Kadarius Toney didn’t show up in the box score for the New York Giants in Thursday night’s loss to the Washington Football Team. While the three wide receivers drafted in front of Toney each made an impact in the first game of their rookie season, Toney has yet to record positive yards in his two career games.
Per Zack Rosenblatt of NJ.com, Toney came off the field in the third quarter Thursday night and had about a 10-second conversation with head coach Joe Judge before immediately storming off. Toney didn’t reenter the game after that, sitting away from his teammates as New York committed plenty of errors in the fourth quarter of a 30-29 loss.
Whatever Judge said to Toney, the Giants’ first-round pick does not seem happy with his role — posting an Instagram story venting his frustration with the situation after the game.
Toney played just 19 snaps in Washington and wasn’t targeted. He had two targets in a Week 1 loss to the Denver Broncos, but both plays went for negative yardage on end-arounds. Toney is buried on the depth chart, as the Giants haven’t figured out a way to use him. It didn’t help that Toney contracted COVID-19 early in training camp and didn’t play in any preseason games due to a hamstring injury.
“I’d say in terms of significant, I look at that not so much as volume, but production,” Judge said earlier this month when asked if Toney could have an “significant role” right away. “I’d say for a player who hasn’t seen obviously preseason games or a lot of significant time volume wise on the field with the guys through preseason, he’s been able to go out there and manage it and execute in practice what we’ve asked him to.”
Toney took to Twitter on Friday afternoon to explain himself:
Toney said in his lone press conference this regular season that he’s a “full believer” in what Judge has to say, but it didn’t appear that way with his Instagram story Thursday night. Both parties appear to have some issues to work out over the coming days.
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