Austin Mack

Giants Cut Damion Ratley, Promote Austin Mack

The Giants are shuffling around their receiving corp. They’re waiving receiver Damion Ratley and promoting receiver Austin Mack from the practice squad, the team announced Tuesday.

Ratley had actually been playing a fairly sizable role lately, especially after the injury to Sterling Shepard, so this is somewhat surprising. A sixth-round pick of the Browns in 2018, Ratley was waived by Cleveland at final cuts this year and claimed by the Giants the next day. He started a few games in each of his two years with the Browns, and had 200 yards and a touchdown last season.

So far with the Giants Ratley had played about 40 percent of the offensive snaps through five games, so that’s a decent amount of playing time that will now be available to Mack and others. He didn’t catch a pass this past week against the Giants, but had three receptions for 34 yards the week before against the Rams.

He’ll likely get a shot with someone else before too long. Mack is an undrafted rookie who signed with the Giants back in April and was added to the practice squad after final cuts. He’s an Ohio State product.

Minor NFL Transactions: 10/3/20

Here is Saturday’s bevy of minor moves:

Arizona Cardinals

Baltimore Ravens

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Dallas Cowboys

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Washington Football Team

Giants Cut Jon Halapio, Slash Roster To 53

The Giants revealed the moves they made to pare their roster down to 53 players. Here are the cuts Big Blue made Saturday:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

The two quarterback cuts will leave Daniel Jones and Colt McCoy as the Giants’ only two quarterbacks to start their post-Eli Manning era, though Rush certainly would profile as a practice squad candidate. He played for new OC Jason Garrett in Dallas for three seasons.
Connelly’s cut is somewhat surprising, given the linebacker’s three starts last season. But an injury cut short his rookie season. The Giants can place 16 players on their practice squad this season. If Connelly clears waivers, it is likely he will be part of that group.
The Giants re-signed Halapio days ago. He has been Big Blue’s starting center in each of their past two Week 1 games, and the former Patriots draft pick started 15 games in 2019. The Giants did not tender Halapio as an RFA this offseason and kept Nick Gates, whom they extended this year, and Spencer Pulley on the roster over him.

Giants Sign 15 Undrafted Players

The Giants have agreed to sign 15 undrafted free agents, per a club announcement. They had 80 players on the roster heading into Monday morning, so five players will have to be cut in order to make room for the newcomers. Here’s the full rundown:

Dillon’s deal includes a $40K guarantee, as Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets. That’s an indication that other clubs were keen on the LSU product. Last year, Dillon finished out with 15 catches for 202 yards and two touchdowns in Joe Burrow‘s offense.

Cookus, a quarterback out of Northern Arizona, likely would have heard his name called over the weekend if not for a pair of season-ending shoulder injuries in college. In his final season with the Lumberjacks, Cookus threw for nearly 4,100 yards and 31 touchdowns. Still, making the Giants’ 53-man roster cut will be tough as they already have Colt McCoy and Alex Tanney slotted behind starter Daniel Jones.