Sterling Shepard not a lock, but he believes he has shown he should have a role on Giants

Sterling Shepard was asked what he thinks might happen in these next few days.

“Nothin’,” he said.

That would mean everything.

Nothing would mean no phone calls from the team asking him to come in, no difficult conversations with the coaches and front office, no decisions to make, no future to contemplate.

It would mean that he made the Giants’ 53-man roster.

That’s something that seemed like a long shot in the spring when he signed a one-year contract to return for an eighth season while still recovering from a torn ACL. It didn’t appear any closer to reality when he began training camp on PUP just a few weeks ago.

But Shepard has pretty much proved that he should have a role on this year’s team, that even at age 30 and having played in only 10 games the past two seasons because of the knee and a torn Achilles, he can help them win.

It’s still not a certainty for him, however, and for the first time in his long tenure with the Giants, the longest of anyone on the team, he’s not a perceived lock for one of those roster spots.

“It doesn’t worry me, if that’s what your question is,” he said Saturday night after the preseason finale against the Jets.

It was a game in which the Giants’ starters, veterans and those who have secured their status were mostly spectating from the sideline, but Shepard was out on the field for two offensive series and even asked to field the first punt of the contest.

“I don’t really feel antsy about it,” he continued. “I’ll go about [cuts] just as I’ve always gone about it throughout my career. I laid it all out there and I’ve shown what I can do. I know I am capable of helping this team.”

So he waits. For nothing to happen.

“It’s a blessing being in this league every year you are in it,” he said. “It’s a hard business. I’m going to be very appreciative of it. I am every year. I will be. But I’m not worried.”

More appreciative this year, assuming he makes the team?

“No more,” he said.

Certainly no less, though.

He wasn’t too stressed about reading into those reps on Saturday, either, the ones that are interpreted by so many others as tea leaves. If anything, he saw it as one more rehab assignment, one more chance to prove that his knee is fully healthy.

Brian Daboll said as much on Sunday.

“That was the next step of his rehab,” Daboll said. “Where he’s at, what we’ve asked him to do, I’m happy with the progress that he’s made.”

“They want to give me a little bit more live action before the season starts and make sure I’m feeling good out there and prepare for what’s coming next,” Shepard said. “I honestly think it was good for me to get out there some more. I already felt good. I felt good after last week getting a little action in the preseason game against the Panthers. But I don’t think it can ever be too much. I feel like it was good to be out there just a couple snaps and test it out some more.”

As for that punt return, Shepard was under strict orders to fair catch it no matter what. But as he settled under the first live kick he’d seen since, he estimates, his junior year in college, he blanked.

“I don’t even know if I did it,” he said of raising his arm. “I was more focused on catching the ball and then buddy tackled me and I was like, ‘Dang, I don’t even think I fair caught it.’ I went over to the sideline and the guys were like, ‘I don’t think you did either.’ ”

He had not.

Could that become a new role for him on this team? Shepard groaned.

“I don’t know about all that,” he said.

When the Giants re-signed Shepard in March, it felt as if they were setting themselves up for a hard decision this summer. He was a free agent, so they didn’t have to bring him back at all, and no one would have blinked if they hadn’t.

Shepard’s one-year deal tasted like a favor to him, a reward for his seven previous years of service, a brief stay of the inevitable end that every player faces, an opportunity for him to give it one last go. If players can sign one-day contracts to retire with a team, as Prince Amukamara recently did with the Giants, this was Shepard signing a five-month deal to essentially reach the same outcome.

Now, with Shepard flying around, that contract seems like a bargain for the Giants.

Daboll certainly didn’t sound like a coach ready to cut Shepard, even as he stares at an overcrowded receiver room.

“He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do,” he said. “I think the trainers have done a really good job with him and he’s done a good job himself as a player being ready to go and performing well each time he’s had an opportunity to go out there on the practice field and in a game, knowing what to do, and he’s looked pretty good in terms of his quickness and his explosion coming back after a couple years of injuries. I’m pleased with where he’s at.”

That part, the effort and guts of Shepard, was never in doubt. His knee and his body may have been, but not his spirit.

“I’ve done everything I’ve had to do,” Shepard said of his quest to make the team. “I leave it all out there every time I step out on the field whether it’s practice or the game. I’m one of those guys, I don’t like to live with regret. If I give it my all, that’s all I can do. Just leave the rest up to God. That’s what it is.”

All he asks for is nothing in return.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.