While the New York Giants have their own depth issues after a slew of injuries on both sides of the ball, Sunday’s opponent has it worse. It is so bad for the Washington Redskins that they simply may not practice this week.
The Redskins might be missing three starters on their offensive line, two starters in defense, one running back and one safety. It is a string of bad injuries that will force Washington to test the depth of their practice squad as well as check in on available free agents.
Washington comes into this game 4-6 and with a slim pathway to the playoffs still in place. It is a tough spot that is made tougher by all the injuries.
Not to mention that Washington faces a short turnaround, playing the Giants on Thanksgiving night after having played this past Sunday.
“We’re only going to do walk-throughs this week. We’re pretty dinged up and we don’t have really enough guys to get 11 on 11 right now for look squad,” Washington head coach Jay Gruden said on Tuesday during a conference call with the New York media. “Most of our look-squad guys are going to be playing, so we just got to get them ready to go and the walkthrough will slow it down and talk about some things and maybe I’ll do a little bit of running tomorrow. We’ll wait to see how we are.”
Talk about a tough slate of things going up against Gruden’s team. Not exactly the way they will want to line up for a nationally televised game against a divisional rival.
Gruden admits that some of this week, ahead of the national spotlight on Thursday, is simply trying to figure out what pieces he has in place.
“It’s going to be, I think, a lot more meaningful come Thursday night. Right now, our heads are spinning right now. We’re trying to get ready to play a football game, we’re trying to find out who the healthy bodies are, make sure we’ve got 46 guys to strap it up and the 46 guys that are going to strap it up, we’ve got to get them ready to go,” Gruden said. “So, I think on Thanksgiving it’ll be a special evening and when the Giants come to town, you see their blue helmets and it’s quite the rivalry. We understand what it’s all about, Giants vs. Redskins, it’ll have special meaning, but being on Thanksgiving with everybody watching, I think it’ll be a great treat for everybody involved.”
