'One after another after another' with Giants injuries this season

Prince Amukamara, Walter Thurmond and Trumaine McBride would make a pretty good starting secondary for just about any team in the NFL. Unfortunately for the Giants, those three players are members of the team's injured reserve list. Amukamara is the latest to join them after tearing his right biceps early in Monday night's loss to the Colts. He'll require season-ending surgery, Tom Coughlin confirmed on Tuesday.

"We won't have him going forward," Coughlin said on a conference call. "We feel very badly for Prince, particularly with the quality of year he was having. And so we move on."

Moving on from injuries -- or at least trying to -- has been a theme of the Giants' season. Their injured-reserve list consists of some of their best players and includes middle linebacker Jon Beason, wide receiver Victor Cruz and offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz (who remains on short-term injured reserve). They've also played the last three games without starting running back Rashad Jennings and played Monday without starting defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins.

Antrel Rolle said losing Amukamara is "a hard pill to swallow" because of their close relationship. Rolle has been a mentor to Amukamara since he came into the league as the team's first-round pick in 2011.

"That's my guy," Rolle said in his weekly WFAN radio appearance. "He's been competing and playing at such a high level all season long . . . We've been on Prince tough since he's been here and he's finally becoming a man and even better than what we've asked him to become."

As for the other injured starters, Rolle said: "It seems like we can't get ahead of the ball. It just seems like one after another after another after another. It's very unfortunate. You have to have a lot of luck in this game to stay healthy."

The Giants still have two veterans who most likely will be starting at the outside cornerback positions in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (who is battling back and hamstring injuries and was not expecting to play as much as he did on Monday night) and Zack Bowman. Beyond them, it gets a little dicey. Jayron Hosley has been in the nickel but hasn't made many plays in the last few games since taking over that spot. Chandler Fenner is on the roster. The Giants acquired Mike Harris off the Lions' practice squad last week, although he was inactive against the Colts. Coughlin said the team likely will add another cornerback before they begin preparing for Sunday's road game against the Seahawks.

"We'll certainly have to spend a lot of time bringing these new people to a point of understanding the basic concepts from which we coach," Coughlin said. "As far as restrictions go, I'm sure we're going to have to be very selective and perhaps we'll have to taper a little bit with the broadness of the plan. We'll go ahead and work with that . . . and first of all square up with what personnel are going to be playing where and what we think they can handle."

Rolle agreed that there have to be concessions in the gameplan because of the injuries.

"We have to find a way," he said. "We can't hang our heads, we have to find a way to play with what you have. You assess your talent level, you assess the guys you have on the field, you put them in the best position to make plays. You have to scheme around the quality of guys and the talent level that you have on the field. That's going to be the only way we're going to be successful as a defense."

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.