The Giants have begun reducing their roster to 53 players. They announced eight cuts ahead of Sunday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline.
The Giants will cut CB Ugo Amadi, RB Damon Bankston, TE Josiah Deguara, DL Leki Fotu, WR Isaiah Hodgins, OL Brenden Jaimes, LB Anfernee Orji and WR Kobe Prentice.
Hodgins has spent the past 3 1/2 seasons with the Giants, making 66 catches for 708 yards and eight touchdowns.
The moves come the day after the Giants wrapped up the preseason with a 23-6 victory over the Jets.
The claiming period for players placed on waivers at the roster reduction will expire at 1 p.m. ET on Monday. The Giants are fifth in the claiming order. Teams can then establish a practice squad of 17 players, as long as one player qualifies and is designated as an international player.
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Giants head coach John Harbaugh said on Friday night that wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has done enough this summer to make an NFL roster and he was asked a more specific question on Saturday.
Harbaugh was asked in a videoconference if Beckham has done enough to make the Giants roster. Harbaugh declined to say whether that is the case.
“We’ll have to see throughout the weekend if he does make the roster,” Harbaugh said, via SNY. “We’re working through that right now. We have a pretty good idea in all honesty, but we’re not ready to make that announcement or any other announcement as far as making the team at this point.”
A report on Saturday indicated that Darius Slayton is not a lock to make the Giants’ 53-man roster. If he is out, it would likely mean that Beckham is in for Harbaugh’s first season with the team.
With so much focus on whether former Giants star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will make the team in his first year back on the roster since 2018, a receiver drafted a month after OBJ would traded is in danger of not surviving Sunday’s cuts.
Paul Schwartz of the New York Post reports that Darius Slayton is on the bubble.
The report is bolstered by specific facts. First, Schwartz writes that Slayton is “clearly not moving the same” after surgery to repair a sports hernia. Second, Slayton played extensively in the preseason finale against the Jets — a game during which most of the obvious starters were held out.
Slayton stayed in the game even after quarterback Jameis Winston exited for Brandon Allen.
Slayton and Beckham, who possibly are competing for the same spot on the 53-man roster, played 33 snaps each. (Isaiah Hodgins and Dalen Cambre had 37 snaps each.)
A fifth-round pick in 2019, Slayton has appeared in 106 regular-season games with 78 starts in seven seasons. Last year, he signed a three-year, $36 million contract.
He’s due to make $12.25 million in salary this year, with $500,000 in per-game active roster bonuses. A whopping $9.75 million of his salary is fully guaranteed.
Cutting him would leave behind a $12.75 million cap charge in 2026, with another $3 million applying in 2027.
A trade is also possible, in theory. The Giants surely would have to pay a significant portion of his guaranteed salary in order to make it happen.
The team’s preseason depth chart continues to list Slayton as a starter, along with Malik Nabers.
Giants head coach John Harbaugh is bringing another Raven with him to his new team.
NFL Media reports that the Giants have agreed to send a 2028 seventh-round pick to the Ravens for defensive lineman C.J. Okoye.
Okoye entered the league as part of the International Player Pathway Program and spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons on the Chargers’ practice squad. He moved on to the Ravens last year and played in 15 games during Harbaugh’s final season in Baltimore.
Okoye had 15 tackles and a pass breakup in those appearances.
Trading Okoye takes care of one roster move the Ravens need to make to get to the 53-player limit by Sunday’s deadline while the Giants will now have one more cut to make.
Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. caught three passes for 53 yards in Friday night’s preseason finale, and he said afterward that he hoped he had done enough to earn a roster spot.
“It would mean everything,” Beckham said of making the roster. “It would be my dream. This is where I started. There’s no place I want to give my whole heart to, more than any place in the world, than this place right here.”
Giants head coach John Harbaugh said after the game that Beckham had done well in training camp and the preseason, but he wouldn’t say that Beckham will be on the 53-player roster after Sunday’s final cutdowns.
“I don’t want to say exactly who’s making it right now,” Harbaugh. “Yes, I think he has done enough to make an NFL roster, for sure.”
Harbaugh was careful to say Beckham has done enough to make “an NFL roster,” but not necessarily that he has made the Giants’ roster. Beckham, who played for the Giants from 2014 to 2018, said he wished he had never left and would love to finish his career there.
“It would be a great day,” Beckham said of making the team.
Jets rookie running back Chip Trayanum was injured on the final play of the first half in Friday night’s preseason game against the Giants.
Giants linebacker Trace Ford reached Trayanum just as quarterback Cade Klubnik handed the ball to Trayanum on the final play of the first half. Ford trucked Trayanum, who remained on the ground as medical personnel worked on him for several minutes.
Many of the Jets remained on the field, taking a knee and watching with concern.
Rich Cimini of ESPN reports that Trayanum appeared to be wearing a neck brace as he was strapped into the cart.
Trayanum had 12 carries for 38 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 25 yards in the first half.
The Jets report that Trayanum is headed to the hospital, but is awake, alert and has movement in his extremities.
They have ruled out sixth-round rookie guard Anez Cooper (shoulder).
Jets pass rusher Joseph Ossai was seeing his first preseason action Friday night. It didn’t last long.
Ossai injured his left foot after 11 snaps, two tackles and one pressure.
The Jets list him as questionable to return.
Ossai began camp on the active/physically unable to perform list.
He signed with the Jets on March 12. A third-round pick of the Bengals in 2021, he has totaled 116 tackles, 44 quarterback hits and 14.5 sacks.
In 2025 with the Bengals, Ossai played a career-high 616 defensive snaps and logged 71 special teams snaps.
After a long rehab from a torn Achilles tendon, Giants running back Najee Harris may finally return to game action tonight.
Harris is expected to play tonight against the Jets, according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.
Harris was playing for the Chargers last season when he tore his Achilles tendon in Week Three, ending his season.
Before signing with the Chargers last season, Harris played four seasons for the Steelers, and ran for at least 1,000 yards in all four of them, while never missing a game. The Giants would love to see that version of Harris back on the field this season.
The Giants officially ended Calvin Austin’s season on Thursday by placing the wide receiver on injured reserve.
Austin tore the ACL in his right knee while running a route at Tuesday’s training camp practice. He was carted off the field.
He signed a one-year deal with the Giants in the offseason after spending his first four seasons with the Steelers. He totaled 31 catches for 372 yards and three touchdowns last season.
The loss of Austin, who was expected to have a big role as the slot receiver, improves Odell Beckham Jr.'s chances of making the 53-player roster.
Giants running back Cam Skattebo’s playing style has won him a lot of admirers, but Wednesday’s practice showed that there can sometimes be too much of a good thing.
Skattebo got into it with defensive backs Jevon Holland and Greg Newsome after a running play and multiple reporters covering the team noted that it wasn’t the first time that the running back has triggered responses from defenders who are limited in how they can hit him during drills. Skattebo was later seen talking to his teammates in an attempt to smooth things over and head coach John Harbaugh said after practice that Skattebo needs to make sure he’s channeling his energy the right way.
“Skatt’s great. He does bring a lot of energy,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “But he did get a 15-yard penalty at the end of practice. Did you notice that? That’s not infectious. Well, it is infectious, actually. Infectious in a bad way, right? Like infectious disease type of thing. We don’t want that. So, we want it to be directed in a positive way.”
The Giants will want Skattebo to bring everything he’s got against the Cowboys in Week 1 while also remaining aware that there’s a line that can’t be crossed without hurting the team.
