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Giants RB Saquon Barkley (ankle) out vs. Raiders
Sunday's game against the Raiders will mark the fourth straight contest Saquon Barkley has missed. Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Giants RB Saquon Barkley (ankle) out vs. Raiders

The New York Giants dropped six of their first eight contests of the season but still managed to suffer what would have to be considered their campaign's most frustrating week, to date. 

It included head coach Joe Judge presumably being proven right about headsets going out throughout the season, and also personnel returning more than a dozen "false positive" COVID-19 test results that affected Big Blue's practice schedule ahead of Sunday's game against the 5-2 Las Vegas Raiders. 

Star running back Saquon Barkley spent multiple days away from the facility but returned Friday after it was confirmed he was not an active coronavirus case. Barkley missed the last three games with an ankle injury, however, and Judge said Friday the ball-carrier won't play this weekend. 

"A guy who's been out for several weeks like that, yeah, we'd like to see him on the field and making sure we can assure how he's moving and get out there and do it safely and stay on the field," Judge said of Barkley, per Jordan Raanan of ESPN. 

The Giants sitting Barkley on Sunday was likely regardless of his test-related absences, as Big Blue is on its bye next week and, truth be told, is already out of the playoff picture. The Giants play at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Nov. 22. 

"He's assured us that he's moving in the right direction," Judge added about Barkley. "But again, he's a very competitive player, he wants to be out there, he wants to be out there competing on the field with his teammates." 

Zac Wassink

Zac Wassink is a longtime sports news writer and PFWA member who began his career in 2006 and has had his work featured on Yardbarker, MSN, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. He is also a football and futbol aficionado who is probably yelling about Tottenham Hotspur at the moment and who chanted for Matt Harvey to start the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 2015 World Series at Citi Field. You can find him on X at @ZacWassink

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