Loading ...
Today, New York Giants defensive tackle Marvin Austin publicly stated that his back injury was relatively minor. However, head coach Tom Coughlin is concerned about Austin, perhaps more so than the second year player out of North Carolina is about himself.
Following an afternoon practice, Coughlin elaborated on the condition of Marvin Austin's back.
“They’re doing more tests,” Coughlin said. “He said he felt pretty good today. A lot of the early symptoms are no longer there. But they’re going to do another set of tests on him. We’re hoping that within a reasonable amount of time he can come back and play.”
Although Austin was already ruled out of the team's second preseason matchup against the New York Jets, there is suddenly an increased level of uncertainty regarding his ability to get back out onto the field. After missing his last two football seasons due to various issues, Austin was hoping to come back and contribute in 2012. With Shaun Rogers out for the season, and Chris Canty's return uncertain, it's still entirely within the realm of possibility that Austin comes back and contributes this season.
However, with the amount of time he has missed, it would be extremely hard for Austin to be anything more than a depth player at this point. Hopefully he proves that wrong.
Also on the injury note, starting left tackle Will Beatty has been "shut down" again due to a back issue. This is not good news considering this injury has been lingering for quite some time, and does not seem to be healing at the rate the team had hoped.
"[Team doctors] evaluated him last night and they felt if he kept going along the way he is now, he only would've gotten worse and worse," Coughlin said.
At some point, the Giants will have to bring in a veteran offensive tackle as insurance.
Also…
- Be sure to like Giants 101 on Facebook, follow Giants 101 on Twitter & +1 Giants 101 on Google+
- Text "oneteam" to 20222 to donate $10 to the One Team for the Lights charity initiative.
- Be sure to check out the Giants 101/Jets 101 tailgate this Saturday. Free food and free beer!
Related Videos
Returning Soon!!!!No related posts.
Short URL: http://sport-ne.ws/iwj
So the more Beatty plays the worse it gets. Not exactly encouraging news.
How many players have we thrown at the OL? I bet it’s close to a dozen. The only one who stuck was Baas. Everywhere else Reese and Ross are wunderkinds … but when it comes to OLmen they can’t find their respective a$$es if they used both hands.
I think we should change the 2012 slogan … instead of ‘Build the Bridge’ I think ‘Eli … look out !!!’ would be more appropriate.
Having had a sciatica problem in the past I can tell you that it can linger for years, and then basically go away one day. But when you have it it’s almost impossible to play an impact sport at a high level. We’d better hope he gets lucky and the team doctors and therapists can relax the muscles and “release” the nerve by some kind of consistent maneuvering of his back, hips, and hamstrings.
It COULD just disappear. But most of them linger for quite some time and make availability to play football a question mark every week.
Basically the best case seems to be Beatty will be very limited in practice if even practice at all and just line up on game days. I thought when this was originally discussed this was something that healed. If it’s a lingering type of thing then he’s basically on Plax 2007 practuce rules if he can play.
Repost:
Clifton from GB and McNeil from SD are two possible vets. Both have big health concerns but if they are cleared they make sense. Also the Andrew’s brothers and even Ugoh might be on our radar as well. Even if we wait to see how Beatty is progressing to actually sign someone, it seems now is the time to do some due dilligence on our options.
Mcneill’s agent announced his retirement about a week ago.
Hey, look at the bright side. If a few more offensive tackles go down norm’s Mr. Reinders will be starting against Dallas.
We’re gonna see an awful lot of Locklear, Brewer, Capers, Mosley,and McCants over the next few games. They have to hope against hope that two of those guys look ready for the season and capable of playing at an “average” or “just below average” NFL level. Maybe they’ll even take a stab with Boothe since he’s played decently wherever they’ve tried him.
David Diehl just became a key to the entire season because he MUST stay healthy or things may start to get really ugly. And they have to be talking to Kareem McKenzie because even though he has lost something he may be better than anyone else beyond Diehl and Locklear.
It seems that every year they decide there’s one part of the team that can survive without adequate depth, and every year the injury bug hits in that area. We should devoutly hope that given a lot of responsibility and smelling a real chance to play a lot this season that Brewer and Mosley manage to step up big over the next few weeks.
Guys this is all part of the “Building the Bridge” stuff. Diehl was our LT last year during the time period when we were laying the foundations. He sucks **** but he’s OUR **** tackle. I think McKenzie is a Giants by the end of the week, and so we’ll be kicking it like it’s late 2011/early 2012 by the time the season starts. Don’t call it “old” …the hipsters are calling it “vintage,” and so shall we.
Sigh…
That offense and OL did score 28/game during their last 6…
(Trying to get you fired up)
Oh I know it did. And I’m beyond the point of getting fired up. I’ve been saying this sh*t for 4 years now. Proof is in the pudding. Build the bridge. Finish. All that stuff.
Somewhere the tables seating Demarcus Ware, Brian Orakpo, Trent Cole and Ryan Kerrigan just raised 6-8 inches
Look I can’t lay a sciatica problem on the lap of Jerry Reese. Beatty was drafted in the 2nd round and was expected to perform as such. The fact that he was “undersized” and was not known as much of a run blocker doesn’t matter much–he was viewed as a top prospect and, as of now, hasnt lived up to whatever amount of potential you could say he had.
But he is the exception to the rule as far as drafting offensive linemen. Guys like Boothe, Petrus, Koets, Brewer, Cordle, McCants, Mosley, Whimper…this is the norm for our depth chart under Reese. Guys who were mid to late round picks with “potential” who we’re expected to be refined and purified by the “best offensive line coach” in the NFL. It’s a philosophy–buy low and hope to sell high. The problem is that, as of today, that approach looks pretty dismal. It leaves us with projects instead of real life offensive linemen, who can come in and be mainstays for 3, 4, 5 years. Don’t tell me about that economic infeasibility of this approach. You make it work because without good linemen, your offense ain’t sh*t. And you’re left vulnerable to exactly this sort of situation.
There’s no explanation for the lack of quality tackles on this team right now. None. There’s no reason to have believed Beatty was/is the future. Dude hasn’t played a full season in his whole career! Who’s his backup? Brewer? We’re supposed to believe this guy is gonna be ready to protect Eli’s blindside in a calendar year? Please!
What about right tackle? What’s the long term plan there? Don’t tell me they are gonna keep Diehl there until one of McCants and Mosley shocks the world after having been blessed by St. Coach Pat Flaherty.
Thank God for Snee and, probably, Baas.
I don’t disagree that it’s disappointing that another one or two of those draft picks hasn’t panned out the way we’d like, but I think you’re being a bit too harsh and using quite a bit of hindsight to trash the philosophy out of context.
First off, it’s not quite as you say. Beatty and Snee were high picks and Baas was a FA. You act as though they’re unwilling to spend resources on the line and that’s simply false. And another player (Diehl) is a long way away from his late pick days…he’s a money player now (one on his last legs for sure).
If Beatty gets healthy and Diehl is replaced by a FA next year…this line will consist of two high picks, two FAs, and one late round pick.
What do you think would be the better approach? Apparently you believe we should have taken 1st round linemen (since 2nd isn’t good enough for you) in more of our recent drafts. Which ones and when? Which JR 1st rounders do you think were mistakes in lieu of offensive linemen available at the time? Or perhaps our line should have more big ticket free agent signings. Which recent OL free agents do you think we should have picked up?
And why does everybody talk about Boothe as though he’s a waste of space? I’m not sending the guy to the Pro-Bowl, but he seems to have acquitted himself just fine so far.
I think with respect to 2012 the answer is somewhere between economically infeasible and absolutely necessary.
The fact is that there is very little cap space (which includes some space freed up by letting Ballard go). So with any free agent tackle worth a damn likely wanting in excess of $3M, that took away that possibility.
Then you had the draft. Having lost Ross, Manningham, Jacobs, letting old man McKenzie go and having general injury concerns with Bradshaw and Thomas, you could argue there were 3 positions of need in the draft (in no particular order):RB, WR, CB. As I started to type this, I had OT as a need, but then I recalled that they had their two starting tackles, one who suffered a freak injury and one who, maybe not the long term solutuon, could be servicable.
So when you’re sitting on the clock this April, you know you’re one foot injury away from Ware being your starter (which has happened with Bradshaw), one foot injury from Hixon being your starter (which has happened with Nicks) or one injury away from being a corner short in nickel (which has happened with Thomas), you’re not worried about getting a tackle because you roll the dice that Diehl has been healthy and Beatty’s eye injury was freakish in nature. And so you fill the needs at RB, WR and CB and suddenly you find yourself looking for the protector of Eli’s blind side in the 4th round.
Where I will agree with you is a few years back, as Dan pointed out, where we turned Shockey into a project DE/LB in the 2nd and a backup quarterback that had no chance of ever being relevant, we should have taken the opportunity to solidify the OL, at least in the 2nd.
Crap, that was also the year they drafted Beatty in the 2nd. I’m tired of retyping.
Maybe 2010 or 2011 they don’t take a DT, but as we see today, we need them!
Maybe in 2011 instead of “striking gold” with Amukamara you plan to keep Ross and Thomas and take Castonzo, Carpenter or Carimi. Or you think that’s impossible economically and you pass on Austin and take a guy like Marcus Gilbert or Jah Reid. I think really that’s the only spot in the last 3 years (outside of taking 2 #2s in 2009) where they could have done differently. But in 2011, they had McKenzie, Diehl and Beatty, can you blame them for wanting to replace Cofield?
So, yeah, they’ve tried. Maybe not as if it’s the most important position, but they’ve put some effort in where they could.
I should also mention that in April 2009, the Giants OL just finished a campaign where they mutilated the competition, ending a 100-year streak of Ravens holding teams under 100 yards and making Derrick Ward rich, en route to earning a #1 seed. It woould have been a head scratcher to draft 2 #2 OTs that year, even if in hindsight it makes a ton of sense.
Normally I’m opposed to drafting offensive linemen in the 1st round…but sooner or later Jerry Reese is going to need to go after a stud guy instead of a developmental project because we really need the depth/future replacements with a better chance of panning out.
Well, like life, the NFL is unfair. They sign Bobby Skinner this morning and he tweets that he is thankful for his chance. Then they sign Marcus Thomas and Skinner is released. Skinner is apparently a model citizen whom everyone in his community admires and roots for. Thomas is not that. He is, though, a much better football player. And so it goes. I sure hope they at least paid for Skinner’s carfare and a few meals.