Sometimes you get a taste for something, and no matter what you do, you just can't get enough. Back in June, the New York Giants brought linebacker Anfernee Orji in for a minicamp tryout, liking what they saw but ultimately sending him back into free agency land.
Fast forward nearly seven weeks to Thursday, and general manager Joe Schoen just couldn't resist going back for seconds, signing Orji to the 90-man roster after a successful follow-up workout at training camp.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so to make room for the 25-year-old, the G-Men waived undrafted rookie defensive lineman Ben Barten out of Wisconsin. While the transaction logs will show this as a routine bottom-of-the-roster swap, the move actually tells a much deeper story about Big Blue's numbers game.
You see, Barten didn't lose his spot because he stunk it up at training camp; he was simply a casualty of a brutal roster crunch along the defensive line.
Joe Schoen’s defensive line overhaul finally claimed its first victim
Schoen spent the entire offseason collecting defensive linemen like baseball cards. He went full Oprah, handing out roster spots, like "You get a spot," "and you get a spot!"
Overall, he brought in 10 new faces to the group: DJ Reader, Shelby Harris, Leki Fotu, Zacch Pickens, Sam Roberts, Josh Tupou, Marlon Davidson, Bobby Jamison-Travis, Anquin Barnes Jr., and Barten. For an undrafted rookie like Barten, the deck was stacked against him from Day One of camp.
With that many guys competing for limited spots, there was always going to come a time when somebody was going to pay the price. Barten just happened to be that guy.
The off-ball linebacker room --where Orji plays -- is a very different story. Tremaine Edmunds headlines the unit, but the guys behind him are relatively unproven. Micah McFadden plays hard, but he's trying to bounce back after a Lisfranc injury cost him his season. Arvell Reese has defensive demon potential, but he's a 20-year-old rookie trying to learn a new(ish) role on the fly.
Then there's sixth-round rookie Jack "Cannonball" Kelly, who is a total wildcard. Darius Muasau and Zaire Barnes are former sixth-rounders themselves who haven't proven they can give you reliable snaps. So why not give Orji a shot? The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder has 16 games of experience, playing a considerable amount of time with the special teams unit.
Schoen played this out with patience some might envy. The front office liked Orji at the June tryout but refused to rush a contract. They let him spend the summer finishing his rehab from last year's torn ACL. Thursday's workout was the final medical check to make sure his knee was good to go.
Once Orji cleared that hurdle, Schoen trimmed the fat from his overcrowded defensive line to bolster a linebacking room that could use the reinforcements.
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