McCarthy: Shields won't play vs. Giants

GREEN BAY - Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields will not play this week against the New York Giants.

Shields, who is in the concussion protocol for the fourth straight week, did not practice Wednesday and isn't expected to practice Thursday. He has not been attending meetings with the other defensive backs.

"I had a chance to visit with Sam," coach Mike McCarthy said Thursday morning. "He’s going through the process. He’s making some improvement. It’s going to be … he will not be available this week."

McCarthy has given no indication that Shields won't eventually be cleared to play again and has repeatedly said his top corner is making progress. Shields was allowed to go home during the bye week and posted several photos of himself being out and about on Instagram.

Because this was his fifth concussion, Shields saw a specialist before the bye week and McCarthy said later that the medical staff felt it had a good plan for him.

With Shields out, Damarious Randall gets another crack at covering the other team's best receiver. Randall has taken his lumps the last two games against Detroit's Marvin Jones and Minnesota's Stefon Diggs and his job will be no easier with the Giants' talented duo of Odell Beckham Jr. and Victor Cruz coming to town.

Randall  said at the beginning of the week that he was prepared to bounce back no matter who the opponent.

"If I was doing everything perfectly great and I was still getting passes caught on me, that’s when I would be worried and probably think my name might be coming down (from the locker)," Randall said Monday.

On Wednesday, Randall said that he had no intention of getting into the head of Beckham, who was flagged Monday night for a taunting penalty after getting into it with Minnesota cornerback Xavier Rhodes. The Giants are expecting teams to continue to try to get into Beckham's head and knock him off his game.

McCarthy said that the players who missed the Detroit game because of injury -- Clay Matthews, Letroy Guion, Morgan Burnett and Datone Jones -- have all looked good in practice this week.