Saquon Barkley has a mild hamstring strain, Pat Shurmur: “We’ll be smart with him” [Updated]

Let’s be honest. All anyone cares about in relation to Monday’s New York Giants practice is that running back Saquon Barkley did not suffer a serious injury catching a pass from Kyle Lauletta.

Head coach Pat Shurmur didn’t think Barkley, who briefly had his leg wrapped before practice ended, had suffered a serious injury.

“We’ll see. I think he’s alright, but we’ll find out,” Shurmur said.

Second Update (5 p.m.) - Pat Shurmur informed the media that the Giants medical staff confirmed that Barkley has a “mild hamstring strain”. He added that the team would be smart with his recovery.

“Saquon has a mild strain, and we’ll be smart with him as we move along here,” Shurmur said.

Update: Dianna Russini of ESPN is reporting that Barkley has a "tweaked hamstring", and the team isn't worried.

Here are more takeaways from Shurmur’s post-practice press conference on Monday.

Joint practices

The Giants will practice in Detroit vs. the Detroit Lions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

“I’m just looking forward to our guys to compete against new faces, new schemes. It kind of freshens things up,” Shurmur said. “I’ve said this before, but Matt (Patricia) and I have organized these practices before, so we have kind of a set of guidelines that we want our guys to follow, but just looking forward to playing against new faces in a new scheme.”

First-team reps for Davis Webb and Kyle Lauletta

For the second straight practice, the Giants lessened the workload on starting quarterback Eli Manning. This time, both Davis Webb and Kyle Lauletta got first-team reps in Manning’s place.

“We kind of backed off on Eli (Manning) just a little bit. He’s taken a few snaps in his lifetime, so that’s all that was,” Shurmur said. “There’s a double-edged sword to that. By doing that, it allowed us to get those guys bumped up and get more reps, and that’s what we were trying to do.”

Young running backs impressing

There may not be room on the roster for running backs Jalen Simmons and Robert Martin, but both are doing their best to make cutting them difficult.

“I think they’re good, physical runners, and that’s where it starts for them. They know how to run the football and we saw the other night that given a little room, they can make yards, so I think that’s where it starts for them,” Shurmur said. “They’re both getting much better at pass protection, and I think they’re both doing a much better job of catching the football. So, their total game is getting better, but really for those guys, it starts as being runners.”