Giants Make Surprising Decision Regarding Practice Squad Elevations

The Giants did not elevate a receiver for their Week 5 game against the New Orleans Saints.

The New York Giants have set their Week 5 game-day roster and there's one curious surprise among the series of moves made. | Mark Smith-Imagn Images

The New York Giants, who begin the rest of the season without star receiver Malik Nabers, have opted not to elevate a receiver from their practice squad to add depth at the position.

Earlier in the week, there was the possibility that the Giants would bring up Lil’Jordan Humphrey to reinforce the depth at the position. 

However, the Giants went through the week of practice and are apparently comfortable with giving Jalin Hyatt and undrafted rookie free agent Beau Collins an expanded role on offense for the coming week.

The Giants, who hosted four receivers for a workout on Friday, undoubtedly created a short list of options should plans change. 

But assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka indicated that there is some enthusiasm over what Hyatt, the team’s third-round draft pick in 2023, has done while waiting for a chance to prove himself. 

“Yeah, I think very highly of Jalin. He's doing a great job in practice. Whether or not the game, how the game kind of declares itself, I think we’ll see how that goes,” Kafka said.

In other roster moves, the Giants elevated linebacker Neville Hewitt and kicker Jude McAtamney from the practice squad. 

This is the last elevation the team can use on Hewitt, as they’re likely to sign him to the 53-man roster ahead of next week’s Thursday night clash with the Philadelphia Eagles.

The odds of that happening increased with linebacker Demtrius Flannigan-Fowles, a core special teams player, dealing with a hamstring injury that caused the team to downgrade him from doubtful to out ahead of Sunday’s game with the Saints.

McAtamney has been in a weekly battle with veteran Younghoe Koo, whom the Giants signed to their practice squad on Sept. 23. Last week in the team’s 21-18 win against the Los Angeles Chargers, he hit both of his field goals of 22 and 31 yards and finished tenth in yards per kickoff (63.6).

Also worth noting is that the Giants, who have a league-low $1,683,344 in cap space, did not sign any players to fill the two open roster spots vacated by the waiving of outside linebacker Tomon Fox and the placement of Malik Nabers on IR.

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