One step forward, another step back.

It looked as if rookie wide receiver Darius Slayton was hitting his stride, making his preseason debut in Thursday’s win over the Bengals and catching a 27-yard pass. But now the speedy fifth-round pick out of Auburn tweaked the same hamstring that has given him problems this summer and kept him out of the first two preseason games.

He wasn’t able to practice Monday, missing more valuable training camp time and would seem unlikely to play in Thursday’s preseason finale against the Patriots.

“We’ll just see where he’s at,” coach Pat Shurmur said, playing down the extent of the injury. “He’s making good progress, so we’ll just see how this little thing affects him.”

Shurmur said WR Golden Tate is a question mark to play against the Patriots. Tate, suspended for the season’s first four games after violating the league’s performance-enhancing drugs policy, just returned to practice after being in the concussion protocol. He would have definitely played otherwise, since he won’t be available for the first month of the regular season.



Monday’s practice was heavy on team drills and featured plenty of work for the first team. There is a reason for that, with most of the starters unlikely to play Thursday.

“It’s important that they get good, quality work in practice,” Shurmur said. “Like you’ve seen all along, I like to go ones versus ones, and we did a bunch of that here in the last couple of days, which I think the guys needed.”

Shurmur made it sound as if there will be a lot on the line for the bottom part of the roster against the Patriots. Everyone on the field, he said, has the opportunity to earn a roster spot.

“We have a lot of guys competing for the 53 spots,” he said.

One of them is LB B.J. Goodson, who has gone from a key figure in the Giants defense as recently as last year to playing for a roster spot.

“He’s out there competing to make our team,” Shurmur said of the team’s fourth-round pick in 2016.