Shurmur: ‘We’ll see’ if Odell plays

Odell Beckham Jr. looks ready for action. His sprints appear full-speed. His one-handed catches are in midseason form. His injured ankle seems fully healed, even withstanding a hard crash on a leaping fade route in Tuesday’s practice.

But coach Pat Shurmur still won’t reveal whether Beckham will see any in-game action in the preseason.

“We’ll see,” said Shurmur, asked if the star receiver will play against the Jets. “He’s doing really well in practice here, so we’ll see where he’s at. Again, [he’s] coming back from injury, so we’ll try to be smart with him.”

Running back Saquon Barkley missed his sixth straight practice, but did work on the side.

“He’s training really well and doing more . and more each day,” Shurmur said. “We like the path he’s on.”

Shurmur wouldn’t comment on whether he would prefer it if Barkley appeared in another preseason game, but Eli Manning certainly would.

“Saquon, that’s different just because he’s a rookie and missing some valuable time,” said Manning, comparing Beckham and Barkley’s absences. “I know he’s getting mental reps. That’s different than practice reps. That’s different than game reps. Hopefully he can come back soon.”

Shurmur extended an open invitation for recently retired Victor Cruz to come to Giants practice, as he previously did with Michael Strahan, Tiki Barber and others.

“I think it’s important to embrace the great players from the past,” Shurmur said. “It’s important the [players] understand what it means to be a Giant from a player’s perspective, and what it takes to win Super Bowls. I called former Giants coaches as well. I think it’s important to hear their perspective, and I’m always looking for perspective.”

On Tuesday, Shurmur turned to another New York sports legend — Derek Jeter. The Giants coach played a video to the team of the former shortstop’s message at the celebration for the 1998 Yankees championship team, in which Jeter discussed how much the team cared about winning and didn’t care who received the spotlight.

Shurmur over the weekend said he wanted an explanation from the NFL about Mark Herzlich’s questionable penalty for lowering his helmet in Friday’s game against the Lions. Herzlich was just concerned with making sure he isn’t flagged for it again.

“This could be a situation where they’ve overcalling it now so you get used to it, but as players we do have to know that they’re out there,” Herzlich said.