EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -Steve Smith, one of the NFL’s top possession receivers, will miss the Giants’ game against Dallas on Sunday with what coach Tom Coughlin described Friday as a partial tear of the pectoral muscle. Smith suffered the injury during Thursday’s practice.
The Giants (6-2) will replace Smith with Mario Manningham, while Hakeem Nicks remains in the second wide receiver spot. Second-year player Ramses Barden and rookie Duke Calhoun may also see time in multiple-wide receiver sets.
Coughlin characterized Smith’s status as “week-to-week,” but said no surgery was prescribed. He will wait to see how Smith’s rehabilitation goes, before plotting a return timetable.
Meanwhile, Nicks, the NFL’s top-scoring wide receiver with nine touchdowns, will draw as much potential scrutiny from the NCAA as he will from Dallas (1-7). His alma mater, the University of North Carolina, named him in connection with an investigation of 13 current players who allegedly accepted impermissible gifts of money, jewelry, and transportation.
Nicks would not comment, but said he held no ill-will toward the school for bringing his name into the mess.
“I’m not angry,” Nicks said. “That was college. I’m in the NFL now and I’m focusing on football.”
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