The New York Giants have finally trimmed their 91-man roster down to their initial 53-man roster.
Final cuts are a brutal day in the NFL when hundreds of men are looking for new jobs, or seeing their NFL dreams come to an end. It’s also a day that always comes with surprises, both in players who are cut, and those who aren’t.
Much of the Giants’ cuts went as expected and there weren’t any moves that had us exclaiming “what!?”
However there were still plenty of surprises to be found, particularly in
how multiple moves were done in conjunction with each other. So let’s take a look at some of the biggest surprises as the Giants carved out their initial 53-man roster.
Bryan Hudson makes the 53
We got the sense late in camp and the preseason that Lucas Patrick’s job as the backup center could be in danger. After all, he missed a pretty significant amount of time with an “old knee” and 25-year-old Bryan Hudson even got second team work when Patrick returned to the practice field.
That sense faded when he came on the field with the second team against the Jets, suggesting that he was firmly entrenched as John Michael Schmitz’s backup. But perhaps we should have listened to our gut here, because Patrick was one of the first really eyebrow raising cuts the Giants made and it seems as though Hudson won the battle in the end.
The flip side of this is the former UDFA who started the summer running with the third team and clawed his way up the depth chart to be a primary depth piece. That he was able to unseat a veteran free agent addition and the Giants didn’t want to risk exposing him to the waiver wire is a surprise in and of itself as well.
Of course, the Giants might not be done here and could be looking to both continue to upgrade their offensive line depth and perhaps find long-term competition for John Michael Schmitz.
5 wide receivers
Reports seem to indicate that cutting Dalen Cambre is a move the Giants didn’t want to make. ambre had a good camp and preseason as both a receiver and special teams player, but he just couldn’t quite do enough to force the team’s hand. He’s a player they’ll likely love to sign to their practice squad as a developmental receiver — but he’ll have to survive the waiver wire first. That could be tough to do with the play he put on tape during the last two preseasons.
Adam Schefter has already reported that Braxton Berrios will be part of a series of roster games. The Giants are planning on bringing the veteran receiver and special teams player back for Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys. However, it’s still a bit eyebrow-raising to see both players get caught in final cutdowns, even if both might be back by the end of the week.
Still, it’s a bit jarring to see just five wide receivers on an NFL roster. Releasing Berrios with the intention of bringing him back is a calculated risk, but it’s a risk nonetheless
TE Thomas Fidone makes the 53
We need to qualify this one a bit: It isn’t a surprise that the Giants thought Fidone played well enough to make the 53-man roster. He performed well throughout camp and when he got on the field in the preseason. However, those looks all came late because Fidone was generally working with the third team.
It was still enough to convince the Giants that he shouldn’t be exposed to the waiver wire. GM Joe Schoen has proven adept at reading the rest of the NFL, and it’s notable that 22 tight ends were drafted this year. That’s the most in nearly a quarter of a century (24 in 2002). Fidone has good play on tape, and he might well have been snapped up if he hit the waiver wire.
Fidone might not be safe yet, and he could hit the waiver wire if the Giants make any claims. However, another team would have to waive or release of their players to claim him, so the odds of him making it through waivers might be better.
No moves on the defensive front
The Giants did trade for the ginormous (that’s the technical term) C.J. Okoye, but didn’t make any moves besides that.
I mentioned to Ed when he was putting together his final roster projection that the only pure defensive tackles who should feel secure are D.J. Reader, Shelby Harris, Darius Alexander, and Bobby Jamison-Travis. I fully expected the Giants to bring in more help for their defensive interior. Okoye does qualify, but he also only just started playing the sport in 2023.
At the same time, Ed was also unsure of going into the season with just three pure edge defenders. I do believe that the Giants could look at Arvell Reese (or Jack Kelly) as a “break glass” option on the edge, and there will certainly times when Reese walks up to the line of scrimmage to change looks and gap assignments. However, I also believe that Reese’s versatility will be too valuable to Dennard Wilson’s “Ravens Style” defense to be anything more than an emergency edge defender.
I was expecting the Giants to try and find some way to get Trace Ford onto the roster, considering how active and disruptive he was in the preseason. Instead, he’s on the waiver wire and is one of the players I am most afraid will be claimed. Ford was highly active and made quite a few splash plays — and pass rusher is quickly becoming the second most valuable position on the field behind quarterback.
The front was one area where I was expecting (at least) one more trade, though I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants claim a defensive tackle. They’re fifth in priority on the waiver wire, and they’ll use that if they get the opportunity.
Rookie specialists
I can’t say that Ben Mann and Dominic Zvada making the team is a surprise. However, if you had told me 8 months ago that the Giants would be going into the season with two-thirds of their kicking battery being undrafted rookies, I would have said that something had gone very wrong.
Instead, it seems as though something has gone very right — at least for now.
While Zvada is a whip-thin 6-foot-3, 178 pounds, he has the kind of leg that the Giants largely lacked as Graham Gano declined. Zvada has been accurate, consistent, and has been drilling kicks with enough yardage to spare that he gives confidence that he can be a real weapon should an offensive series fizzle.
By the same token, Mann has been crisp and reliable as a long snapper. There is very little margin for error in the operation at this level, and even slight miscues that we wouldn’t even notice on TV can spell doom for a field goal attempt. Yet Mann has been all but invisible on the field, and that’s the best compliment I can give him.
Teams generally have little appetite for rookie specialists and almost always err on the side of experience. It says something that Zvada and Mann haven’t allowed any room for doubt to creep in.
