Giants Trim The Fat, Roster Down To 85
By author
Other than playing at the same stadium, the Giants and Jets have one more thing in common – they each get a special exception to keep 5 more players on the roster than any other team in the NFL until Friday.
Originally by 4pm EST yesterday, the Giants and Jets were supposed to cut 10 players from their roster. But because of the hurricane last weekend (that still leaves me without power btw) the commish released a statement saying both NY teams could keep 85 players on the active roster until after their final preseason game tomorrow night.
The 5 players that are now inactive for the Giants are:
Terrell Thomas (IR), Marvin Austin (IR), Duke Calhoun (Waived), Ramses Barden (PUP), and Adam Koets (PUP)
More after the jump.
***
According to the Star-Ledger, two of those 5 players will have an opportunity to rejoin the Giants from the PUP list at week 6:
"The Giants officially placed wide receiver Ramses Barden and center Adam Koets on the physically-unable-to-perform list, preventing both players from joining the roster until after Week 6. At that point, the Giants have 21 days to practice with Barden and Koets and determine whether they want to move them to the active roster. Both are recovering from injuries that ended their 2010 seasons and have not participated in training camp."
Ramses Barden of course is the 6’6″ Cal Poly phenom that is was supposed to be entering his first full season with the Giants after being drafted in 2009. But it hasn’t really worked out – he hasn’t played more than a few snaps in a couple of games each season since 2009, he’s was a special teams liability and Derek Hagan was brought in to alleviate that weakness, and last year he went to IR with a broken ankle. He’s the red zone threat and Plaxico Burress replacement that has barely ever seen the field. Come week 6 after the terms of the PUP label are fulfilled, he should rejoin the Giants and be ready to contribute.
Adam Koets is a backup OL that similar to Barden, has only seen limited time on the field. Due to Shawn O’Hara’s injury last year he started at Center until he went out with an ACL midway through last season. But he’s been with the Giants for going on 5 seasons and knows the offense, and could be another key player for depth of OL after week 6 should he rejoin the team.