New York Giants (2-6) host the Washington Commanders (6-2) in Week 9 for the second leg of the 2024 season series. The NFC East rivals played one of the more bizarre games you will ever see in their first meeting. The Giants became the first team in NFL history to lose a regulation game despite scoring three touchdowns and allowing none. The Commanders made six trips inside the Giants’ 20-yard line but scored only seven field goals by Austin Seibert.

This time around, the Giants are looking to break a three-game losing streak while the Commanders look to win their third in a row.

Coach Brian Daboll took the podium before Wednesday’s practice to preview the matchup and provide injury updates on a short turnaround from Monday night’s game in Pittsburgh. Here is everything you need to know:

📰 The plan at left tackle is “similar to what it was last week” when Christopher Hubbard split practice reps with Josh Ezeudu, who had played the previous week in place of the injured Andrew Thomas. Hubbard, who was signed on Oct. 18, went on to start the game.

📰 Ezeudu, meanwhile, had his “knee drained” and did not practice on Wednesday.

📰 Defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence II, the current NFL sack leader, had a veteran rest day.

📰 Rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. is in the “early stages” of the NFL concussion protocol. The fifth-round pick ran for 145 yards and a touchdown before the injury, tying Eddie Price for the fifth-highest rushing total by a rookie in Giants history. “He’s going to be doing stuff off to the side.”

📰 Wide receiver/returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette (ankle), wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton (Achilles), linebacker Matt Adams (knee), and punter Jamie Gillan (left hamstring) did not practice.

📰 Ford-Wheaton is “not long term. … We’ll see where he is tomorrow. But it’s sore.”

📰 Cornerbacks Adoree’ Jackson (neck) and Cor’Dale Flott (groin) will do “some more today. Hopefully, that’s trending in the right direction.”

📰 Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels is “one of the better quarterbacks in the league already.” The rookie has “great vision” and “can throw the ball in any area he needs to throw it.”

Daboll added: “He can throw it under pressure. He can escape and make plays with his feet. He can escape and make plays with his arm. He’s got good command, which we knew. He was a smart guy when we spoke with him. He’s playing really well, at a high level. You can tell there’s a lot of confidence in him. He has a lot of yards per attempt. Eight and a half, which is really good. He makes good decisions. He does a lot of good things.”

📰 “Tackling in the open field” is the key to improving the run defense. “You work on it in drills. You have to be able to finish it in the game. They hit a couple long ones, which usually leads to higher yards per attempt. Gap integrity. All the things that it takes to be a good run defense.”

📰 The Commanders defeated the Bears on a Hail May touchdown last week, so Daboll was asked about how teams practice for it. “I don’t want to speak for every team. We do it every week. You never know when the situation is going to come up, the play before or the play after. You study years of the coordinators’ play calling history of how they play it and how the offense wants to try to attack it. It was a really good play by the quarterback, too. To be able to bide his time to let the defenders get down there. He scrambles one way, scrambles the next. That’s a huge element to the play is the quarterback being able to do that to let the routes, whatever they’re going to be, declare. Then give them a chance down there in the end zone, which the ball got tipped up. The receiver was in a good location behind the back tip. It was a heck of a play.”

📰 On players expressing their frustration about the season: “Again, you face things head on, things you got to fix. Be consistent. You don’t want to have downs, you’re going to have them. But you got to remain consistent in the leadership part of it. Communicate well. Go through the things that you can improve and then really focus on the things that you need to do for this week. But these guys care a tremendous amount. They work well together. There’s a lot of respect on both sides. I’d say the coaches and the players. Everybody’s doing everything they can.”