EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) The New York Giants may be without starting wide receiver Sterling Shepard for a little while.
The team’s second-leading receiver last season rolled his left ankle running a short route in Wednesday’s training camp practice.
After the workout, coach Ben McAdoo said the injury appeared to be a sprain, but he added that further evaluations were planned.
The second-year receiver got up after being hurt and hopped to the sideline, where he immediately fell to the grass in pain. He was taken off the field on a golf cart and did not return.
A second-round draft pick from Oklahoma, Shepard had 65 catches for 683 yards and eight touchdowns last season playing mostly in the slot.
Shepard was not available after practice to comment on his injury.
When the Giants went to 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills, Odell Beckham Jr. moved into the slot and Tavarres King took over his spot on the outside with Brandon Marshall.
King didn’t notice that Shepard was hurt until he saw him on the sideline with the trainer.
”Hopefully, Shep is OK and back in a hurry,” King said. ”In our room we pride ourselves on everybody competing so basically it’s the next man up mentality.”
McAdoo wants his receivers to be interchangeable when it comes to playing on the inside or outside. King and Beckham can do both, like most of the other receivers.
”In a good offense, a good passing game fits tight together like nuts and bolts,” McAdoo said. ”They can learn, they can empathize with what the other guy is going through, and they fit together a little bit better.”
King got the call to play with the starters. The 27-year-old was on the Giants’ practice squad in 2015 and was on the active roster last season, appearing in seven regular season games and the wild-card playoff game, where he had three catches for 73 yards and a touchdown in a lopsided loss to the Packers.
”You know, you can’t really look back,” King said. ”You’ve got to look forward. I’m happy, I’m happy the way things went. I’m happy that I got an opportunity in the end and that I did well with the opportunity. But now, like I said, it’s all about getting better and building on that. I want to build on that to help this team any way that I can.”
King faces a lot of competition in the receiving room with Beckham, Shepard and Brandon Marshall seemingly fixed as the starters.
New York carried six wide receivers last season and King, Roger Lewis Jr. and Dwayne Harris are all back along with six other players looking for spots on the roster.
King isn’t ready to claim the No. 4 spot.
”It’s not my job to put myself in the pecking order,” the former Georgia product said. ”My job is to compete and give 112 percent every day and that’s what I do. If I’m in there, then I’m in there.”
NOTES: DE Jason Pierre-Paul was given the day off and watched most of practice. McAdoo plans to give his veterans an occasional day off during training camp to keep them fresh. Pierre-Paul said there was nothing wrong with him physically. … Free agent OL Jessamen Dunker left practice with a foot injury. … Lightning shortly after noon forced the Giants to move the practice indoors for the final 30 to 40 minutes.
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