Dave DeGuglielmo Tests Positive for COVID-19; Golden Tate Doubtful Against Cowboys

Golden Tate – © USA TODAY Sports

DAVE DeGUGLIELMO TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19…
New York Giants Offensive Line Coach Dave DeGuglielmo has tested positive for COVID-19.

“Dave DeGuglielmo, Guge, has a positive test,” said Head Coach Joe Judge. “There are two potential close contacts. Immediately upon notification last night, we isolated all three. We’ve had no close contacts other than those three. We’re going through all of the information. We went through it with the league this morning, went through all the players, went through all the coaches as well. We deemed it safe to open the building. We’ve been going through our normal protocols. All of our players have been masked up and wearing the protective shields and spaced our accordingly. We’ve continued with our meetings which are in our indoor facility and about as well of a ventilated space as can be. We’ve continued with our pre-practice walk-thru an abbreviated version to make sure it’s extra spaced out and avoid more close contacts. We’ve moved on now. The players are getting dressed and getting ready for practice.

“Really, we’re trying to keep the day as normal as can be. We went through everything last night to make sure it was completely safe to open the building. All the information we’ve been given, we deemed it was. We’ve not been a club who’s been slow to delay or change the schedule at any point this year based on a positive. But because we were out of the building on Monday and Tuesday and with the close contacts being very limited on Wednesday and having a virtual day yesterday, all information pointed us in the direction that today was safe to bring the players in the format we have and continue with normal Friday prep.”

Judge indicated that the other two people affected were not players and that Assistant Offensive Line Coach Ben Wilkerson will coach the offensive line in person while DeGuglielmo is out. DeGuglielmo will also continue to work with the offensive line via Zoom.

“I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Ben,” said Judge. “He’s a good coach. He’s a good, young coach. Draws from a knowledge of playing the game. He’s a very good communicator. He has a very good passion for the game. 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. 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 going forward. This is a guy that obviously we want in the program. He’s going to help us going forward.”

JANUARY 1, 2021 NEW YORK GIANTS INJURY UPDATE…
FB Eli Penny (illness), WR Golden Tate (calf), and LB Cam Brown (illness) did not practice on Friday. Penny has officially been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Dallas Cowboys. Tate is “doubtful” and Brown “questionable” for the game.

WR Sterling Shepard (ribs), TE Evan Engram (calf), and S Jabrill Peppers (ankle) were limited in practice. All three are expected to play on Sunday.

QB Daniel Jones (hamstring) and CB Darnay Holmes (knee) fully practiced and are expected to play on Sunday.

HEAD COACH JOE JUDGE…
The transcript of Joe Judge’s press conference on Friday is available in The Corner Forum while the video is available at Giants.com.

THE PLAYERS SPEAK…
Transcripts and video clips of the media sessions with the following players are available in The Corner Forum and at Giants.com:

• WR Dante Pettis (Video)
• OG Kevin Zeitler (Video)

WHAT’S UP NEXT…
There is no media availability to the New York Giants on Saturday. The team plays the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.