Apple exits with apparent knee injury

Between his brief scuffle with Evan Engram and leaving practice with an apparent left knee injury, it was an eventful practice for Eli Apple.

More than halfway through Saturday’s workout, the third-year cornerback went down while covering wide receiver Hunter Sharp, came up limping and looked to be in pain. Apple had his knee checked, tried to run, then had it looked at again by team doctors. Shortly after, he seemed fine, standing on his own and putting pressure on his left leg, though he missed the final 45 minutes of practice.

Earlier, Apple got into a heated exchange with Engram. Upon tackling Engram low, Apple shoved him in the face after the whistle and Engram responded by throwing the ball at Apple, resulting in flags for the two players who could be heard shouting at each other. Both were sent to the sideline by coach Pat Shurmur. A day after the Giants added cornerback Leonard Johnson, Shumur said he was “not concerned” about his makeshift secondary that has five players trying out for the starting freesafety spot and no clear leader to be the No. 3 corner. It’s a group full of inexperienced players and journeymen with a few of them, such as William Gay, Curtis Riley and Donte Deayon, nursing injuries.

“We’re going to get them coached up and when we’re in base, we’re going to have four of them back there and when we’re in nickel, there will be five of them and then we’ll let it rip,” he said. “We’re not concerned.”

The 28-year-old Johnson, who started seven games for the Bills a year ago, practiced on Friday.

“He’s a veteran player, we liked the way he moved around, we like how he played a year ago and we felt like he was a good guy to add to our group,” Shurmur said.

Rookie running back Saquon Barkley had another light day. He didn’t get any reps in team drills. On Thursday, which was another easy day of practice for Barkley, Shumur said they were monitoring his workload and he would get rest days on occasion.