Training camp has been underway for days for the New York Giants, but rather than focusing on the excitement of being one step closer to the season and seeing some of the team’s new additions in pads for the first time, the conversation has been dominated so far by injuries.
It’s for good reason. It seems that every day another Giants player goes down with an injury in camp, even some of the team’s top payers such as wide receiver Sterling Shepard, who gets to kick off the season recovering from a fractured thumb after signing a four year contract earlier this offseason.
The Giants were hit by more bad news recently, not another injury but the news that Golden Tate could face a four game suspension during his debut season with the team, something that sets the Giants back even further as Tate and Shepard are projected to be the top receivers on the team. At least, they were projected to be the top ones, and now both of them have serious difficulties to deal with only days into training camp.
It’s safe to say that Giants fans have reason to be pessimistic, but not everyone around the team shares those sentiments. According to wide receiver Russell Shepard, the team’s crisis could be a chance for other players to shine.
“Things like this happen throughout the course of the year and we’ve got a good group of guys that will make the most out of this situation. At the end of the day we’re all pros, we’re here for a reason, we can make this a Cinderella story. . . We have nothing to lose. You want people to doubt you [so] you can go prove them wrong,” Shepard said Saturday.
Shepard finished with a pair of touchdowns last year but had fairly modest numbers in terms of receptions, with only 10 from 19 targets – he may just see a big step up in production this season if the current injury trend at receiver continues, after turning the group of receivers from a relatively deep one to a thin one in a matter of days.
With the Giants looking for receivers to sign to help fill the gaps they now have, and add depth as the season approaches, one can hope that Shepard himself doesn’t join the ranks of the injured and suspended soon – it seems that every player at the position has had a curse placed upon them, and one can only wait and see if that bad luck continues or whether this is just one bad week for the Giants.