Giants Sign Sam Roberts for Defensive Line Depth

The New York Giants have finally made a free-agent signing on their defensive line, having signed defensive tackle Sam Roberts to a one-year deal.

Roberts was originally a sixth-round draft pick by New England in 2022. He’s played in 20 games, with two starts, for the Patriots, Carolina Panthers, and Atlanta Falcons. He’s racked up 26 tackles, two quarterback hits, and one sack over his career.

The 6-5 and 300-pound Roberts appeared in five games last season for the Falcons, making one start before landing on injured reserve with ankle and knee injuries. In those five games, Roberts recorded his first and, to date, lone sack and had 18 career tackles,including one tackle for loss.

Roberts, primarily a nose tackle, played college ball at Northwest Missouri State, where in 2021 he won the Cliff Harris Award, honoring the nation's small-college defensive player of the year.

He appeared in 38 games for the Bearcats, recording 131 tackles (69 solo), 30 tackles-for-loss, 12 sacks, one interception, six pass breakups, and two forced fumbles.

The Giants appear to be moving on from defensive linemen Rakeem Nunez-Roches and DJ Davidson, both of whom are unrestricted free agents. New York could still add defensive line depth in next month’s draft to round out a room that includes Dexter Lawrence II, Darius Alexander, Roy Robertson-Harris, Chauncey Golston, and Elijah Chatman among its experienced defensive linemen.

Roberts has been fairly successful as a run stopper over his career in limited snaps (126). Over the last two seasons, he's earned grades of 73.9 an d 70.7 in run defense from Pro Football Focus for his work in 71 run defense snaps in which he has posted five stops and 16 tackles, while having missed just one tackle over that two-year span .

Roberts, who offers a degree of versatility on the defensive line, has played both as a nose tackle and as a 3-tech, with a limited number of snaps as a 5-tech. He has 11 career pressures in 141 pass-rushing snaps.

Roberts has also contributed on special teams, having played 55 career snaps, all of which have come on the field-goal block team.

Roberts had been a restricted free agent for the Falcons, who opted not to tender him. That made him an unrestricted free agent free to sign with any team.

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