Giants’ WR Kadarius Toney is hurt, again, and it’s not funny

At this point, the jokes about New York Giants’ wide receiver Kadarius Toney write themselves.

Like this from Newsday’s Tom Rock:

Or this from a commenter on the @BigBlueView Twitter timeline:

Or this in the BBV comments section from ‘BKGiantsfan’:

“Here’s my prediction—Toney is all set to return in week twelve but he re-injures his hamstring listening to the national anthem and has to sit out the rest of the season.”

Toney, in case you have not heard, did not travel to London with the Giants for Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers due to a hamstring issue.

This is not the same hamstring injury that sidelined him during training camp. Or even the second hamstring injury to the same leg that has kept him out since Week 2. This, according to Jordan Ranaan of ESPN, is to the other leg and is Toney’s third separate hamstring injury in the past two months.

Toney isn’t laughing:

Maybe the whole situation is meme-worthy if that is your thing. There is, though, nothing funny about it.

Toney is a first-round draft pick. He is immensely talented. He can’t, for whatever reason, get on the field to even begin to show it.

Toney played in only 10 of 17 games last season. The list of injuries and other reasons he missed practice and game time in 2021 is long enough to stretch from East Rutherford, N.J. to London.

This year, nothing has changed. Offseason knee surgery sidelined him all spring. Three hamstring injuries have limited him to two games, 35 snaps, and only a handful of practices this season.

The Giants have lost wide receivers Collin Johnson and Sterling Shepard for the season. Kenny Golladay (knee) did not make the trip to London and best guess is he won’t play for a while. Rookie Wan’Dale Robinson (knee) is in London and might play Sunday, but he has not played since Week 1 and has yet to practice fully this week.

The Giants have TWO fully-healthy wide receivers on the 53-man roster — David Sills and Darius Slayton. That’s good for Slayton and those who want to see him get more opportunities, but not good for the Giants.

Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka lauded Toney this week for his work behind the scenes.

“He’s done everything we’ve asked. He’s practiced hard when he’s practicing,” Kafka said. “It’s unfortunate but he’s one of those guys that does everything we asked and is working his tail off in the training room and in the meeting rooms. He does a great job with that.”

Over two seasons, and from two coaching staffs, that’s probably the umpteenth time we have heard that about Toney.

They are just words that don’t matter. What matters is that the Giants need Toney on the field. He’s not there, and there is no telling when he will be.