The injury news -- and the roster shuffling -- are continuing for the New York Giants.
First, the roster shuffling. The Giants have reportedly signed former Denver Broncos defensive tackle Marcus Thomas. That makes four defensive tackles added in two days -- with Carlton Powell, Oren Wilson and Bobby Skinner being the others.
[UPDATE, 08/16/12 6:45 PM EDT: Forget Skinner. The Giants waived him after just one practice to make room for Thomas, whose signing the team has officially announced.]
Thomas, entering his sixth season, had 45 tackles (29 solo) for the Broncos last season in 12 games. Denver did not re-sign him.
Now, for the bad news.
Starting offensive tackle Will Beatty did not practice Thursday. Beatty, dealing with sciatica, had worked on a limited basis Monday and Tuesday after missing several training camp practices.
"He’s back on the shelf," said head coach Tom Coughlin. "They evaluated him last night and they didn’t feel like it [his back] was… They felt like if he kept going along the way he is right now, he would have only got worse and worse. They shut him down."
[Related: Complete Coughlin Transcript]
Defensive tackle Marvin Austin sounded optimistic earlier in the day about his own back injury. Never trust a player when it comes to injury news, though. Coughlin did not sound nearly as enthused about Austin's condition.
"They’re doing more tests. You’d have to be a clinical something or other," Coughlin said. "He said he felt pretty good today. A lot of the early symptoms were no longer there, but they’re going to do another set of tests on him and we’re hoping that within a reasonable amount of time he can come back and play."
Coughlin was also asked about releasing Clint Sintim and Justin Trattou.
On Sintim ...
"We felt that was probably the best way to go for both, for Clint as well. He’s probably quite a ways away."
On Trattou ...
"We feel it would be wonderful to just keep everybody and be able to have a place for everybody. Justin did a nice job for us last year, as a rookie, just coming in and making the team and being very good on special teams and giving us a great look. In this case, the doctors tell us he’s quite a ways away and we felt like this was something we needed to do to bolster that one spot."