Saquon Barkley said he didn’t speak to the media on Sun­day or Mon­day after the Giants’ loss to the Eagles because of “the timing.”

“I’m pret­ty sure you guys got in con­tact with our media team, just the tim­ing of after the game with treat­ment and every­thing. Wouldn’t have aligned, ” Barkley said after sit­ting out Wednesday’s prac­tice for main­te­nance on his left ankle. “[It was] kind of a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion to what hap­pened ear­li­er in the year with a [game against] Wash­ing­ton, as you would know.

“The next day [Mon­day], tim­ing wasn’t gonna hap­pen again,” he added, “and I kin­da know that you guys would be able to talk to me Wednes­day, so here I am, guys.”

Barkley’s postgame absence in Philly was described as noth­ing out of the ordi­nary by the Giants’ media team. It was nor­mal treat­ment and the bus­es’ immi­nent depar­ture. Devon­tae Book­er was the only non-QB to speak for the offense after its hor­ren­dous performance.

Head coach Joe Judge said he doesn’t “pay a lot of atten­tion” to which play­ers are request­ed after games. He not­ed Barkley “was with the train­ers for a good amount of time” postgame but also called it his “nor­mal treatment.”

When Judge was pressed on the rule that every play­er is sup­posed to be avail­able after every game, he said: “I’ll make sure [senior VP of com­mu­ni­ca­tions] Pat [Han­lon] address­es that and we’ll see if there’s any­thing that needs to be adjust­ed based on league policy.”

Barkley then appeared on a Zoom video call Wednesday.

The Giants’ run­ning back gave a terse answer when asked if he has thought about shut­ting it down the last two weeks to pre­serve his ankle.

“No,” he said.

He also said he hasn’t thought about whether this could be his final two games as a Giant.

“No, I don’t,” he said. “I can’t con­trol those things. I can’t con­trol those. I can’t have that thought process.”

On Sun­day, Barkley will return to Chicago’s Sol­dier Field, where he tore his right ACL in Week 2 of last season.

But he said: “I’m not think­ing like, ‘I hate the field.’ I’m excit­ed that I’m healthy enough to be able to go out there and be able to play anoth­er game.”

NOT GLENNON AND FROMM AGAIN?!

Judge said he would “expect to see both” quar­ter­backs Mike Glen­non and Jake Fromm play on Sun­day at the Chica­go Bears. The Giants aren’t sign­ing anoth­er quar­ter­back. The night­mare continues.

“No. We’ve talked about it with the per­son­nel depart­ment, but no,” Judge said.

The Giants’ coach said there could be a rota­tion depend­ing on “if we think one thing is bet­ter for one guy. We’ll see how they prac­tice and how we’ll go into the game.”

It may be time to con­sid­er a run-only game plan like the Patri­ots’ ear­ly Decem­ber win over the Bills, when Mac Jones threw only three pass­es in a 14–10 road win. Judge said that’s on the table if need be.

“I would do what­ev­er it takes to win a game,” the coach said. “We’re not try­ing to throw for a cer­tain amount or run for a cer­tain amount. We’re just try­ing to win the game.”

GIANT FIGHT SPILLS OVER

Han­lon, the Giants’ PR czar, blast­ed long­time Giants scout Steve Verderosa on Twit­ter Tues­day night for alleged­ly spilling the beans. There have been mul­ti­ple sto­ries pub­lished recent­ly quot­ing for­mer scouts on the organization’s inter­nal dysfunction.

“Steve, @SteveV_PFN for some­body who has a track record that only we know about, you sure have a lot of thoughts about our oper­a­tion,” Han­lon wrote. “There is a rea­son you’re no longer here, and every one of your tweets to revise your/our his­to­ry con­firms why. Keep talking.

“Anonymi­ty works won­ders except when every­body knows you have an axe to grind and you’ve been wait­ing for this moment to piss on the guy who right­ful­ly fired you,” Han­lon added. “Hap­py New Year!”

Verderosa worked as a Giants scout for 32 years from 1988 until his fir­ing in the spring of 2020. His last tweet pri­or to Hanlon’s mis­sive was a crit­i­cism of the Giants using a third-round 2018 sup­ple­men­tal draft pick on cor­ner Sam Beal, who “showed up with 2 knock­down shoul­ders that need­ed surgery.”

Verderosa indi­rect­ly respond­ed to Hanlon’s crit­i­cism on Twit­ter by say­ing: “There is no vendet­ta vs the Giants, I love that place. It afford­ed my fam­i­ly & me a great liv­ing with great mem­o­ries. No place is per­fect & right now they are in dire need of more than a cou­ple of wins. Its just tough love I say.”

TOUCHY TONEY

Giants receiv­er Kadar­ius Toney sat out Wednesday’s prac­tice with a shoul­der injury. He casu­al­ly strolled out to the side­line in uni­form while the rest of the team was stretch­ing. The list of injuries that have cost Toney either prac­tice or game time in his rook­ie sea­son is alarm­ing­ly long: pos­i­tive for COVID twice, ham­string, ankle, thumb, quad, oblique and shoul­der. That’s not count­ing a toe or foot ail­ment dur­ing OTAs after he wore cleats that didn’t fit.

WILSON STILL NOT AVAILABLE

Giants prac­tice squad guard Isa­iah Wil­son still hasn’t been made avail­able to the media since sign­ing with the team Sept. 30. Wil­son was on Sunday’s active ros­ter in uni­form on the side­line in Philadel­phia as a COVID replace­ment and didn’t play a snap. Wil­son has a check­ered past to put it mild­ly. His sign­ing was con­tro­ver­sial. The team con­tin­ues to hide him.

GIANTS INJURY REPORT

Did not prac­tice: RB Saquon Barkley (ankle), C Bil­ly Price (per­son­al, not injury relat­ed), WR Kadar­ius Toney (shoul­der), K Gra­ham Gano (ill­ness), TE Kyle Rudolph (ankle), RB Gary Bright­well (neck), DL Austin John­son (foot), WR Collin John­son (ham­string), DL Ray­mond John­son (ill­ness). Lim­it­ed: OL Ben Bre­des­on (ankle), FB Cullen Gillaspia (shin), CB Adoree Jack­son (quad/Covid ramp-up), CB Keion Crossen (Covid ramp-up), WR John Ross (knee/Covid ramp-up).