The Giants have a double-wide problem on their hands. Or had one, anyway: Hakeem Nicks showed up to minicamp Tuesday, easing the concerns New York had at wide receiver, with Nicks absent from OTAs and Victor Cruz still nowhere to be seen.
The best part about Nicks showing up? It was reported by Giants punter Steve Weatherford.
Hakeem Nicks is in the building!!! #MiniCamp2013 #NYG #GIANTS twitter.com/Weatherford5/s…
— Steve Weatherford(@Weatherford5) June 11, 2013
Straight #scooping, son. So why was Nicks absent? Well he doesn't really want to talk about it.
"I'm here now and that's all I'm going to talk about," Nicks said. "I'm not really going to go back ... it's in the past already."
There's been plenty of speculation, as CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora notes, that Nicks didn't show up for the voluntary training session because of his contract status -- the wideout is entering the final year of his deal. However, neither Nicks nor his agent, Peter Schaffer, have commented on whether or not Nick's absence is contract related.
Perhaps his absence was related to the injury he suffered last year?
"That was definitely on my mind, but I can't say that's the reason," Nicks said.
It had to be a factor -- Nicks broke his right foot at OTAs last year and as a result never really got back on track for the regular season. He's in a much, much more important year for him personally in 2013 with his contract coming up and you can understand why he didn't want to risk injury there.
As for why he showed up Tuesday? Well, Nicks was going to get hit with a $66,150 fine if he didn't show up today. So he's there.
Not there? Cruz, who is currently unsigned under a one-year RFA tender. Talks between the two sides are reportedly "incredibly slow" which means Cruz could be staring at a longer holdout than expected.
Cruz could also face a reduction of his tender from $2.9 million to $600,000 beginning on Friday if the Giants so choose. It would be pretty surprising if they did that, though, considering taking money away from a player who's holding out for a new deal doesn't typically get them excited about coming back in.
