Loading ...The New York Giants revealed on Thursday that wide receiver Hakeem Nicks had suffered a fractured 5th metatarsal in his right foot and was expected to be out for approximately 12 weeks. That timetable would have Nicks returning sometime in mid-August, giving him three weeks to prepare for the regular season. Head coach Tom Coughlin expressed reserved optimism about said timetable, saying he's "hopeful" Nicks can be ready by week one.
“Well, it’s probably going to be close,” said Coughlin. “Hopefully, he will. He feels very confident about it. The doctors have expressed it as something they feel will heal very, very well. Obviously, we’ve got to get about the business of healing right away.”
Nicks will undergo surgery today to have a screw inserted in his foot, and the operation will be performed by noted foot and ankle specialist Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte, NC.
“Let’s take the positive side of it,” Coughlin said. “The positive side of it is the doctors are very confident this will be a complete healing and perhaps the bone will be stronger than it ever was.”
Last year, Nicks' teammate, Prince Amukamara, fractured his 5th metatarsal on August 6th. He didn't return to full practice for 15 weeks and was still undergoing treatment as recently as late March. That's not to say Nicks -who is a noted quick healer- will follow a similar pattern, just that there is a possibility he sits out the first few weeks.
In the interim, Ramses Barden, Jerrel Jernigan, rookie Rueben Randle and a healthy Domenik Hixon will all have the opportunity to step up and make an impression. And should Nicks return by week one, at the very least all of the reserves will have had more time to work with quarterback Eli Manning to improve their continuity for when they are eventually called upon.
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The reason why I think we might need someone like Brayon Edwards is that I don’t feel like health wise Hixon can be trusted to be 100%. I think if Hixon was 100% we have enough in our WR group to be fine for a short term Nicks absence. My concern is that a “healthy” Hixon only 85% of what he use to be which isn’t good enough. If that’s the case then we are totally reliant on Randle stepping up IMO. I don’t know if barden has can be a starting WR bc of his lack of speed. I think Jernigan might be to small to play outside. So the best options to start outside if we have to play without Nicks are Hixon and Randle. Hixon is an injury concern and Randle still is a rookie. This is whyI can see adding a vet. But much of it depends upon the confidence we have in Hixon and Randle.
For the reasons you give and more, it isn’t a bad idea to bring in some guys at this point. There are a lot of guys out there now that won’t cost anything for various reasons. It doesn’t mean that we have to keep them on the roster come week 1. It doesn’t hurt to have options.
It’s not how you start the season … but how you finish.
Nicks will heal up … Randle, JJ, Ramses, Hixon will get reps … who knows how it will all play out.
REPOST
rlhjr says:
May 25, 2012 at 10:22 AM
We all fall victim to the same malady that affects any kid who ever picked up a baseball, basketball or football and liked it. We dream and seek to make those dreams come true.
Never mind that less than one percent of everyone who has a dream pertaining to any of the three majors, or even freaks like:
Bo Jackson (You’ll never see a run up a wall to catch a fly ball again in your life)
Deon Sanders (He was a Yankee too)
Ronald Curry (Recruited by Dean himself to play point at Carolina and was also Carolinas starting QB. And finally WR/KR/PR in the pros)
The “average” “ABOVE AVERAGE” athlete would love to be “DRAFTED” in ONE professional sport let alone play two.
Those examples should serve to remind us all that the people who make it in any professional sport (no matter what we think of them) are top shelf in that sport.
But even amongst the elite there is a pecking order. And it’s not established by the “wonderlic” testing, or the rate at which they assimilate the play book.
No, it’s simply the frequency with which you succumb to injury, and the speed at which you can recover.
And that is down to genetics, in particular when dealing with joints, bone and muscle density. Some play for years without serious injury, yet if that same player were subjected to a really serious injury, he might never play again.
(See Bo Jackson)
Where as another player may sustain the same injury but because of the composition of his set of tendons, ligaments and other attachments, this person will recover and heal almost completely (See Tommy John and few others) and might be as good or better than they were prior to injury. Medical advances, yes they help. But there is only so much they can accomplish if the subject does not have the genetics to work with.
Some folks just flat heal better than others, no matter how elite they may be athletically. Something like blood circulation to extremities, and around joints makes a dramatic difference in healing.
From what we can tell about our Hakeem Nicks, he is of the latter category.
He recovers from his injuries fairly well. He doesn’t seem to have repeat injuries.
He’s just a big strong kid with good attachments and hopefully excellent circulation in his both his feet. Pins and screws are another way of saying that the particular bone will never again support the type of stress the athelete puts on it by participating his or her sport.
What is scary about the bones in the feet is you must let them heal completely or they will cause trouble (certainly irritation) perpetually. Even if they heal completely there is the calcium deposit that comes with healthy bone healing.
Those deposits get out of hand and become spurs. Those spurs can cause arthritic symptoms and have to be “filed down” when they cause pain.
See Ahmad Bradshaw and many in every sport involving running/cutting)
One person familiar with Hakeem Nicks’ fractured foot told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that it’s “more like a 4-6 week injury.”
Nicks has a fractured fifth metatarsal. His status for opening day may not be in question after all.
If this is true. . . Then again the same injury for Prince resulted in a 12 week absence.
A view on Nicks with a little more detail about procedure & recovery:
http://bramelsecondopinion.com/2012/05/25/hakeem-nicks-is-12-weeks-a-realistic-timetable-for-recovery/
Really good stuff there jfunk.
What Nick’s injury does in place additional emphasis on the Giant running game, and the hope that this offensive line regains (acquires) more physical running blocking attitude.
It also places some pressure on one David Wilson to deliver the goods.
I for one think he is more than capable of doing that. I also think Bradshaw isn’t chopped liver.
If the Giant run blocking continues to be mediocre, then Wilson and Bradshaw can still excel because of their combination of power and quickness.
In Wilson’s case add “elite” speed to the mix. The main point is they each can (similar to a scorer in the NBA) “GET THEIRS”.
Bradshaw has been getting his from day one. Wilson will be no different.
In other words, both can gain yards in absents of standout run blocking.
If they ever get consistent powerful run blocking from the Giant front, look out NFL.
And to some extent, Wilson can be relayed upon (let see) to catch the football, and give Eli another option to compensate for Hakeem.
So the Giants will be if nothing else more diverse and less perdictable.
That of course will depend on Mr. Gilbride coming up with something other than the third down shotgun draw.
But to compensate of the loss of Nicks, the Giants must be able to place more faith in running the ball. And I still think the “de-valuing” of running backs is BS.
If they have no value, then the third overall pick and the Giants first would not have been running backs.
I mean really…..get a grip fantasy footballers everywhere.
On a related note: how fortuitous does the selection of Rueben Randle look right about now?
Not only did the Giants snag a player at the bottom of the second for whom they had given a first round grade… but the GM also said immediately afterwards that player reminded him of [drum roll, please] Hakeem Nicks!
Don’t get me wrong… I’m hardly suggesting that Randle is going to step in and seamlessly transition into Nicks’ role in the offense. But if Jerry Reese (and Greg Cosell – who made the exact same comparison pre-draft) are correct, then the Giants now have an opportunity to spend some time this offseason grooming Randle in that role. And if the kid turns out to have a similar skill set – and is as precocious as Nicks was coming out of UNC – it could certainly help to lessen the temptation to rush Hakeem back too early.
If nothing else, this is just further confirmation of Krow’s dictum that teams would be wise to draft at least one WR and CB every year. With those two positions now more highly prized than ever in today’s pass-happy NFL, teams must indemnify themselves against the inevitable attrition there due to injury and free agency. I would not be at all surprised that if in some point in the not-to-distant future we see a post similar to this one that begins “How fortuitous does the selection of Jayron Hosley look right about now?”
FWIW, here’s Greg Cosell’s pre-draft comments on Randle (scroll down to pick 22, where Cosell had him mocked to the Browns):
“Randle, as I’ve said before, showed some similarities to the Giants’ Hakeem Nicks in terms of athletic movement and deceptive vertical speed. There were times watching tape when I felt he was quicker and more athletic than both Justin Blackmon and Michael Floyd.”
And don’t be put off by the Cosell name. Yeah, he make look eerily like his uncle (in the photo next to his byline) but the similarities end there. Howard (whom I loved) was something of a dilettante when it came to football. Nephew Greg is, by all accounts, a passionate student of the game who reportedly spends as much time studying film as the legendary Mayock.
Not saying that he’s necessarily going to be proven correct in his Randle/Nicks comparison. I’ll just say that the fact he basically said the same thing before the draft that Reese said afterwards is one of those things that make you go “Hmmmm…”
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2012/mock-drafts/greg-cosell/130109
Howard was however a quick study. Once he learned the NFL ropes, he got better.
Never the less, Cosell remained an endearingly pompous **** (in my eyes) but better.
If his nephew got any of Uncle Howard’s smarts, he’ll be pretty damn good.
Norm this is one of many sound bytes from the “Mouth that Roared”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcdz1IRVoM
I agree and I thought the other WR in the draft that “looked” like Nicks was Jeffrey.
But Jeffery was/is a knuckle head of sorts. Randle, was very much under the radar except to the better GM’s league wide. But the good news is he does not have to burn up the league.
Better news is if he has the goods, because of Nicks being absent, he’ll have very chance to prove it and take advantage of an opportunity to contribute. Hopefully he has someone to make him understand that he must let the game come to him. And he will never go out and grab the game by the neck.
Just add running back to the list of players that should be drafted every year along with defensive linemen.