The door appears to remain open for Jon Halapio to return to the Giants. The team worked out its Week 1 center starter of the past two years on Monday, Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com tweets.
Wideouts Jaron Brown, Johnny Holton, and quarterback Jalan McClendon also auditioned for the Giants today. Halapio, however, has the most recent track record as a starter.
After letting Weston Richburg walk in 2018, the Giants turned to Halapio at center. He started two games for the Giants in 2018, but a broken leg ended his season. The former sixth-round Patriots pick then started 15 games last season, but a Week 17 Achilles tear clouded his NFL future. The Giants did not tender him as a restricted free agent this offseason.
Halapio, 29, worked out for the Texans last week. Big Blue has held a Nick Gates–Spencer Pulley competition at center during training camp. Joe Judge called this competition “scratch even” last week. Halapio played over both when healthy the past two seasons. The Giants, however, gave Gates an extension earlier this year.
The 49ers signed Brown earlier this month but released him last week. He has played seven NFL seasons — five with the Cardinals, two with the Seahawks. The Giants are fairly set at wide receiver — at least, among their top three — but lost wideout/special-teamer Cody Core to a season-ending injury. Brown, 30, has started 18 career games. The 6-foot-3 target has mostly been a depth player in his career. Last season, he caught 16 passes for 220 yards and two TDs with Seattle.
Halapio was nothing but a revolving door, a matador for DL last two seasons. Unless their bringing him in to build up the confidence of the D linemen on the giants during practice I can see no reason for even giving him a tryout.
smh why they like this guy so much. Too often this guy gets pushed into the backfield. His continuous troubles partly led to Hernandez regression last year.