Evan Engram may be joining Giants' long list of battered playmakers

The frustration was visible on Evan Engram’s face as he came to the sideline and slammed his helmet into the turf. The Giants had been forced to punt after a failed third-down conversion in the second quarter, and though he had every right to be upset by the less-than-stellar performance of the offense at that point, something else had the tight end so upset.

Something worse.

Engram, who was blocking on the play, winced and grabbed his left calf before limping to the bench. After he was examined by the medical staff, he made his way to the locker room. His preseason was over. More to the point, his regular season became something of a question.

The Giants started Sunday’s preseason finale against the Patriots without a number of their projected offensive playmakers, waiting patiently for many of them to return in time for the Sept. 12 opener against the Broncos. They wound up adding to the list of injury concerns that will be monitored for the next two weeks.

Not only did Engram leave the game, but wide receiver Darius Slayton hurt his ankle and foot and starting left tackle Andrew Thomas — the lineman the Giants need to live up to his fourth overall selection in his second NFL season — struggled (two sacks allowed) and played with a heavy wrap on his left ankle.

"We’re going to have to have those guys see doctors and kind of get looked at before I say anything further," Joe Judge said of the status of the freshly injured players. "You talk to the players and they are all very optimistic, but we’ll see where they are at tomorrow and the next day."

They already were a battered bunch heading into the 22-20 loss. Saquon Barkley, Kenny Golladay, Kyle Rudolph and first-round pick Kadarius Toney never made it onto the field for a preseason snap this summer. As such, it sometimes was hard to determine what the offense would look like once they all returned. Sunday was no different in its inability to provide a clear picture of the team’s potential.

Judge insisted that those missing pieces were just part of the game. "It’s our job to make sure that we be productive with whoever’s on the field," he said. "When we play teams in the regular season, we’re not going to be able to go ahead and have an asterisk next to it saying, ‘But we didn’t have so-and-so.’ We’ve got to get ready to play."

For most of the first half, they didn’t look that way. They went three-and-out on their first drive, and their second drive ended when Slayton dropped an easy pass on third-and-13. After linebacker Blake Martinez made a spectacular interception late in the first quarter, the Giants put together a significant drive that got all the way to within an inch of the goal line. On third-and-goal, though, Daniel Jones rolled to his right and tried to throw a no-look pass across his body to Engram that was intercepted.

Jones anticipated Engram stopping his route, Engram kept floating laterally with Jones, and the ball went straight into the arms of defensive back D’Angelo Ross for a touchback.

The Giants’ offensive starters — or who was left of them — did salvage their last opportunity with the ball. After the defense forced a punt with 2:30 left in the first half, Jones engineered a nine-play, 58-yard TD drive capped by a 23-yard pass to tight end Kaden Smith. Jones was 7-for-8 for 54 yards on the drive.

It was enough to allow the starting units to end their night with a modest moral victory, a 7-6 lead at halftime. They walked off the field toward the regular season with that accomplishment, unsure of who will be healthy enough to line up for them when the regular season begins.

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.