Cody Latimer was looking forward to OTAs — but he had somewhere more important to be.
The 26-year-old wide receiver, who is entering his second season with the Giants, missed last week’s voluntary practice to aid his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, which was ravaged by multiple tornadoes, resulting in at least one death and 90 injuries.
Latimer received permission from the Giants to leave and help in the recovery, in which he donated food and supplies and provided shelter for those displaced by the storms.
“So many people need help out there,” Latimer said Tuesday. “I want to try to keep going out. I don’t want it to be one thing. I want to keep going back and make sure things are taken care of and see what I can do to help.”
When Latimer landed in Dayton last Wednesday, he was stunned by the devastation.
“It was pretty bad,” Latimer said. “Everything was shut down. Seeing places I used to be at all the time, seeing them destroyed and not there, it’s just terrible, but we’re gonna recover from it.”
Latimer still has several family members living in Dayton, including his mother, who raised him and his brothers, following his father’s death from cancer in 2005. The receiver has a 3-year-old son, Jacolby.
“I just hope the energy’s passed along, things that my son when he grows up and gets older that he can see what his dad did so he can go help others,” Latimer said. “A lot of us have the means to help out in tragedies like that … and it was just great to be able to help everyone as much as I can. And I’m not done with it.”
The receivers room just isn’t the same without Odell Beckham Jr. around.
“It’s still a little weird. It’s an adjustment,” Sterling Shepard said of Beckham’s absence. “That’s always gonna be my brother to the end. … He’s a great guy. He’s loved around this facility.”
Following the blockbuster trade of Beckham, Shepard became the longest-tenured receiver on the Giants, then signed a four-year extension, cementing his elevated status on the team.
“He was such a big part to this offense, and I guess I’m the next one up in line,” Shepard said. “I don’t let pressure get to me too much. Last season, with Odell going out for the last five games … the season before that as well with him going down with the ankle injury, I feel like it prepared me for this moment.”
Kyle Lauletta, coming off a procedure on his knee that limited his work on the field this spring, threw three passes in the seven-on-seven drills, a step forward in his rehab. He says he will be full-go for training camp. … The Giants signed OLB Keion Adams, a 2017 seventh-round pick of the Steelers. OLB Jeremiah Harris was waived/injured.
Tight end Evan Engram did not practice, along with left tackle Nate Solder, right tackle Mike Remmers, rookie Eric Dungey, linebacker Avery Moss, safety Sean Chandler and tackle Olsen Pierre.
Coach Pat Shurmur described all the injuries as minor.
“Nobody long term,” Shurmur said. “I feel good about having everybody back here soon, and definitely by the time we start camp.”
