Over the first week of training camp, the New York Giants have seen five wide receivers go down with injury and a sixth poised to face a four-game suspension for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy.
One of those injured players, rookie Darius Slayton (hamstring), admitted earlier this week that there’s an ominous “dark cloud” hanging over the team, while veteran Golden Tate, who could miss the first quarter of the season over a PED ban, said the wide receivers room felt “deflated.”
“Definitely a little deflated,” wide receiver Golden Tate told reporters on Friday. “Our room is kind of going through it a little bit.”
Wide receivers coach Tyke Tolbert isn’t buying into that woe-is-me line of thinking, however. Rather, he chooses to focus on the “excitement” that now fills the room as youngsters find themselves getting more reps.
“There’s no deflation. At all,” Tolbert told reporters on Sunday. “It’s more excitement in the room because the guys who normally wouldn’t have this type of opportunity to get reps, will get a lot of reps now so they can showcase their ability. There’s a little more excitement in the room than I’d expect them to be, because of the extra reps they’ll be getting.”
Potentially losing six receivers does not exactly yield confidence, but the Giants have no choice but to approach things with the “next man up” mentality — except when it comes to Tate. At least for now.
“In my mind, he’ll be ready for Week 1,” Tolbert said of Tate. “I know he has a deal with the league coming up soon. We’ll let that play itself out. I have to go by what I know today. What I know today is, he’s out there practicing with the ones, he’ll continue to practice with the ones and if something changes, we’ll make adjustments then. As of now, we’re going status quo.”
Those adjustments are bound to come as the league has a strict zero tolerance policy when it comes to failed PED tests, so the Giants will soon have to consider other options. And that, Tolbert admits, is a bit troublesome because the team doesn’t want to lose Tate’s “experience and playmaking ability.”
