Giants Add Dawuane Smoot to Practice Squad Amid Run Defense Concerns

After a 202-yard rushing day by Washington, the Giants brought in Smoot, a 10-year veteran, and tried out two other linemen.

Jan 4, 2026; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Dawuane Smoot (98) runs out of the tunnel before the game against the Tennessee Titans at EverBank Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The New York Giants continued their search for defensive line help on Monday by signing defensive lineman Dawuane Smoot to their practice squad.

Per the league’s transaction wire, Smoot had been in for a visit, while fellow defensive linemen Julian Okwara and Yannick Ngakoue were both in for tryouts.

Smoot is a 10-year NFL veteran who entered the league as a third-round pick in 2017. The 31-year-old has played in 127 games with 21 career starts and has 27 sacks.

Smoot, 6-foot-3 and 275 pounds, spent the 2024 season with Buffalo before returning to the Jaguars in 2025.

The Giants have been on a nonstop hunt for defensive line help, focusing on depth behind starters Shelby Harris and D.J. Reader. The Giants’ run defense, in particular, has been inconsistent all season, with the unit running hot and cold.

This past weekend, it ran cold, allowing 202 rushing yards on 30 carries (6.7 avg.) to the Washington Commanders in its Week 5 27-27 overtime tie.

That performance means the Giants’ run defense has allowed 638 total rushing yards, tied for sixth most in the league with Green Bay. And the Giants, who have allowed 5.2 yards per carry to opponents, are tied with the Raiders for second in that category.

“I think we’ve had too many chunk plays overall,” head coach John Harbaugh said of the run defense during his Monday video call.

“We’ve played a kind of feast or famine run defense. We’ve had a lot of really good plays, a lot of really good plays in that game where we stuffed the run, which we’re very capable of doing.

“And then there are a couple of line of scrimmage runs that get out on us that we’re not happy about that can be played so much better. Whether we don’t adjust to a motion the right way, we don’t get over in our gaps, we don’t quite come in through the angles.”

To Harbaugh’s point, the Giants are tied for the seventh-most big-play runs allowed (17) with Arizona and Detroit. The Giants are also tied for the fourth-most rushing plays allowed of 20 or more yards with six.

Reader (53%) and Harris (49%) have handled most of the run defense’s snaps up front, but the dropoff has been most evident behind them.

So the Giants have been trying to find the right blend of backup depth to help fortify their first line of run defense, a process that’s been ongoing even before the Giants traded Dexter Lawrence II earlier this year.

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook and X for the latest news, and send your mailbag questions to us.