Jon Beason won’t play in the Giants’ Friday night preseason game against the Jets. It is more than likely Beason will make it a clean sweep of the preseason and not play in the finale with the Patriots, either. But the invaluable middle linebacker is confident he will be on the field in Detroit for the Sept. 8 regular season opener.
“I feel like I’m really close, but I have to go out and do it,’’ Beason said Monday. “I want to test it, that’s gonna kinda confirm it for me.’’
Beason injured his right foot during a June organized team activity practice, suffering a ligament tear and a small fracture to the sesamoid bone. He did not need surgery. He has been resting and, more recently, vigorously rehabbing, pushing off and cutting on the foot.
The next step in the process is Monday’s on-field work designed to see whether Beason can withstand more advanced football activity.
“We’re going through the progression, so today should be pretty aggressive getting after it and doing some things based off of reaction as opposed to anticipation, which is what we do on defense,’’ Beason said.
The goal immediately after the injury, Beason admitted, was to get back to play in the last two preseason games. That’s not going to happen. There’s no chance he is in uniform to face the Jets and there does not seem to be any great rush for him to play six days later against the Patriots.
“Going into it, to have the opportunity to play in the last couple of games was really a goal,’’ Beason said. “That’s really not my decision. They might say: ‘Hey, it’s not worth risking it to go out and play versus the Jets or go out and play versus the Patriots.’ But you’ve had the opportunity, that’s great. Or to be working back in practice that’s really good, really promising for the opener against the Lions.’’
Beason says he does not necessarily need a full week of practice to feel confident he can do the job in the middle of the defense in the season opener.
“I don’t know if I need the practice,’’ Beason said. “It’s good to kind of spin the wheels a little bit and get out there and get oiled up. I would love to have a full training camp and four dress rehearsals or five dress rehearsals, but unfortunately that’s not going to be the case. Either way I expect to go out and be myself and play well and help my team win.’’
The emphasis the past week was to get his orthotics in order. It’s more difficult than it sounds. Beason normally wears a size 12 1/2 cleat, but he’s gone up to a size 13 in order to accommodate the customized insoles he will wear to take the pressure off the injured area in his right foot.
“You don’t realize how important your feet are, but it’s really everything, right,’’ Beason said. “A little toe can slow you down. Going through the process of getting the orthotics, making the adjustment, ‘Ah, that doesn’t feel too good, ah, that feels too soft, that’s too rigid, how’s the tape job, we gonna tape it this way. Are we going to go into a bigger cleat, a smaller cleat? Is the toe box too wide, is it too narrow?’
“We’ve been playing with it and trying to come up with the perfect equation of what’s gonna help me play on the field and we’re getting really close. We got it down, we’re gonna go out and do some stuff and see how it feels.’’