Giants’ Blake Martinez returns from COVID-19 list

Giants’ Blake Martinez returns from COVID-19 list

Giants linebacker Blake Martinez is back with the team on Saturday after a brief stay on the reserve/COVID-19 list.

“Blake is back with us in the building today,” Giants coach Joe Judge said Saturday. “He was his normal self, smiling, happy to be back with the team. He’s always a lot of fun to have around. He’s always got a good comment. Definitely a guy that communicates a lot in the meetings, so it’s good to have him back already.

“In terms of when he’ll be on the field with us, the plan is to get with the trainers and continue his ramp-up and build him back physically. When we know he’s ready to go, we’ll get him back on the field.”

The Giants are conducting a walk-through practice Saturday night as part of a community relations project, and it’s uncertain whether Martinez will be on the field for that.

Giants linebacker Blake Martinez holds his helmet in his hands as he looks on during OTAs.Giants linebacker Blake MartinezBill Kostroun/New York Post

“We had a couple guys who had some exposure to [COVID-19] and had to quarantine throughout this point,” Judge told reporters last week at the start of training camp. “Some guys who had some issues this summer, I’m not going to go into specifics.”

Martinez, who had a strong 2020 season, was among those players dealing with lingering issues along with rookie receiver Kadarius Toney, who remains on the list.

One player who’s not ready to practice quite yet is linebacker Lorenzo Carter, who missed a lot of last season with an Achilles injury, which according to Judge is not related to the issue he’s dealing with now.

With Martinez in “ramp-up” mode, Carter also being eased back and Reggie Ragland on the non-football injury (NFI) list, the Giants, thin at linebacker, announced Saturday that they signed veteran inside linebacker Todd Davis.