As part of their negotiations for the upcoming season, the NFL and NFLPA came to a recent agreement on an 80-man roster size and provided teams with two options on how to get there: cut 10 players by July 28 or go with a split-squad of 90 players until August 16 and then release 10 players.
Most NFL teams have immediately begun to cut players in an effort to trim their roster to 80, but the New York Giants decided to go in a different direction.
On Monday, the Giants became the first known NFL team to opt for a split-squad roster of 90 players, reports Jordan Raanan of ESPN.
The Giants’ roster currently sits at 87 following the signing of their entire 2020 draft class on Monday, the official release of kicker Aldrick Rosas, the release of rookie cornerback Malcolm Elmore with a non-football injury and the placement of cornerback DeAndre Baker on the commissioner’s exempt list.
It is widely expected that when veterans report to camp on Tuesday, that number will increase to 89 with the signing of linebacker Markus Golden and kicker Chandler Catanzaro.
How the Giants opt to fill that final roster spot remains to be seen, but at least for now, they will keep the maximum number of allowed players on their roster in an effort to evaluate as much talent as possible before the August 16 mandatory cut-down day.
