The New York Giants continued what has become a “kitchen sink” approach to improving the depth of their defensive line on Monday, signing veteran defensive lineman Dawuane Smoot to their practice squad.
The news was first reported by ESPN’s Jordan Ranaan, and was subsequently confirmed by a Giants source.
Smoot, 31, is in his 10th NFL season. The 6-foot-3, 275-pounder was a third-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2017 NFL Draft. Smoot has played in 127 regular-season games, with 21 starts.
He has 27.0 career sacks.
Smoot spent 2024 with the Buffalo, but has spent eight of his nine seasons with the Jaguars. Last year with Jacksonville, he had 2.0 sacks, 23 tackles (3 for loss) and five quarterback hits in 17 games.
The Giants, searching both to improve their run defense and to provide options on the outside after losing Brian Burns for the season, have continued to add veteran options to the 53-man roster and practice squad.
They signed outside linebacker Jihad Ward off the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad, and added experienced defensive tackles P.J. Mustipher and C.J. Ravenall to their practice squad.
Now, Smoot has been added to their collection.
Head coach John Harbaugh said Monday afternoon that the Giants have been “feast or famine” defending the run.
“I think we’ve had too many chunk plays overall,” Harbaugh said. “We’ve played kind of feast or famine run defense. We’ve had a lot of really good plays, a lot of really good plays in that game where we stuffed the run, which we’re very capable of doing. And then there’s a couple of line of scrimmage runs that get out on us that we’re not happy about that can be played so much better. Whether we don’t adjust to a motion the right way, we don’t get over in our gaps, we don’t quite come in through the angles.”
