New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh said on Wednesday that defensive tackle Roy Robertson-Harris, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the first week of OTAs, could return near the end of the season.
The Giants have not placed Robertson-Harris on IR, which would end his season.
“There’s a chance Roy could get back actually,” Harbaugh said. “With Roy’s situation time-frame wise there’s a chance he could get back late in the season so we’re going to try to hold off on that if we can.”
Robertson-Harris,
a 6-foot-7, 300-pound tackle, is a 10-year veteran who started all 17 games for the Giants last year. Harris tore his Achilles tendon on May 21. He is one of three players to suffer Achilles tendon injuries this spring — UDFA cornerback Thaddeus Dixon suffering a torn Achilles last Thursday (May, 14th) and wide receiver Gunner Olszewski on May 29. Both of those players were placed on injured reserve.
Robertson-Harris is in the second year of the $9 million contract he signed with the Giants in the 2025 offseason and was projected as a key piece in a rotation of players to replace the production of Dexter Lawrence after the trade with Cincinnati earlier this year.
This offseason the Giants have made multiple additions to the defensive line. They signed 10 year veteran D.J. Reader after the draft to go along former Browns defensive tackle Shelby Harris, former Chiefs defensive tackle Zacch Pickens, former Cardinals defensive tackle Leki Fotu, former Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Sam Roberts, and former Baltimore Raven Josh Tupou. The team also added Auburn’s Bobby Jamison-Travis in the sixth round of this year’s draft.
‘Turned over every stone’
The Giants have reacted aggressively after the trio of Achilles injuries.
“One thing I’ve learned, Dr. [Scott] Rodeo is one of the foremost tendon experts in the whole world, and really you look for answers and there are none,” Harbaugh said. “You can’t predict tendons really hardly at all, let alone Achilles are the worst. You just don’t know.
“There’s no common denominators with any of the three guys. There’s no common denominators with loads or anything else.”
That, though, doesn’t mean the Giants have done nothing in the hope of preventing more Achilles injuries.
“What we did was we went to technology and we went to testing.,” Harbaugh said. “Tested all our guys this week. Turned over every stone, all hands on deck, and we’re bringing in four new pieces of equipment between strength training equipment and also testing equipment, body movement equipment to try to make sure that we can do everything we can for our players and make it as individualized as we can.
“That’s what you do. You try to tackle it with everything you’ve got.”
