As one of the youngest teams in the league the NY Giants had many intriguing positional battles; here are the five most surprising roster cuts.
NY Giants rookie head coach Joe Judge has made major shockwaves during his first training camp and offseason with his new squad, and since the beginning, he has fostered an intense, competitive environment where just about every player was going to have to earn their spot.
This, combined with how young the team is, an entirely new coaching staff, and how much roster turnover there has made Judge’s job an unenviable one when he and his staff had to cut down the roster from 80 to 53 on Saturday at 4 PM.
Luckily, the NFL and NFLPA agreed long ago to expand practice squads from 10 to 16 (including 6 new spots for veterans), so the team will really only have to part ways with 27 players to start with hopes of keeping many of them should they not be claimed off of waivers by another team.
The NY Giants also figure to be very active in the waiver wire period as the team still has a major hole or two to fill at cornerback, possibly for a big-bodied wideout now that David Sills V went down with a season-ending injury and a few other spots.
Dave Gettleman has always been aggressive during this period and you can expect him to be even more aggressive this season due to the fact that he and the coaching staff weren’t able to properly evaluate many of their young players due to no preseason action.
Here are the five most surprising roster cuts made by the NY Giants are they got down to 53 players on Saturday afternoon.
1. ILB Ryan Connelly
Wow.
That’s all I really have to say about this one, as Ryan Connelly wasn’t even on my radar of potential NY Giants cuts even though he’s coming off a torn ACL. Connelly was one of the few lone bright spots on an abysmal Big Blue defense in 2019 before he went down early with that injury and I’m at a loss for words to describe making sense of this one.
By all accounts, Connelly was coming on strong late in camp as he recovered from what is now a very clean injury due to how far the sports medicine world has come in rehabilitating torn ACL’s. When you factor in that the NY Giants don’t have any other linebackers that can really cover it makes this move all the more shocking
Obviously, we don’t have access to medical records and most of us weren’t on the grounds during training camp, but giving up on a 2019 fifth-round pick that was a legit difference-maker from the moment he stepped on the field will never make any sense to me.
From a salary perspective, the NY Giants will incur dead cap charges of 251K, 167K, and 83K over the last three years of his cheap rookie deal where he was set to make just 675K, 850K, and 965K in 2020/2021/2022.
The team may try to sneak him on the practice squad but I’d be shocked if he wasn’t scooped up by another team.
2. CB Dravon Askew-Henry
Dravon Askew-Henry came to the NY Giants this offseason with much fanfare after he was one of the most sought after free agents to come out of the XFL after last season. Even before the DeAndre Baker and Sam Beal debacles, most expected Askew-Henry to make the 53-man roster with ease.
At 6’0”, he figured to be one of the few natural boundary corners on the NY Giants roster with a ton of potential but now it looks like we’ll never get to find out. Askew-Henry had also played some safety and slot corner during his time at West Virginia, making him seem to be even more of a fit on Joe Judge’s and Patrick Graham’s “multiple” defense that will utilize multiple safties and rely on versatility, Henry’s biggest strength.
The NY Giants won’t incur any dead cap by cutting Askew-Henry, but its still puzzling as he had a mid-round draft grade in 2019 and played extremely well in the XFL last season. He also was due to be under contract for the bargain prices of 610K and 780K in 2020 and 2021.
Expect him to be scooped up elsewhere as well.
3. WR Alex Bachman
Alex Bachman came into the league in 2018 with the Rams as a UDFA with little pop surrounding his name, but by all accounts – including at 2020 NY Giants training camp – he began to really blossom once he got to the NFL.
After only dropping 7 passes during his career at Wake Forest, the sure-handed wideout continued that in his NFL practices and preseason games and really seemed to be making his mark during training camp with this coaching staff.
Via David Solow on Twitter:
On one hand, I would have been okay with the NY Giants cutting him if they were to keep one of their bigger wideouts like Binjimen Victor, or a high-upside UDFA like Austin Mack but that was not the case as the team has elected to go with just five WR’s including C.J Board who has just two catches in three NFL seasons.
Dave Gettleman and company will surely try to sneak him onto the practice squad and he should have a decent chance at making it through waivers unclaimed.
4. C Jon Halapio
It’s no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Jon Halapio in terms of what he brings to the football field. However, he has been a model citizen and team leader since joining the NY Giants and is loved by his teammates.
When he was brought back earlier in the week after reportedly impressing during his workout, showing he had all but fully recovered from his 2019 torn Achilles injury it seemed all but a sure thing that he would make the 2020 NY Giants roster.
I was on board with that if it meant cutting veteran center Spencer Pulley as they’re pretty much even when it comes to skill and potential and it would mean we would save the full $2.75M Pulley was set to count against the salary cap.
That wasn’t the case, however, as Pulley has made the initial roster and Halapio now finds himself hoping he can just stick on the practice squad.
5. OL Tyler Haycraft
Former Louisville offensive lineman Tyler Haycraft surely benefitted from playing across first-round offensive tackle Mekhi Becton last season, as he went from way of the NFL radar to legit prospect over the span of one season.
The NY Giants snatched him up for almost nothing (5K guaranteed) and although he came to the team with little expectations of actually making the final roster, he put together an impressive camp by all accounts and most beat reporters believed he would end up making the final team.
The main reason for that is his versatility, as although he’s undersized to be an NFL offensive tackle at 6’3, 290 pounds, the coaching staff had moved him inside and even worked him out at center.
Much like with Jon Halapio, it’s depressing to see Spencer Pulley and his $2.75M non-guaranteed contract make the team over a young promising prospect like Haycraft.
The NY Giants shouldn’t have too much of a problem sneaking him onto the practice squad, but it would have been nice to see him make the opening day roster.