Giants' Evan Engram to have more tests to 'measure the severity' of calf injury

There have been several times this season when a player of expected significance suffered an injury and Joe Judge said the following day that the team "dodged a bullet" or "avoided the worst-case scenario."

His description of the calf injury suffered by tight end Evan Engram in Sunday’s preseason finale against the Patriots was far less comforting.

Judge said on Monday Engram was to have further tests and see more doctors to "measure the severity" of his injury, one in an area that is notoriously tricky to recover from and can take more than a few weeks to heal completely.

The Giants open against the Broncos on Sept. 12.

"We’ll have to see where he is at in terms of how we manage him," Judge said.

Engram’s reaction to the injury on Sunday night also was not encouraging. He immediately grabbed his lower leg after blocking on a play, limped to the sideline, slammed his helmet down and was visibly agitated. He made the Pro Bowl last year, the first season he played in all 16 games in his career, and is in the final year of his contract with the Giants. He’s spoken several times this summer about the work he put in to maintain his health and improve his production this coming season.

Engram was not the only player to come out of Sunday’s loss with an injury that will bear watching as the opener looms. Wide receiver Darius Slayton suffered what the Giants called a foot/ankle injury. Judge said he expects Slayton to be able to be on the field with trainers in practices this week to "take a look at him." Beyond that, who knows how long he’ll be out.

The two offensive playmakers join an already swollen list of potential weapons whose are at varying degrees of physical readiness with less than two weeks to the opener. Wide receivers Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney have not participated in any preseason games and have been mostly sidelined in practices throughout training camp. Running back Saquon Barkley and tight end Kyle Rudolph are returning from surgeries and not yet cleared for full participation.

The key date for those players has always been Sept. 12, but as the Giants approach the regular season a second date is also coming into play: Sept. 16. The Giants play their first two games in a five-day span, and the compact nature of that scheduling will affect decisions they make regarding the availability of players coming back from injuries.

"There is definitely consideration leading up to it," Judge said. "I think being two weeks out we have to get a better look on where a lot of these guys are. I wouldn’t say having only four days between Game One and Game Two eliminates anybody at this point, nor does it lock anybody in at this point either … You have to use all the rules available to you to make sure your roster stays as fluid as possible."

That includes a few changes to NFL traditions, such as the expanded time between the end of the preseason and start of the regular season now that teams play only three exhibition games, as well as the injured reserve rules which allow any number of players to be placed on the list and come off after three weeks, provided they are on the active 53-man roster when it is submitted to the league by 4 p.m. Tuesday. In theory, the Giants could put any of those impact players with lingering injuries on IR later this week and have them back as of Sept. 27.

"That’s a tremendous change compared to years in the past," Judge said of the IR adjustment that was first implemented last season as an adjustment to COVID-19 but remains in place this season. "It’s pretty significant."

Especially if the Giants determine the injuries and ailments facing Engram and their other wounded players are pretty significant as well.

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.