Giants WR Rueben Randle returns to practice Tuesday

Just one day after New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin called Rueben Randle's missed practice time "confusing", the fourth year wide receiver returned to practice Tuesday. He participated in 11-on-11 team drills for the first time since the Giants' preseason opener.

Randle's status for the third preseason game, known as the regular season dress rehearsal, is still to be determined. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Randle has been dealing with knee tendinitis since his collegiate days at LSU, but this was the first time he missed extended practice time with the injury.

Randle believes that this specific flare up was more severe than any he had experienced in the past with the Giants. That would explain why he had to miss so much practice time. Randle has a plan moving forward for keeping his knee tendinitis under wraps.

"It is just all about me keeping my body warmed up and make sure I’m properly stretched and not putting all the pressure on that knee tendon," Randle said, per Kieran Darcy of ESPN. "So I’m just going to do a couple more exercises to make sure I keep that tendon loose."

Coughlin has an old school approach to dealing with injuries, but that might not be the correct approach to take. While the two are not directly correlated, the Giants' average games lost to injury over the last two season has been astounding. You can check out the numbers in the graphic here.

Randle has a solid grasp of the offensive scheme in his second season under coordinator Ben McAdoo. It seems like an unnecessary risk to rush him back to practice unless he is fully healed and no longer dealing with the tendinitis issue in any way.

(h/t ESPN)