New York Giants Guard Shane Lemieux Reportedly Has Partially Torn Patellar Tendon

Giants left guard Shane Lemieux's knee injury is reportedly a little more serious than first believed. That and other Giants injury updates.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 31, 2021 8:09 PM EDT

New York Giants left guard Shane Lemieux's knee injury is reportedly a little more severe than initially believed.

The Athletic has reported that Lemieux is dealing with a partially torn patellar tendon, an injury that the second-year offensive lineman and the Giants have been trying to manage through a combination of treatment and rest.

Last week when the Giants traveled to New England, Lemieux, who had made the trip with the team to Cleveland the week prior, was among the players left behind in East Rutherford to receive treatment for his injury.

While Lemieux has done a little work since suffering the injury early in training camp, he hasn't been able to go full speed in team drills, raising some concern about whether he might be ready to go for the start of the season.

The Giants, who saw their offensive line depth take a hit with the retirements of interior linemen Joe Looney and Zach Fulton, traded for former Baltimore Ravens guard Ben Bredeson, a 2020 fourth-round draft picks out of Michigan. Bredeson appeared in 10 games last season as a rookie for the Ravens.

Free-agent safety Nate Ebner, whom Giants head coach Joe Judge has expressed an interest in re-signing once Ebner is deemed healthy enough to return from a procedure he had in the off-season for an undisclosed injury, could be getting close to making his return.

Ebner visited the Giants' facility on Tuesday, presumably to be checked out by the team's medical staff. The Giants are expected to tweak their initial 53-man roster in the coming days by moving some guys to injured reserve and trimming at some other positions, so a spot could easily be created for Ebner if both sides decide to go ahead with reuniting.

The newly trimmed 53-man roster took the field for a light practice late Tuesday afternoon, but one notable player was not out there on the field.

That would be tight end Evan Engram, who injured his calf in the team's preseason finale against the Patriots. Engram presumably underwent further evaluation Monday, but as of Tuesday, Judge still didn't have any concrete updates regarding the tight end's status.

"We'll see in the next couple of days where we think this could go," he said. "We're only a few days out right now. He's a guy that's shown some quick turnaround in the past.

"Last year he had something very similar, so we'll see where this is. It's not the same injury as before, but we'll see how his body responds, make decision for him and the team."

Last year Engram made it through his first 16-game season of his NFL career. With there being some questions regarding Kyle Rudolph, who will continue to ramp up after coming off the PUP list a week ago, the Giants' healthy depth at tight end is paper-thin right now.

One thing Judge wasn't able to do during the summer was get running back Saquon Barkley some live reps with contact.

Short of manufacturing some contact, it sounds as though the head coach is simply going to continue to watch how the running back responds to an increased workload in practice.

"I would say just as body movements and how he's moving efficiently and how his body's responding, I've seen that progress positively throughout the way," Judge said when asked what he would use to gauge Barkley's progress and readiness for live contact.

"I rely a lot on the information from our training staff and medical staff and doctors who spend a lot of time with him. I know he's been working hard, we get a lot of GPS numbers and different readings on his body, they trend in the right direction for him with how he's working. I'm very pleased with how he's working."

Judge, who said there would be conversations internally about how and when to get Barkley contact in practice, also declined to say if Barkley would be ready for the Week 1 opener against the Broncos on September 12.

"There won't be a decision made on Saquon until Denver week and it's probably not going to be Monday either guys, just to give you a heads up on that. We’re going to go ahead and see how his body responds and where he's at."