Giants WR Sterling Shepard suffers torn left ACL, season is over: ‘freaky accident’

It’s as bad as the Giants initially feared: Sterling Shepard tore the ACL in his left knee. His season is over, if not his Giants career.

The veteran wide receiver dropped to the MetLife Stadium turf in agony and grabbed his left leg after suffering a non-contact injury late in Monday night’s fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys.

“He worked so diligently to get back, and I feel terrible for him that he had that injury,” head coach Brian Daboll said in Tuesday’s conference call. “He’s a big part of our team, and we’ll miss him out on the field.”

The Giants’ only healthy receivers are Richie James, David Sills, Kenny Golladay and Darius Slayton. Daboll didn’t sound confident that Kadarius Toney (hamstring) or Wan’Dale Robinson (right knee) would be back for Sunday’s Week 4 home game against the Chicago Bears.

“They’re getting closer,” Daboll said of Toney and Robinson. “Will they be ready this week? I can’t answer that yet. After the meeting I had just now with the doctors, they’re getting closer, but we’re not out of the blue yet with it.”

Daboll’s mantra is that he wants players who are “smart, tough and dependable.” He was asked if a player needs to be available in order to be dependable.

“Absolutely,” Daboll said.

This reinforces why Toney didn’t play a lot to start the season and why there’s no guarantee he will soon.

Daboll said the Giants would have to proceed with “the guys that we have” at receiver. Marcus Johnson and Kalil Pimpleton are the receivers on their practice squad.

“Those guys are gonna have to continue to work hard,” the coach said. “They’ll trust the quarterback. They’ll be practicing. And hopefully we’ll make some strides in that area.”

GM Joe Schoen clearly was busy Monday clearing some room on the roster, whether it’s for practice squad signings or cheap free agent moves.

He waived running back Antonio Williams, who’s played 33 special teams snaps the past two weeks, and cut linebacker Charles Wiley from the practice squad.

Shepard’s loss is almost unquantifiable in the context of this thin, unreliable receiving corps. In the wake of his injury, it’s fair to wonder if Shepard, 29, should have been on the field at all.

He made a fast return from last December’s torn left Achilles. That was also a non-contact injury sustained on the MetLife Stadium turf, on Dec. 19 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Shepard rehabbed all offseason. He didn’t practice until Aug. 24. Then he logged 80% of the offensive snaps through three games (165 of 205) before his left leg gave out again.

He is on a one-year contract after accepting an offseason paycut to stay with the team. This is probably it as a Giant for the former 2016 second-round pick.

“It could have happened — I’m not saying it happened — you see a couple of plays before where he turns when he’s running an in-cut and he’s extended,” Daboll said, speculating. “He went out there on the next play and did something. Again, it kind of looked like a freaky accident there.”

Free agent Odell Beckham Jr., Shepard’s close friend and former Giants teammate, tweeted in frustration that players should be playing on grass, not turf.

“Just get rid of it all ...,” OBJ wrote. “Billions made off this game I can’t understand why we can’t play on grass. That s—t is rough. Prayers up for my brother. S—t just hurt my heart.”

Daboll acknowledged that’s a topic the Giants will probably continue to discuss.

“I know there’s been a lot of studies,” he said. “Not just here but probably in every stadium. I think, again, you look at Shep’s injury it’s — he was jogging. I’m sure that throughout the season and the offseason that we’ll sit down and discuss those type of things.”

NOT ENOUGH MEN

Film review revealed that the Giants defense only had 10 men on the field for Ezekiel Elliott’s 1-yard touchdown run in Monday night’s third quarter.

Daboll put the blame on an unnamed player.

“I mean look, on that play on the goal line [defensive coordinator] Wink [Martindale] called for a personnel group, and there was one player that didn’t go in,” Daboll said. “So we need to do a good job of listening to the play caller’s instructions and go in and be ready to go.”

Shepard also raced off Daboll’s sideline to defend Daniel Jones after a late hit, earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that negated a Cowboys late hit.

Daboll’s operation needs to be cleaner against the Bears.