Jets tackle Breno Giacomini could begin season on PUP list
New York Jets tackle Breno Giacomini (68) during the second half of the Washington Redskins at the NY Jets on Sunday October 18, 2015. Credit: Lee S. Weissman
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Breno Giacomini may not be able to play on Saturday. He might even land on the PUP list to start the season. But the Jets’ right tackle says his back spasms are getting better and better every day, and that there’s no chance he’ll miss the entire year.
“I wanted to be back yesterday, I really do,” Giacomini said in his first comments since getting hurt on the first day of minicamp. “I hate missing any of this . . . I don’t know when I’ll be back. I have been progressing, getting right. I got in my three-point stance, doing some good things, so we’ll say — taking it day-by-day.”
Giacomini said he’s been in continuous treatment since he realized the pain was getting worse rather than better — around the weekend of July 4 — and feels significantly better than he did two weeks ago. He described the lower-back pain as a strain or spasm, but said there was no structural damage to the discs. He added that he was at about 80 percent, and — especially with the lack of practice — there’s every chance that he’ll start the season on the PUP list.
“Is it a possibility? Probably,” he said. “But that’s something I don’t want to do. That’s something that I can’t control. What I can control is getting into treatment on time and doing my work. It’s the same thing as going out and trying to get better for the next opponent.”
Coach Todd Bowles said Thursday that if he can’t practice he can’t play, and right now “he can’t practice.” In addition to the three-point stance, Giacomini was able to do some cutoffs and reach blocks on Thursday.
“I’ll be back,” Giacomini said, “but I just can’t tell you when.”
In the meantime, he’s keeping an eye on the rookies vying for a spot. He roots them on, he says, but he knows his job could be at risk.
“You should always be worried about that,” he said. “I got hurt, but it creates an opportunity for someone else . . . You worry about that every day. Nobody is safe in this business . . . That being said, it pushed me harder, too. I don’t want to lose my job, but it’s exciting to see how the guys step up . . . You want to encourage those guys. You want those guys to do good. You want the team to do well.”
Hoping to ‘fly with the Jets’
Former Bills running back Karlos Williams said Thursday he’d “like to fly with the Jets, baby” in a video posted to Twitter. The free agent, who worked out with the Jets Wednesday and Thursday, said in the video — posted to another person’s account — that he has “no offer yet, but it was a good visit.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.