Odell Beckham Jr. will not be placed on injured reserve and his comeback 2018 regular season with the New York Giants is not over just yet, at least according to head coach Pat Shurmur.
During his Monday conference call with Giants reporters, Shurmur confirmed that Beckham will not be “shut down” and the Giants are hopeful the star wide receiver’s health will improve enough so that he is able to play this Sunday when they face the Indianapolis Colts in Week 16.
“Odell is going through treatment and doing everything he can to get back,” Shurmur said. “We’re hopeful he’ll work his way back for this Sunday.”
Shurmur added that if Beckham is healthy enough to play, he will be out there despite the fact that the Giants have officially been eliminated from 2018 postseason contention after losing to the Tennessee Titans in Week 15. This past Friday, Beckham revealed on his Facebook show that he is dealing with a “quad hematoma” injury.
According to Beckham, after initially suffering the quad injury on the final play of the Giants’ Week 12 loss, Beckham played his normal workload during the team’s Week 13 victory over the Chicago Bears. It wasn’t until the Giants’ Thursday practice prior to their Week 14 victory over the Washington Redskins where Beckham felt like something wasn’t right with his quad. The Giants shut him down the Friday after, ruled him out for Week 14 on Saturday, and he hasn’t practiced since.
Giants fans sounded the alarm bells last week when Beckham missed Thursday’s practice and left the team facility to get a further evaluation on his quad injury and what was thought to be a second opinion from the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. Beckham returned to the Giants facility shortly after on Thursday and eased the concerns of fans when he explained the reason for his visit.
Beckham told reporters the only reason for his visit to Manhattan on Thursday was to compare baseline tests he took at the Hospital for Special Surgery when he initially injured his quad, via Art Stapleton. Beckham is believed to have initially suffered during the final play of the team’s Week 13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. On the play, Beckham was “leg-whipped” and the controversial defensive effort likely should have resulted in a 15-yard penalty to set up a 62-yard game-tying field goal for Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas.
The NFL never sent a formal letter of apology to the Giants for missing the penalty that injured Beckham, but Eagles defender Kamu Grugier-Hill was fined by the league nearly two weeks later after they reviewed the play.
Last week, Beckham confirmed to Stapleton that the quad injury had been lingering since the team’s 25-22 loss to the Eagles in Week 13.
“I don’t know,” Beckham responded, via Jordan Raanan. “It’s like saying I broke my leg but you really fractured it. It’s a choice of words, whatever you want to call it. “Sh** ain’t right.”
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The Giants stand little to gain by playing Beckham over the final two games of the regular season, but Shurmur remains focused on winning as many games as possible during the final two weeks with the goal of carrying over momentum into the 2019 regular season.
