NY Giants sign two players, including a familiar offensive lineman

NY Giants GM Dave Gettleman seems to be far from done making moves for 2020 as he brought in two more players on Wednesday.

I’ll admit it; when news broke of the NY Giants bringing in former starting center Jon Halapio for a workout broke this week, I wasn’t exactly excited.

Halapio has been lauded as a high character, team guy, but his play on the field has left much to be desired and he’s ended the last two seasons with very serious injuries. However, he apparently looked good enough in his workout this week for Dave Gettleman and the NY Giants to pull the trigger on bringing him back.

When I first heard the news I began to worry that Joe Judge and company were worried about the state of the offensive line – specifically Nick Gates and his transition to center – but that doesn’t appear to be the case, at least according to the brass.

Via Art Stapleton on Twitter:

The signing seems to be a depth-based one on the surface, and if there’s anyone that should be worried about their job security right now it’s fellow veteran Spencer Pulley. Like Halapio, Pulley has left much to be desired on the field and has been banged up over the course of his short NY Giants career.

Constantly mentioned as a potential cap casualty this offseason, that is looking more and more like a reality as none of Pulley’s $2.75M contract is guaranteed in 2020. Knowing that, if Gettleman feels he can bring in a comparable player while saving a million bucks or so it begins to get easier to understand.

In my mind, the team will have to choose between one of the two vets, as keeping both of them for depth purposes just doesn’t make sense — especially since the NY Giants are rebuilding and have a couple of attractive young prospects along the offensive line that would benefit greatly from some real game experience should any injuries occur.

NY Giants also bring in veteran wideout

In addition to inking Halapio to a contract, the NY Giants also brought in veteran wide receiver Johnny Holton. The 29-year-old wideout has yet to make his mark as a true receiving threat during his four-year NFL career but has proven to be a capable special teams player.

With Cody Core out for the 2020 season due to injury, Big Blue has a need for a competent gunner which is exactly what Holton has been during his time with the Raiders and Steelers.

With just 4 starts in 48 career games, Holton doesn’t figure to add much to the wide receiver core although he did show off some big play ability with the Raiders in 2017 when he reeled in 9 balls for 218 yards and 3 touchdowns, good for an insane 24.7 yards-per-catch average.

Other than that, the former University of Cincinnati Bearcat hasn’t surpassed 3 receptions in a seasons and has just 14 catches to his name.

Holton figures to have a legitimate chance to land the 6th WR spot should the team carry six, which seems like a forgone conclusion since they were already relying on Core for that role who profiles as a very similar player to Holton.

With Corey Coleman seemingly having the inside track on the WR4 job, that really only leaves one spot for one of the young, talented, undrafted wideouts the NY Giants currently have on their roster should Holton lock down that last spot.

It’ll all come down to how Holton looks on specials in practice, as we know both Joe Judge – who was a special teams coordinator for years – and Dave Gettleman both put a premium on special teamers.