No one likes injuries, but they’re a fact of life in the NFL. The New York Giants are experiencing that early on. Wide receiver Sterling Shepard is out for their next game. Saquon Barkley is done for the season. David Mayo and Xavier McKinney were injured before a single down was played in the regular season. But the Giants aren’t even the most injured team in this week 3 game.
49ers come in with major injuries
Their opponent, the 49ers, is doing just as bad when it comes to luck and staying healthy. The Niners were able to beat the Jets at MetLife Stadium in the first game of their New York road trip, but they paid a heavy price to do it. Nick Bosa and Soloman Thomas? On the injured reserve and likely out for the season. Expensive tight end George Kittle? Marked as out, after picking up a knee injury in the same game.
Another one of the most expensive players on the Niners, QB Jimmy Garoppolo, is also out. He has an ankle injury, and it’s not hard to see why the 49ers blamed the turf following their cursed performance against the Jets.
That turf has since passed an evaluation by the league but even assuming nothing was wrong with it in week 2, the 49ers at the very least had some unusually bad luck. But the Giants shouldn’t expect to have a huge advantage because of it. Their own luck isn’t great, after all. And this is the first game that the Giants are playing with a committee of running backs, following Barkley’s injury.
Devonta Freeman may very well become a standout starter for the Giants and surpass Dion Lewis and Wayne Gallman easily. But we don’t know if that will happen. We’ll have to wait and see, and if the bad luck of these two teams so far is anything to go by, another big injury for the Giants in week 3 wouldn’t be a surprise at this point.
The full list of San Francisco injuries
Tevin Coleman, RB (OUT)
Dee Ford, DL (OUT)
Jimmy Garoppolo, QB (OUT)
Dre Greenlaw, LB (OUT)
George Kittle, TE (OUT)
Raheem Mostert, RB (OUT)
Jason Verrett, CB
Ahkello Witherspoon, CB (QUESTIONABLE)