NEW YORK _ Pat Shurmur was so sure on Friday that Odell Beckham Jr. would play in the game against the Redskins that he didn't even give him a designation on the injury report. The wide receiver was a limited participant in that day's practice with a bruised quadriceps, an injury suffered on the last play of the loss to the Eagles two weeks ago, but Shurmur insisted that Beckham would be available.
"Just gave him a little time," Shurmur said on Friday. "He's gonna be fine. He's playing."
Nope.
On Saturday, Beckham was downgraded to out. He did not make the trip to Washington with the team and will not play in Sunday's game at FedEx Field.
In announcing the decision, the Giants said on their website only that "it was determined (Saturday) morning he would not play in tomorrow's game."
Beckham was a full participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday this week and gave no indication that he might be dealing with a medical issue when he spoke to reporters on Thursday.
"I'm excited about Washington," he said. "Another opportunity to go out there Sunday and do what we do. Since the bye week, we've been playing at a very, very high level and I just hope that we can continue that. That's really all that we can do at this point. Leave the rest of the season up to everybody else and just focus on what we can control, which is our games, winning our games, and see what happens. Not really much more to say than that."
Beckham first disclosed the quad injury in his Facebook docuseries with "Uninterupted" on Friday morning. On Thursday, the only injury Beckham did talk about was in relationship to safety Landon Collins, who was put on injured reserve with a partially-torn shoulder labrum earlier in the week.
Beckham is coming back from ankle surgery that robbed him of most of the 2017 season. In august he signed a five-year extension with the Giants worth a possible $95 million. He had played in every game this season _ he had not been listed as missing any time in practices, even, until Friday _ and leads the team in receptions (77) and receiving yards (1,052).
