The New York Giants have been lucky to avoid long term injuries to major players this offseason, with Sterling Shepard set to make a return in week one after being injured with a fractured thumb at the start of training camp, but that doesn’t mean the team is going into the 2019 season in perfect condition. The team has some players on the injured reserve list after the 53 man roster was released, some of them more notable than others.
The team will be able to bring two players back from IR after week eight, but the rest of the players on IR will have to miss the season. Cornerback Sam Beal managed to avoid making the list despite missing the end of training camp and the preseason with an injury, and Sterling Shepard recovered soon enough from the fractured thumb to avoid having to go on injured reserve.
But the team does have five players on injured reserve – Jonathan Anderson, George Asafo-Adjei, Brittan Golden, Scott Simonsen, and Rod Smith.
Out of all of those players, the one that had the most playing time last season was Scott Simonsen, who the team utilized over Evan Engram at some points in the season when Engram struggled with injuries and had a hard time bouncing back and getting back into the swing of things later in the year.
However, it’s unknown if Engram will have the same problem with usage this year and Simonsen also has Rhet Ellison to compete with, meaning that bringing him back might not be the highest priority for the Giants when it’s time to pick two players after week 8 to return to the active roster.
Rod Smith seems to have fallen out of the backup running back competition following performances from Paul Perkins and Wayne Gallman, so it’s unknown if the Giants will want to bring back a fourth running back midseason.
While Jonathan Anderson is at the important position of inside linebacker, Anderson is also about dead last in the depth chart for the position – which means the most likely option might be the team bringing back Brittan Golden and Asafo-Adjei, both players playing positions of need at receiver and tackle respectively. The Giants could use depth in both areas and despite not being the most obvious choices, both players have survived this far in the hunt to not end up eliminated from the roster, and provide depth in key areas.