Two days into New York Giants camp, two wide receivers out with injuries.
On the same day that starting receiver Sterling Shepardfractured his thumb, potential No. 3 wideout Corey Coleman tore his ACL, the team announced.
Coleman, a 2016 first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns, ended last season with the Giants after a whirlwind 2018 campaign. Cleveland traded the disappointing pick to the Buffalo Bills in August, who waived him shortly after. Coleman then spent a month with the New England Patriots before the Giants picked him up on their practice squad.
In eight games with Big Blue, Coleman started just once and racked up five catches on eight targets for 71 yards. The receiver was also New York's top kick returner down the stretch, returning 23 kicks for 598 yards.
Coleman was thought to be a potential fixture in three-receiver sets for New York in 2019 after the Giants retooled their wide receiving corps to fit their post-OBJ reality. But now he is most likely lost for the year.
Add onto Coleman's demise Shepard's fractured thumb, and New York's starting receivers against the reigning division champion Dallas Cowboys in Week 1 could be free-agent acquisition Golden Tate, Cody Latimer and ... rookie Darius Slayton and/or Russell Shepard. (Though Giants coach Pat Shurmur did tell reporters Friday that Shepard's injury did not require surgery and that he is confident Shepard will play in the season opener.)
In a critical season for Shurmur, aging quarterback Eli Manning and especially general manager Dave Gettleman, who made the controversial decision to trade all-world receiver Odell Beckham this offseason after signing him to a long-term deal, Giants training camp could not have gotten off to a worse start, at least on the injury front.
Moving forward, Gettleman told reporters that New York will bring in receivers on Saturday to add some depth. Big-name free agents still on the market include Michael Crabtree and Kelvin Benjamin, the latter of whom was drafted by Gettleman's Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 2014 draft.
