The New York Giants began their offseason workout program on Monday and while the attendance was impressive, the absences of running back Saquon Barkley and defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence loomed large.
Although the workouts are completely voluntary — and Barkley is ineligible to attend anyway — their missing faces caused a stir in the media. It also resulted in head coach Brian Daboll being forced to address the team.
“Yeah,” Daboll told reporters when asked if he addressed it with the players. “I talk with the team about a lot of things.”
Daboll brushed off the absences and also Michael Lombardi’s notion that the “disease of me” is creeping into the Giants’ locker room.
“Look, this is the NFL. You guys have been doing this for a long time. There’s a lot of things on the business side of the NFL,” Daboll said. “It’s April 17th here. We have got a long way until we get going.”
Having just gone through the whole process of negotiating a contract himself, quarterback Daniel Jones also said the Barkley and Lawrence situations weren’t going to impact the locker room.
“We’ve got great guys in the locker room and mature guys who understand that side of playing in the NFL, understand the business side of it,” Jones said. “I don’t think that’s a concern within our team.
“Those are business situations and those guys have to go about them how they see fit. I certainly respect that, I think we all do, knowing those two guys. They’re team-first guys, they’re great teammates to everybody and everybody in our locker room has a tremendous amount of respect for both of them.”
Safety Xavier McKinney agreed.
“I don’t think it’s an issue. They’re dealing with their own things (and) that’s for them to work out. We know what type of guys they are. We know what type of players they are. We all love them,” McKinney said. “We all kinda know what it is.”
On the personal side of things, Jones hopes Barkley, who is a close friend away from football, gets his long-term deal.
“Obviously he’s a good friend of mine, good teammate. I’m hoping for the best for him,” Jones said. “There’s a business side to all this. He’s a great teammate, great friend, everyone in the building knows that. I’ll support him through it all.”
So all the worry and negative speculation? Much ado about nothing.
