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New York Giants News: Two More Safeties Lost To Injury

By Kenneth Teape

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New York Giants News: The injuries, already occurring at an alarming rate, continued Saturday for the New York Giants as they lost two more safeties in their second preseason game of the year against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Things are getting ridiculous for the New York Giants in their secondary. The Giants already had arguably the weakest group of safeties with the worst depth in the NFL, and things just continue getting worse. Already ravaged by injuries to their defensive backs, the Giants added two more players to the injury report during Saturday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars; Justin Currie and Bennett Jackson.

These are both huge blows for the Giants, who are already dealing with a mirade of injuries. Currie has a chance to return from his fractured ankle, but it will be a lengthy recovery. Jackson’s torn ACL will keep him on injured reserve for the second straight year to start his NFL career; he will join 2015 fifth round pick Mykelle Thompson, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the first preseason game on the sidelines for the season and is also out for the season.

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Tom Coughlin is at a loss of words regarding what has happened at the safety position, saying, “It’s amazing, the way that’s going. We earmarked it as a problem position for us, the safety position, and we had two guys hurt tonight in that spot. Hopefully, we’ll get a couple of guys back to practice that weren’t able to play. It’s just hard to even comment on.”

In addition to Thompson, the Giants were also without 2015 second round pick Landon Collins because of a knee sprain, Nat Berhe because of a calf injury and Cooper Taylor because of a toe injury. The good news for the Giants is that Coughlin is expecting all of them to be back at practice at some point this week, which will be a welcome surprise.

Collins is considered week-to-week because of the knee sprain, but looks to be improving. Berhe has been cleared for practice and should put in a full week of work, while there is also confidence being expressed in Taylor returning to practice this week as well at some point.

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For Currie and Jackson though, this hurts. Currie, the undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan, had a huge opportunity in front of him. With all the injuries the Giants were suffering from, he had a chance to carve out a role defensively as well on special teams. Unfortunately he fractured his ankle in the first quarter, further worsening the Giants’ depth.

Jackson is arguably the biggest loss the Giants have suffered in their secondary thus far. Unlike Collins, Berhe and Taylor, he will not be returning this season with a torn ACL. It is unfortunate as the promising second year player from Notre Dame looked like he could be one of the starters at safety heading into the regular season. He had made the conversion from cornerback successfully, and was impressing coaches all throughout the offseason in practice.

The Jackson injury not only hurts their depth at safety, but at cornerback as well. As mentioned, he is a converted cornerback, something the Giants were going to use to their advantage. He could have been the slot cornerback depending on the package Steve Spagnuolo was using, giving the team a lot of options on how to set up their defense. That kind of versatility would have also helped the Giants on the roster in general, as they could have afforded to keep another promising player at another position with Jackson adequately being able to cover at either safety or cornerback.

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The Giants are now left with only three healthy players at safety following their game against the Jaguars in the recently signed Brandon Meriweather, Jeromy Miles and Justin Halley. You can be sure the Giants will be bringing in more defensive backs in the coming days as they have to replace two more players that have been lost to serious injuries.

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