Shane Vereen seeks 'progress' for Giants' offense against Jets
Giants running back Shane Vereen runs the ball during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on Friday, July 31, 2015. Credit: Brad Penner
Count Shane Vereen as the first Giant to have realistic expectations for the offense. At least this week.
While several of his teammates have spent the summer touting the unit as one of the league's best, a dangerous arsenal of weaponry, and, in one memorable quote, "unstoppable," Vereen set much lower standards for Saturday's preseason game against the Jets.
"You just have to keep making progress," he said on Thursday. "We're not going to go out there and complete 20 out of 20 passes and be unstoppable. It's a continuing process, it's a growing thing, and it's only our third game of the season so we're still putting some pieces of the puzzle together. As long as we go out and improve, I think that's what the goal is."
Vereen has had success against the Jets in his career. As a member of the Patriots, he faced them five times and New England won all five games. He carried the ball 35 times for 172 yards and caught nine passes for 184 yards and three touchdowns.
All of those performances were against a Rex Ryan-led defense. This will be the first time he's facing the Jets under Todd Bowles.
"I haven't seen too much of a difference," he said of the two schemes. "They're still getting great push up front and still stopping the run and still causing problems. It's definitely something we'll have to focus on."
For him, he's not facing a head coach or a defensive coordinator but the Jets players.
"Every time you play the Jets you prepare to play a good defense," Vereen said. "Defensively they have a great front four, and you're not going to be too out of shape when you add Darrelle Revis to your team ... They posed some challenges in the past and they've been looking good in the preseason."
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.
