Giants Camp — Sep 3: Schoen Is Still Working the Wire

Three days after cutting to 53, the Giants' general manager said the roster was not finished. "We're still working through the waiver wire the other night," Joe Schoen said Wednesday, per Patricia Traina at Giants On SI — players other teams had let go, a few of whom he said the Giants were targeting or looking at. He named the defensive line as an area the team wants to add to. "We're going to continue to look to upgrade everywhere we can." That is the same posture John Harbaugh took on cutdown day about the line — "we're still looking, but I don't want to rule out anything else either" — after trading a 2028 seventh to Baltimore for defensive lineman C.J. Okoye. Three days apart, the coach and the general manager said the front is a work in progress. So the first 53 of the Harbaugh era, which we told you looked like his on paper, is being treated by its builders as a draft.

What the waiver wire actually did for New York was almost nothing. The Giants were awarded no claims and reportedly put in none, per Traina, and lost exactly one player: linebacker Darius Muasau, claimed by New England on Monday, per the Patriots' ledger. Nobody else from Sunday — guard Evan Neal, quarterback Brandon Allen and running back Eric Gray among the names we gave you, veteran guard Lucas Patrick alongside them — has a reported destination. One landed later: offensive lineman Jake Kubas, waived Sunday, signed to New England's practice squad Tuesday, per the Patriots' ledger.

The building happened on the practice squad, and it happened from outside. The initial 53, as set Sunday, kept five receivers and four defensive tackles. 13 players signed Monday, per the team, all of them men who had been here this offseason. The receiver room came back first: Braxton Berrios, whom we told you the team planned to bring back for Week 1 as a vested veteran — a plan that resolved as a practice-squad veteran deal, not a 53 spot; Jalin Hyatt, one of the three former-regime names our last episode had going out the door, back on the same kind of deal; and Dalen Cambre. Quarterback Jake Haener came back under the practice-squad exception as the emergency third arm behind Jaxson Dart and Jameis Winston, after a perfect hundred-58.3 passer rating in the preseason finale, per Matt Sidney at GMenHQ. On defense: nose tackle Josh Tupou and linebacker Chandler Martin, both reunited with Harbaugh from Baltimore; defensive lineman Ben Barten; edge Trace Ford, waived Sunday despite a finale that earned him Pro Football Focus team-of-the-week honors, per Sidney; safety Raheem Layne and cornerback J.T. Woods. On the offensive line, tackle Ryan Schernecke and lineman Jarrod Gray, who fills the international designation. Fullback Grant Finley took the last spot. Then Tuesday, four from other organizations, per the team's ledger: receiver Charlie Jones from Cincinnati, a 2023 fourth-rounder with three career return touchdowns including a hundred-yard kickoff return in 2024, per Traina; offensive lineman Darian Kinnard, most recently with Green Bay; offensive lineman Kingsley Eguakun, two starts for Detroit last year; and defensive back Elijah Jones, Arizona's 2024 third-round pick, 10 games last season. Then Wednesday: interior lineman Geno VanDeMark, a Lodi, New Jersey native who started nine games at Alabama last season and signed with Indianapolis as an undrafted rookie, per Traina, and Woods released to make room. 17 as of Wednesday, per the team's tracker — the maximum. Three of the five outsiders came off other teams' offensive lines. Schoen's frame, per the team's site: "the practice squad now is truly an extension of the active roster."

The reserve list did not move after Sunday. Cornerback Korie Black, placed on injured reserve with a designation to return, is the only Giant carrying that designation, per the team's release. Nothing was added between Monday and Wednesday. The cut ledger by the team's own count: nine vested veterans terminated Sunday, 18 waived outright, and two more — cornerback Art Green and the kicker Ben Sauls — waived with an injury settlement. Two updates to the page from our last episode: Berrios, Hyatt, Ford and Haener all came back, as above; and the two seventh-round trades we described as moving in opposite directions did — but four days apart, Joshua Ezeudu to Kansas City on August 26 and Okoye from Baltimore on August 30, per the team's transactions ledger, not a matched pair.

Schoen's read on the roster he has, per Traina: "We have a young quarterback on a rookie deal, going into his second year." He has "a number one receiver in Malik Nabers," and "I think we've got a strong defense" — and up front, a line that "returned four of five starters," with "the number 10 pick being plugged in at right guard." On cornerback Deonte Banks, who came out of cutdown a starter, per the team's site: "corner's not an easy position," and "he's continued to battle and fight." On the undrafted kicker: "He's been really good since he got here this spring, post-draft. Mentally tough kid, he's got some personality and some swag to him." And on Week 1: "You're going to have to go 60 minutes to compete with us."

The one thing that did not move is the one thing that matters most. Nabers, two days after making the 53, would not commit to Dallas, per Traina: "My mind is focused on playing the regular season, playing whenever that is." On the knee: "I feel really good, to be honest." And: "I'm getting there for sure. I'm getting there." On when the call gets made: "That would be a decision that would be made when that time comes." Traina reports Harbaugh's position as of Tuesday is that Nabers is out of the red non-contact jersey and still needs football-specific conditioning, with no ruling either way. Dart, who sat the finale, per Traina: "I feel so much better. I feel in command. I feel confident." Harbaugh: "I think he looks really comfortable in what we're doing right now, but the next test will be game time."

Back in July we previewed the Giants as a genuinely interesting bet — two bounce flags, a top-10-graded young roster, and Harbaugh's record of never underperforming his talent — with the honest uncertainty concentrated in two files: Dart's deep ball and Nabers' rebuilt knee. The floor: four and 13, an offense that ranked seventeenth in expected points added per play — the measure of how much each snap moved the expected score — fifth running the ball, and a defense 20-fifth. Cut day spoke to the Harbaugh leg. This week spoke to it again — a front office that treats the 53 as the first draft of the roster and says so — and to neither file. The deep ball took no live rep. The knee said, in the player's own words, that it is getting there. The preview holds. 10 days out, its biggest variable is unchanged.

Next is the Cowboys, Sunday, September 13, at MetLife Stadium. What to watch: whether Nabers takes a full practice in game week, and whether Schoen's defensive-line search produces a name before then. The Recap follows the game.

_Data via nflverse._