10 things to watch in Giants vs. Commanders

Evan Neal isn’t the only Giants rookie looking to make his return to the field on Sunday. Similar to Neal, tight end Daniel Bellinger was also injured during the Week 7 game in Jacksonville when he suffered a serious eye injury. Bellinger had been developing into a key part of the offense prior to the injury with 15 receptions and three total touchdowns from Weeks 2-6. The team hopes it can get its starting tight end back on the field for this weekend’s important divisional matchup.

“Daniel (Bellinger) has done a good job,” said Kafka. “He had a good day yesterday; it was good to see him out there and bouncing around in the pads. Any time you can add another guy to the offense gives you some flexibility from a personnel standpoint and then gives you some flexibility from an execution standpoint.”

In Bellinger’s absence, the Giants have relied on two unlikely sources for production out of the tight end position. Tanner Hudson signed with the Giants towards the end of training camp and had just three receptions for 40 yards through Week 7. But in the two games following Bellinger’s injury, Hudson finished with three receptions in each one, totaling 82 yards on the six catches. Additionally, Lawrence Cager has helped fill in over the last month after joining the practice squad on October 18. Cager has caught five passes for 49 yards over the last three games, including his first career touchdown.

“I’d say this, I think the guys that we had in, they stepped up,” the offensive coordinator said about the team’s tight ends. “We had a great ‘next man up’ mentality, really throughout all these injuries that we’ve had. Guys have stepped in, they’ve played huge roles for us as an offense. They’ve stepped in and done everything they can. They’ve played their butt off.

“Really, when I’m looking at that, obviously when Bellinger comes in – he does a good job and he goes and does his job. That’s what we’re going to ask these guys to do, whether it’s the run game, whether it’s the pass game. We’re asking our guys to go out there, run the fundamentals and techniques that we ask them and play as hard as they can. Our guys are doing that. That’s one thing you can build on.”

Although the result of last week’s Thanksgiving matchup was not what the GIants were hoping for, one bright spot was the performance of Kayvon Thibodeaux. The rookie outside linebacker went into the game with three quarterback hits in his first…