Giants tight end Jake Ballard revealed yesterday he does not see substantial improvement with his ailing right knee.
He is dealing with a partially torn posterior cruciate ligament suffered in Week 15. Ballard missed the final two games of the regular season, then came back against the Falcons. He will play tomorrow against the Packers in an NFC Divisional playoff game.
“It’s not like a sprained ankle. It’s not like two days you can be hurt and then the next day, it’s, ‘Oh, this feels great,’” he said. “It’s gonna take time and I don’t have a lot of time right now. ”
Ballard, who caught 38 passes for 604 yards and four touchdowns this season, had only two catches for 16 yards against Atlanta.
* Safety Deon Grant shrugged off Jason Pierre-Paul’s guarantee of victory, saying yesterday the defensive end wasn’t cocky.
“If you don’t believe you’re gonna win, why are you playing?” Grant said.
Grant added, “JPP didn’t just come out and the question wasn’t asked and [said], ‘Hey, I’m guaranteeing a win,’ and nobody asked him anything about what he thinks the score is gonna be. Now if you’re coming to me and [saying], ‘I think we’re gonna beat ’em, 40-something to zero,’ and start predicting scores and all of that other stuff? You’re going a little too far.
“But what he said is that he’s guaranteeing a win. … We back him 100 percent. He didn’t get out and [act] cocky. Green Bay’s saying the same thing.”
* LB Mark Herzlich (ankle) is out tomorrow. RB D.J. Ware (concussion), RB Ahmad Bradshaw (foot/back) and CB Aaron Ross (concussion) practiced and are probable. CB Corey Webster (hamstring), Grant (quad) and DE Osi Umenyiora (ankle/knee) were limited in practice but probable.
