HEADLINES

Brandon McManus

Giants Waive 13 Players, Place Two On IR

August 26th, 2014 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams

10:49am: Graziano provides the last four Giants moves, reporting in a pair of tweets that the team has also cut safety C.J. Barnett and defensive tackle Everett Dawkins, as well as placing wideout Marcus Harris and safety Cooper Taylor on season-ending injured reserve.

10:27am: Vacchiano adds two more names to the list of Giants’ cuts (via Twitter): Travis Harvey (WR) and John Sullen (G). The team still has to part ways with four more players by this afternoon.

9:26am: In addition to McManus and James, the Giants have cut the following players, according to reports from Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News and Conor Orr of the Star-Ledger:

  • Spencer Adkins, LB
  • Justin Anderson, LB (waived-injured)
  • Jerome Cunningham, TE
  • Emmanuel Dieke, DE
  • Xavier Grimble, TE (waived-injured)
  • Kyle Sebetic, S
  • Ross Weaver, CB

The seven additional cuts bring the Giants’ roster count down to 81.

8:34am: The Giants’ first wave of roster cuts is underway, and one of the team’s first moves will settle the kicking battle in New York. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the Giants have informed Brandon McManus that Josh Brown will be the club’s kicker, with McManus being cut. Additionally, defensive back Charles James will be waived, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN.com (via Twitter). James announced that move himself this morning, via Instagram.

McManus, 23, may have lost the Giants’ kicking competition to the veteran Brown, but he has a big leg, having reportedly made a 75-yard field goal in training camp, as well as frequently putting kickoffs 10 yards out of the end zone, writes Bill Pennington of the New York Times. He’ll have to make it through waivers to become a free agent, so we’ll keep an eye out this week on whether another team decides to put in a claim for him.

As for James, he spent last season with the Giants and only saw two total defensive snaps, but was a frequent contributor on special teams — he recorded six overall tackles in kick and punt coverage. Graziano tweets that New York would have liked to delay its decision on James, but recent injuries on the offensive line have forced the team to change its plans.

The Giants have yet to announce these transactions, but figure to make them official later today when they finalize the rest of their cuts. The team will have to part ways with 13 more players by this afternoon’s roster cutdown deadline.

East Notes: Vick, Pats, Giants, Murray

August 6th, 2014 at 9:11pm CST by Zachary Links

Not every Jets fan will agree, but coach Rex Ryan made the right call to keep rising sophomore Geno Smith as his starter over veteran free agent addition Michael Vick, opines Bob Glauber of Newsday. It doesn’t guarantee that Smith will take a significant step forward after last year’s inconsistent campaign but it also doesn’t mean that Ryan and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg can’t change their minds mid-season. More out of the AFC and NFC East..

  • Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap looked at the best and worst contracts on the Patriots‘ payroll. The best deal, he writes is the one they gave to offensive lineman Sebastian Vollmer as it’s a prime example of how how to handle a good, but injury prone, player. The worst, meanwhile, belongs to Logan Mankins, who edged out the oft-injured Danny Amendola for the dubious distinction. Mankins is the better player of the two, but he ended up being paid as the top interior lineman in the league at a time when he was not the best at his position. Mankins carries a $10.5MM cap charge this year, second highest among guards in the NFL.
  • The Jets are thrilled with the play of new right tackle Breno Giacomini, writes Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “He’s great, and he’s been going like this,’’ Ryan said while making the motion of a jet taking off. “I think getting used to the offense, there are new plays, new terminology, all that kind of stuff, playing with new teammates.“
  • Giants special teams coordinator Tom Quinn says the battle between kickers Josh Brown and Brandon McManus is still extremely close, writes Tom Rock of Newsday. “The thing about Josh is that he does have a strong leg,” Quinn said. “A lot of times, you have an older kicker and a young kicker and the young kicker has such a strong leg. But Brandon will really have to beat him out in all areas to win the job. And he knows that.”
  • Rick Gosselin and Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News looked at several issues concerning the Cowboys, including whether running back DeMarco Murray could price the club out of re-signing him. Goesselin feels that in today’s pass-happy NFL, it’d be impossible for the 27-year-old to get too pricey for Dallas. Horn, meanwhile, isn’t so sure since owner Jerry Jones likes to dole out big deals.

East Links: Revis, Jets, Brown

August 3rd, 2014 at 10:16am CST by Rory Parks

As the Bills and Giants prepare to kick off the preseason in tonight’s Hall of Fame game, let’s take a look at some links from some of their fellow teams in the league’s east divisions:

  • It will be difficult for Dolphins‘ running back Daniel Thomas to stay on Miami’s roster, writes Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. Thomas is, of course, behind Lamar Miller and Knowshon Moreno on the team’s depth chart, but he has also lost his biggest advocate in former GM Jeff Ireland and Mike Gillislee has been more active in training camp.
  • Rich Cimini of ESPNNewYork.com writes that the Jets received a $1.75MM salary cap credit this season as a result of an injury grievance settlement with former nose tackle Sione Po’uha. The team would have had a great deal of salary cap room even without the settlement, but now they have about $21MM of cap space.
  • In the same piece, Cimini notes that the recent deals for 2011 first-round selections Tyson Smith and Patrick Peterson will not hurry the Jets in extension talks with their own 2011 first-rounder, Muhammad Wilkerson. A new deal for the big defensive lineman may not happen until next year.
  • Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that Jets‘ LB Jermaine Cunningham, who the team hoped would provide pass-rush help in 2014, is believed to have torn his ACL, thus ending his season.
  • The freshly-inked extensions for Tyson Smith and Patrick Peterson have proven to be useful fodder for beat writers from around the league. Ben Volin of the Boston Globe writes that those new deals have set the bar for key members of the Patriots‘ roster like Nate Solder and Darrelle Revis. Although Revis is technically under contract for the next two seasons, no one expects New England to pick up his $12.5MM option bonus for 2015, which would saddle the club with a $25MM cap hit. As such, Revis–assuming he stays healthy and productive–will be eyeing Peterson’s deal (as well as those recently signed by Richard Sherman and Joe Haden) as a benchmark for a new contract of his own. However, he will turn 30 next July and has a torn ACL in his past, so a “pay-as-you-go” deal like that signed by Sherman may be a more fitting option. Solder, meanwhile, is under contract for a more reasonable $7.44MM in 2015, so while an extension for him is not a top priority just yet, Smith’s new contract may guide negotiations if and when extension talks commence.
  • Giants kicker Josh Brown knows that his spot on the team’s roster is far from guaranteed, writes Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post. His competition with Brandon McManus, who is 12 years his junior, begins in earnest tonight.
  • John Keim of ESPN.com examines the Redskins roster battle at inside linebacker.