The New York Giants begin their summer training camp this week and will have five weeks to cut their 90-man roster down to 53 players. With all of the new faces in camp, there’s a wind of change in the air.
General manager Dave Gettleman has turned his roster over to such a degree that the fans will need a program when they enter the stadium for games this year. More changes are coming, for sure, and the competition in camp is going to be ferocious at many positions.
Here are four players on the roster bubble as camp begins.
LB Kareem Martin
Martin was brought in last year to help bridge the Giants defense to coordinator James Bettcher’s system. He played in all 16 games, starting seven and recording 48 tackles (22 solo) with 10 QB hits but just 1.5 sacks.
Martin is carrying a cap hit of $5.9 million both this year and next. The Giants won’t realize a huge cap windfall by cutting him but the numbers in camp could be against him if he doesn’t take the next step. The Giants have Lorenzo Carter, Markus Golden and rookie Oshane Ximines queued up to handle the outside linebacker duties and Bettcher will lean on a lot of five-DB packages this year.
FB Eli Penny
Not a big surprise for several reasons. The Giants have a pretty full backfield and fullback is a position they really don’t need much of. Although Penny is the type of player Gettleman likes, there just may not be room on the roster for him.
The Giants added former Dallas Cowboy Rod Smith this offseason, who is 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds and can serve as a special teamer as well as fullback and backup for Saquon Barkley. The Giants still have Wayne Gallman and if Paul Perkins opens some eyes coming back from injury, Penny is all but gone.
QB Kyle Lauletta
There are several factors at play for Lauletta and none of them are in his favor. First, his driving ‘mishap’ last year knocked him down a few pegs in the eyes of the organization. No one will admit that, but the optics were bad and Lauletta is not a good enough player (yet) for the team to rally behind.
Second, they drafted Daniel Jones and he will be the No. 2 quarterback (at least) behind Eli Manning going into the season. The Giants love Alex Tanney and if they decide to carry three quarterbacks, Tanney could be the No. 3 guy, leaving Lauletta as the odd man out.
TE Scott Simonson
Simonson should be on the team because there’s really nothing wrong with his game. He is a fine in-line tight end that can block and catch the football if needed. He’s just not a star.
It’s unfortunate for Simonson that the Giants have several tight ends ahead of him on the depth chart in Evan Engram and Rhett Ellison. If they decide to keep three tight ends, Simonson will have to fend off rookies C.J. Conrad and Eric Dungey and the Giants are very high on both of those players. The prediction here is that Simonson gets cut, and if he doesn’t catch on elsewhere, ends up back with the Giants at some point in the season.
