Giants place Sterling Shepard on IR with turf toe injury, will miss at least 3 weeks

UPDATE: The Giants placed Sterling Shepard on injured reserve on Wednesday. He will miss at least three weeks with his turf toe injury.

The New York Giants host the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3, and they’ll be down some key pieces. Running back Saquon Barkley tore his ACL and the team is replacing him with Devonta Freeman. Now, it appears they will be without wide receiver Sterling Shepard due to a turf toe injury. The team returns to practice on Wednesday, but Ian Rapoport is reporting Shepard is already expected to be out for the week.

Shepard injured his toe in the second quarter last week against the Chicago Bears and did not return to the game. Darius Slayton has been the Giants leading receiver and Golden Tate made his season debut in Week 2 after missing Week 1 with a hamstring injury. CJ Board and Damion Ratley saw some additional work on the day as well.

Slayton, Tate, and Evan Engram emerge as the team’s three most significant receivers. Dion Lewis will also see passing game work out of the backfield. Devonta Freeman’s arrival will move Lewis into primarily that complementary role, but given Freeman is only just now joining the team, it might take a week at least for the new addition to get comfortable. Lewis could offer some modest value this weekend, particularly in DFS.