(Photo Credit: BOBBY O’HARA/ PureSportsNY)
Rashad Jennings Expected to Play Sunday
Rashad Jennings, who has missed the teams past four games after spraining his knee in a win against Atlanta in Week 5, seems to be ready to return to the team this week and is expected to play Sunday vs the 49ers. Jennings returned to practice Wednesday and the team is hoping to see him play as soon as this Sunday. Jennings was averaging close to five yards per carry before the injury and although rookie back Andre Williams looked like he was poised to breakout, he didn’t perform as good as many were hoping for.
The Giants averaged over 100 yards rushing in games with Jennings starting, but averaged under 100 with him out. Tom Coughlin is hoping that he can help lift the team off the ground a little bit with his return.
“He’ll give us a tremendous lift.” said Tom Coughlin. “He did have a good week of practice last week for what we asked him to do. He had a weekend to continue to rehab and strengthen, so he has worked hard at that. I am going to say that we certainly do expect that he will be ready at the end of this week, but who knows? I can’t tell you 100 percent, but I think he will, and if he is ready, then obviously he will have a big share of the load.”
Giants Sign Orleans Darkwa
The Giants also signed RB Orleans Darkwa off of the Miami Dolphins practice squad today to replace RB Michael Cox, who was put on the IR after suffering a fractured lower leg in the game at Seattle this past weekend.
Darkwa, 5-11 and 215 pounds, played in four games for the Dolphins this season. He contributed on special teams in all four games and had three receptions for 31 yards at Buffalo on Sept. 14 and four rushing attempts for two yards at Oakland on Sept. 28. Miami waived him on Oct. 6. and placed him on their practice squad two days later.
Darkwa showed good flashes of playmaking ability with both his hands and feet in the preseason, but was most likely dropped due to the running back depth of Miami.