The New York Giants suffered a serious blow to their already beleaguered wide receiver unit on Monday night when they lost veteran wideout Sterling Shepard for the season with a torn ACL.
Shepard was in the process of successfully returning from another devastating injury (Achilles) that ended his 2021 season. After three weeks, he was leading the Giants in targets (24), and receiving yards (154).
His absence will mean someone has to step up. Who that will be is tough to say right now.
“The guys that we have,” said head coach Brian Daboll on Tuesday when asked who will fill the void left by Shepard. “Those guys are going to have to continue to work hard, build trust with the quarterback. They’ll be practicing, and hopefully we make some strides in that area.”
The ‘guys’ Daboll are referring to are veteran free agent Richie James, who is primarily a returner, former college quarterback David Sills, little-used Darius Slayton, perpetually injured former first-round pick Kadarius Toney and free agent bust Kenny Golladay.
This year’s second-round pick, Wan’Dale Robinson, is still out with a knee injury and the other wideouts in the building are practice squaders Kalil Pimpleton and Marcus Johnson.
The Giants are 29th in the NFL in passing/receiving yards (560) and Shepard was the top dog in that sputtering outfit. Daboll was asked if the cap-strapped Giants could seek help from outside the complex.
“(General manager) Joe (Schoen) is always looking and his staff. But we have those guys right now who we have,” he said. “And we’re going to expect them to come out here, keep improving, work hard. We have a couple guys on our practice squad right now that maybe they come into play; they’ve been picking up our stuff. So, we’ll see as we go.”
What has to happen here is for the existing players on the roster to begin to earn their keep. Golladay and Slayton should be 1-2 in targets. Why their careers have suddenly fallen off a cliff is mystifying. Toney is made of glass, it seems, but they’re going to need him to get on the field and stay there for once.
James is a pleasant surprise and Sills — who has a good pair of hands and seems to e a solid route runner — can’t be the team’s 1-2 in this day and age of excessive offense.
As Bill Parcells used to say ‘the bus is leaving.’ Either step up or step off.
