EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It was midway through training camp and New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard stepped to the line of scrimmage to go one on one against summer standout Tre Hawkins III.
Shepard, the veteran coming off consecutive serious Achilles and ACL tears, shot off the line, stutter-stepped as if he were about to stop on a dime before exploding past Hawkins and into the back of the end zone, where he easily made a wide-open touchdown grab.
It was a reminder that the longest-tenured Giant still had that wiggle in those same surgically repaired legs that once produced a 41-inch vertical leap at the NFL scouting combine.