Week-to-week has turned into at least a month or more that the New York Giants will have to make do without wide receiver Steve Smith, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
So, what do the Giants do now? They have only three wide receivers on the roster and Samuel Giguere on the practice squad. Sinorice Moss is not eligible to be re-signed by the Giants since he had been on the team's injured reserve list.
At first blush, Derek Hagan is the obvious choice. The Giants released the five-year veteran at the beginning of the season, choosing to keep Duke Calhoun instead. Hagan is a five-year veteran, spent two years with the Giants and caught eight passes a year ago. He knows the offense and, theoretically, would be able to step in and play Sunday with minimal confusion.
Then there is Tim Brown, the speedster from Rutgers. He landed on Arizona's practice squad after the Giants cut him at the end of the preseason, but has since been released. In the situation the Giants are in right now, though, I would think they might prefer Hagan's experience. Maybe, however, adding Brown to the practice squad isn't a bad idea.
As for other options, here is a list of available players. Anyone on that list appeal to you?
The Philadelphia Eagles looked unstoppable Monday night in mauling the Washington Redskins, 59-28. With the Giants and Eagles squaring off for first place in the NFC East this Sunday you can look at this a couple of ways. You can think the beaten-up Giants are in a ton of trouble Sunday, and you can basically hand the Eagles the NFC East Lombardi Trophy right now. Or, you can look at it and be glad they got that incredible game out of their system and figure they are likely to come back to earth against the Giants. Obviously, I am hoping for the latter.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin has a pretty simple plan for getting the Giants back on track after Sunday's disappointing loss to Dallas.
"We've got to re-establish who we are, sink our feet into the sand a little bit and come out swinging. We've got a lot of issues that have got to be straightened out. Just stop and think about 480 yards, taking the 50 yards on the Nicks throw, and 20 points?" Coughlin said. "We've got to clean up these penalties, the missed assignments - all of that stuff has got to get cleaned up. Regardless of how we figure the chemistry of the groups on either side of the ball or with special teams, that's all got to get cleaned up and cleaned up fast."
Quarterback Eli Manning sounded the same theme -- too many unforced mistakes.
"You see the film and you see a lot of missed opportunities. You can look at it both ways. You're doing a lot of good things, and if we don't hurt ourselves - you can't jump offsides on the two-yard line. Because of that, we get an interception and a few plays later, they go 101 yards. That's a 14-point swing," Manning said.
Veteran safety Deon Grant said the Giants defensive players have to forget about Sunday's poor game against Dallas and focus on preparing for the high-flying Eagles.
"it's going to be a long season.' That's the main thing. That's one loss, and we're still at the top of our division," Grant said. "at the end of the day, you have to let that go. The guys that had bad games, made a lot of mental mistakes, and just didn't play the game that they usually play, you just have to let them go and get back to basics. Keep this brotherhood that we have going, keep it together."