Sam Beal among those whose health may hinder making Giants' 53
Giants cornerback Sam Beal makes a catch during the third day of minicamp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center on June 6. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
After Thursday’s game against the Bengals the Giants will have about one week and one more preseason contest to determine who makes the team. For a few draft picks who have spent most of the summer on the shelf, those may be their only opportunities to show something . . . if they can even make it that far.
Cornerback Sam Beal, the player the Giants used a third-round supplemental draft pick on last summer, spent all of 2018 on injured reserve with a shoulder injury and has participated in just a handful of practices this training camp with a hamstring injury. The Giants liked him enough to draft him when they did, but have they seen enough from him on the field to warrant keeping him on their 53?
“We’re just going to have to see where he is physically,” Pat Shurmur said. “We drafted him for a reason. We would like to see him be on our team. We’ll just see where he’s at, and then we’ll make a decision at the 53.”
Does that mean Beal has to be healthy by cutdown day to make the team?
“We’re going to have to see,” Shurmur said. “Again, it’s something we’re going to have to evaluate as we go forward. He’s getting healthier by the day. It’s just unfortunate that we haven’t been able to see him do much. But unfortunately, that’s the way it is sometimes.”
There are others in that category. Rookie wide receiver Darius Slayton, a fifth-round pick in the spring, hurt his hamstring on the first day of training camp and only returned to action in practices recently. He has yet to play in a preseason game (although Shurmur said he is “really really close” to playing on Thursday). Rookie tackle George Asafo-Adjei, a seventh-rounder, suffered a concussion on the first day the Giants were in full pads last month. He has yet to return.
“We all know it affects guys differently,” Shurmur said of concussions and the long convalescence for the player known as “Big George.” “He just hasn’t been able to compete yet. We’re going to try to do the very, very best we can to get him well so he can.”
If he and the others can’t, the Giants may have to make some blind decisions come next weekend.
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.
