New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Giants facing possible COVID-19 outbreak ahead of Raiders game

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 11/3/21

The New York Giants dropped to 2-6 on the season via a Monday night loss at the Kansas City Chiefs and are now facing a different type of setback ahead of Sunday's home game against the 5-2 Las Vegas Raiders.

Per Jordan Raanan of ESPN, Giants coach Joe Judge confirmed Wednesday that a total of 13 players, coaches and other personnel tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Running backs coach Burton Burns was the only person from that group to become a confirmed coronavirus case following retesting, but the team has since learned that star running back Saquon Barkley is among multiple Big Blue players who returned new positive results.

Multiple Giants have tested positive for COVID-19, including Saquon Barkley.

The team expects to get results tonight after re-testing members of the organization that received positive tests.

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Barkley is fully vaccinated, but his status for the Raiders contest was up in the air anyway because he hasn't played since Oct. 10 due to an ankle injury. With the Giants heading into their bye following the weekend and going nowhere as it pertains to the standings, Judge and company could sit Barkley to get him right for the Nov. 22 prime-time matchup at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"That is all still to be determined," Judge added about who may or may not be available on Sunday afternoon. "They are going through all the tests, which takes about a day of going through the trainers, close contacts and tracers and all that stuff. In terms of any answers as far as Sunday or even something that will lead into [Thursday's] practice, we don't have any definite answers, except for really Burton, right now."

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