New York Giants

Injury Update: Shane Vereen expected to return as scheduled, progress is good, trainers say

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

A change in last season’s injury rulebook will allow injured running back Shane Vereen to return on November 27th Cleveland game.

Rules changes allow teams to reactive players with fewer hassles

Previously, players had to be officially declared to be on the short-term IR. Now, they can resume playing after being on IR as soon as two months. As Ralph Vacciano explains,

That’s possible due to the NFL’s short-term injured reserve rule, which was amended slightly this year. Teams no longer need to declare a player as being on short-term IR. They can simply reactive the player whenever he’s eligible. Players can return to practice six weeks after they are placed on IR and play in a game eight weeks after.

The old rule appeared not to make any sense. It resulted in players who could participate in games ineligible because the team did not for a particular reason declare that the player was on short-term IR.

Oct 11, 2015; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants running back Shane Vereen (34) celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the second quarter against the San Francisco 49ers at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

In his last game played this season against the Washington Redskins Vereen rushed for an astounding 67 yards in 11 rushes, his personal best.

Based on his personal Twitter account, he appears to be having a recovery that is on track.

The road to recovery starts now! Thank you to everyone for the calls, texts n love sent this… https://t.co/DH598RCxqF

— Shane Vereen (@ShaneVereen34) September 28, 2016

Replacements Paul Perkins and Bobby Rainey have not been playing close to the level of Vereen. Together they have a total rushing yardage of 61 in eight carries. Whereas Vereen rushed for 167 yards in three games, he is on pace to break his personal best this season assuming he was not injured. Compared to his 2015 season in which he rushed for close to 300 yards in 16 games has shown improvement in his yards per reception. His catch percentage is expected to increase from 61.5 percent to his high watermark of 71.8 percent in previous seasons.

Giants faithful can hope for a speedy recovery and that Perkins and Rainey find ways to try to be half as good as the player they were summoned to replace.