Odell Beckham Jr. will have season-ending surgery this week to repair a fracture to his ankle, the Giants announced on Monday. The day of the surgery has yet to be scheduled.
"It's a sad situation," Ben McAdoo said on Monday, speaking about his conversation with Beckham after the injury but also, perhaps, the lurch it leaves the Giants in with their already disappointing 0-5 record.
The Giants couldn't win with one of the best players in the league playing for them. Now they'll have to spend the rest of the season without him.
The star receiver suffered the injury on Sunday when he leaped in the air for a fourth-quarter pass and came down awkwardly under the weight of Chargers defender Casey Hayward. Beckham was carted off the field in tears. The Giants, who led 22-20 at the time of his injury with 4:00 left in the game, lost, 27-22.
McAdoo said he is not certain what kind of prognosis Beckham will have post-surgery, or if the injury will affect him for the rest of his career.
"I didn't get into any of that," McAdoo said. "That's unknown at this point."
What is known is that Beckham's injury leaves a huge void on the roster and with three other receivers also coming out of Sunday's game with significant injuries, the Giants have to scramble to fill their 53-man roster with healthy players.
Wide receiver and kick returner Dwayne Harris is having season-ending surgery on Tuesday to repair a fractured fifth metatarsal in his foot, which he suffered on the second-half kickoff. Sterling Shepard and Brandon Marshall both left the game in the second quarter _ during the same drive _ with ankle injuries. The Giants said Shepard is "day-to-day" with a sprained ankle while Marshall was undergoing further evaluation on Monday.
"You hate to see it like this, but it's a part of the game," McAdoo said.
Those three injured players (Harris played only a handful of offensive snaps and did not have a catch this season) have accounted for 47.4 percent of the receptions, 53.7 percent of the passing yardage and 50 percent of the passing touchdowns the Giants have accumulated this year.
To fill the ranks at receiver, the Giants re-signed Tavarres King, who played for them last year and was cut at the end of the preseason, and promoted rookie Travis Rudolph from their practice squad. They also brought back Darius Powe for their practice squad. He was on the practice squad last season.
Asked if free agent Victor Cruz could return to the Giants, McAdoo said: "To my knowledge he is not an option, but never say never."
Assuming Shepard and Marshall are unavailable this week, the Giants have just one healthy receiver who has been on their roster all season in Roger Lewis Jr. McAdoo said his focus will be on preparing him and the new but not unknown additions for Sunday's game against the Broncos in Denver.
"We have to go out and make sure we get them as many reps as we can with the quarterback," McAdoo said. "Get them into some type of rhythm, get some kind of chemistry going. They're guys who are familiar with what we're doing, so we have confidence there. We know them, they know us. We just have to go out and put our work in this week."
"We have a bunch of guys who were nicked up in the ballgame at the receiver spot," McAdoo added. "We have some guys on the practice squad and some guys on the roster that we just bump them up and give them opportunities. Next man up."
