Giants trust Stewart will bounce back

Jonathan Stewart doesn’t seem concerned by his shaky preseason and neither does Pat Shurmur.

“We trust Jonathan and we trust that he’ll be productive,” the first-year Giants coach said Sunday.

The numbers so far are ugly, minus-5 rushing yards on 10 carries and a fumble lost in the red zone. Shumur cited the 31year-old Stewart’s vast experience and history of overcoming slow starts. In 2014, for instance, he ran for just 14 yards on nine preseason carries but enjoyed a solid season.

“I think this is a time, obviously, where you have an opportunity to work on your craft whether it’s practice, preseason games,” said the former Panthers running back who signed a two-year, $6.8 million contract with $3.45 million guaranteed with the Giants in the offseason. “At the end of day [you need to have a] goldfish memory because once something bad goes wrong, you have to learn how to bounce back and move forward to the next play because time is going to continue to tick.”

Shurmur didn’t single out Stewart, who is expected to have a role as Saquon Barkley’s backup, for the Giants’ struggles in the run game. The first team’s issues on the ground during the preseason continued against the Jets on Friday night. Without Barkley, out nursing a strained left hamstring, the Giants starters managed seven yards rushing on 10 carries.

“Certainly when you run the ball well, it’s a team thing,” Shurmur said. “When you don’t run the ball, at least early in the game, that’s really the narrative right now. Early in the game, we haven’t run the ball as well as we want to. Regardless of who’s in there playing, we’ve found a way to move the ball as the game goes along. It’s a team thing and we’re working on it to improve those early game runs and I think that’s the important piece.” ➤ Tight end Evan Engram remains in the con- cussion protocol, but he was outside during practice, running sprints and catching passes on the side.

“Very encouraging,” Shurmur said. “He’s working his way through.”

➤ In addition to Engram, outside linebacker Connor Barwin (soreness) and safety Darian Thompson (hamstring) didn’t practice. Linebacker Calvin Munson remained in a non-contact jersey in practice. ... Barkley practiced fully for the first time since tweaking his hamstring Aug. 13.