We’ve gotten our first taste of New York Giants football under John Harbaugh, and this season already feels promising. Harbaugh has wrapped up his first training camp and preseason as the team’s new head coach, and the early signs have given Big Blue plenty to be excited about.
The G-Men finished 2-1 in the preseason with wins over the Dolphins and the Jets, and now all Big Blue fans can do is wait for the 53-man roster to be released on Sunday, August 30, at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
The official 53-man roster will give us a clearer picture of this new brand of Giants football, and another trade before the roster trim shows that Harbaugh and this regime still have unfinished business.
C.J. Okoye’s arrival shakes up the Giants’ defensive line room
The news broke Saturday morning that the Giants were trading for Ravens defensive lineman C.J. Okoye in exchange for a 2028 seventh-round pick, essentially swapping picks after they traded Josh Ezeudu to the Chiefs earlier this week.
Okoye, a converted offensive lineman, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Chargers in 2023 as part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway Program. He most recently played under Harbaugh last season in Baltimore after two seasons on Los Angeles’ practice squad, totaling 15 tackles, one tackle for loss, and one quarterback hit in 13 games.
The 24-year-old, a product of Nigeria, also trained under former Giants defensive end and two-time Super Bowl champion Osi Umenyiora at his Uprise Camp.
The 6-foot-6, 65-pound lineman appeared in all three of the Ravens’ preseason games this summer, playing 50 snaps total on defense, recording three pressures and four tackles, and even recovering a fumble in Friday night’s Ravens' 41-3 victory over the Commanders.
It certainly seems like the Giants plan to keep Okoye on their 53-man roster as a defensive tackle. Otherwise, why trade for him? They’ve been looking for depth behind veterans DJ Reader and Shelby Harris, whom they brought in as replacements for Dexter Lawrence.
It’s worth noting that Darius Alexander and rookie Bobby Jamison-Travis are likely locks to make the team, which leaves Leki Fotu and Chauncey Golston as potential cut candidates if the team keeps around five defensive linemen, not including the outside linebacker group of Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, and Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Fotu, whom the Giants brought in this summer, has had a quiet preseason with just two solo tackles, both against the Dolphins, while Golston totaled three tackles and one pass defended in two games played.
Neither player was guaranteed a roster spot before the trade, but Okoye’s arrival makes their path to the 53-man roster even more difficult. With Sunday’s deadline quickly approaching, Harbaugh and the Giants just made one of their final roster decisions a lot more interesting.
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