It wasn't all that long ago that the New York Giants entered 2025 with 38-year-old Graham Gano as their starting kicker. Fans weren't overly thrilled with the lack of effort to address his recent kicking woes — 20-of-28 the past two years — but the hope was he'd bounce back. Meanwhile, second-year, strong-legged Jude McAtamney was waiting for his chance on the practice squad.
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Once Gano landed on IR, the G-Men wasted no time handing the job to the Irishman. They also signed veteran Younghoe Koo, but he’s been doing his best McAtamney impression on the practice squad. Special teams coordinator Mike Ghobrial said the competition was open, but the decision to roll with McAtamney four games in a row suggests otherwise. Two weeks ago Ghobrial assured the media the kicking competition was going to go to whoever earned the job:
"Whoever gives us the best opportunity to score points, I think that’ll continuously always be a competition."ST Coordinator Michael Ghobrial
After back-to-back shaky performances, the results are speaking louder than the practice reps. And after Sunday’s brutal one-point loss in Denver — a game where McAtamney missed two extra points — it’s hard not to wonder if Big Blue is once again outsmarting themselves in the most preventable way possible.
Giants’ kicking situation getting harder to defend after Week 7 nightmare
This is where the quote comes back into play. The special teams coordinator talked about continuity, said McAtamney was coming off a good week, and framed the decision as a merit-based call.
But this team has a long history of riding into Sundays with the wrong guy in the kicking spot. We’ve seen the head-scratching decisions — the "we'll use Jamie Gillan as our kicker" calls. We’ve seen the same kicking woes over and over and over again. And nothing's getting done.
McAtamney has now missed three extra points in two weeks. That’s not something to overlook — that’s game-altering stuff. He missed one wide left early in the Broncos game, then pushed the second one wide right on the go-ahead touchdown late.
Instead of a four-point cushion late, the Giants only led by two. We all know what happened next.
Maybe Koo isn’t the long-term fix. Maybe it's as simple as getting Gano healthy. Maybe he hasn’t looked great in practice. But when the guy you’re playing is costing you games, it’s time to rethink strategy. And if the coaches truly believe this is an open competition, now would be a good time to prove it.
At this point, the scoreboard is doing more evaluating than the staff. And the tape isn’t lying either.