In February, a Buccaneers offensive player retired to spend more time with his family before coming back. Giants center Jon Feliciano hopes there will be another one.
Via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News, Feliciano said Wednesday that he hopes receiver Cole Beasley will change him mind, and play for the Giants. Beasley surprisingly retired from the Tampa Bay practice squad on Wednesday.
”I’ve talked to him since he retired,” Feliciano said, via Leonard. “I talk to him all the time. I don’t know. I’m holding out hope. I think if the right situation comes, I think he comes back. But from what he says, he’s retiring. So I don’t know. It might be just me holding out a little hope.”
The Giants had previously tried to sign Beasley. Feliciano said he participated in a “recruitment dinner” in early September. Head coach Brian Daboll, who coordinated the offense in Buffalo when Beasley was in it, has wanted to add Beasley to the Giants roster.
“Great guy,” Daboll said Wednesday, via Leonard. “Very productive in our system. Wish him the best of luck. Him and his family, children, great person.”
Feliciano believes that Beasley retired because he “missed his family a lot and things probably weren’t going the way he wanted.”
Beasley played in only four snaps on Sunday night, catching one pass for five yards.
If he wants to return, he’d go back to the Buccaneers practice squad -- and then the Giants could simply sign him to the active roster.
“He hasn’t lost a step,” Feliciano said. “And the difference in hypotheticals of whether he came here or went back to Buffalo, in a scheme he already knows, I believe going to Tampa and learning a new offense kind of takes some time.”
Feliciano also said he thinks Beasley has some career goals he’d like to reach. “I think it was 6,000 yards and 40 touchdowns or something like that,” Feliciano said.
As noted by Leonard, Beasley has 5,726 career receiving yards and 34 receiving touchdowns. He could reach both marks with the Giants.
The Giants definitely could use him. In the end, it may come down to whether the Giants are willing to pay a fair rate for the production he can generate in Daboll’s offense.