You want a coach to speak so glowingly about a player.
Preferably, the adulation is directed at a player on his own team.
Brian Daboll let loose Wednesday, delivering a torrent of compliments and superlatives about a quarterback.
Not his current quarterback, Daniel Jones, but his former quarterback in Buffalo, Josh Allen.
This does not mean Daboll is down on Jones, whose availability is severely compromised for Sunday’s game against the Bills because of a neck injury.
Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, one year on the job, decided the Giants should stick with Jones and the franchise invested (four years, $160 million) in him.
Daboll often has nice things to say about Jones.
He had the nicest of things to say about Allen, just a few days before the Giants will try to deal with him at Highmark Stadium.
Daboll was the offensive coordinator in Buffalo when Allen was a first-round draft pick in 2018, and Allen regularly credits Daboll for helping to turn him into one of the NFL’s elite players.
“Josh Allen is an unbelievable player, one of the best in the league,’’ Daboll said. “You can put him in probably any offense and he’s going to produce. You know, I missed him as a person, we are close, but as a player, he’s a heck of a player. Put on any tape, he’s exceptional at everything. He can run, but he can throw it and he can throw it wherever he needs to throw it, 80 yards down the field, drop a dime, on the move to the right, put it back across his body, scramble, back up, scramble around, throw it out, throw it on time.
“He’s a special player. He’s one of the best in the league. And he makes you better as a play-caller, too, so he’s one of a kind.’’
The injury list at mid-week is daunting. In addition to Jones (neck) and left tackle Andrew Thomas (hamstring) not being able to practice, the offensive line continues to be in shambles, with rookie center John Michael Schmitz (shoulder) and OT Matt Peart (shoulder) unavailable. TE Darren Waller (groin), WR Wan’Dale Robinson (knee), LB Azeez Ojulari (ankle), LB Micah McFadden (ankle) all did not practice.
Waller said he is fine and plans to practice on Thursday. Robinson said this was a maintenance situation with his knee coming off ACL surgery and he, too, expects to return to practice.
Guard Justin Pugh is moving closer to getting on the field. Pugh, 33, signed to the practice squad last week and is ramping up his activity. He participated in a fully padded practice for the first time since he tore his ACL almost exactly one year ago when he was with the Cardinals.
“It was good to get out there and just feel how the knee’s doing,’’ Pugh, the Giants’ 2013 first-round pick, said. “If I can play, obviously I would love to do that.’’
The Giants added an offensive lineman to their practice squad, signing Yodny Cajuste, a 2019 third-round pick of the Patriots. Cajuste, 27, has not been able to stay healthy in his NFL career and has appeared in just 17 games (five starts). He was with the Jets during the offseason and was released in mid-August.
The Giants worked out offensive lineman La’el Collins, who visited with the Jets a day earlier. Collins, 30, is 10 months removed from a serious knee injury, as he tore his ACL and MCL last season in a Week 16 game against the Patriots while playing for the Bengals.
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