The New York Giants made a massive change on Monday, firing Brian Daboll during his fourth season as the head coach. After leading the team to the playoffs in his first year, things got bad in East Rutherford. One point of contention has been kicking management amid Graham Gano's injury-riddled career. The Giants signed kicker Ben Sauls to the practice squad on Tuesday, continuing their week of change.
“The Giants signed TE Zach Davidson and K Ben Sauls to the practice squad. A fourth kicker. Younghoe Koo is on the practice squad but kicked Sunday vs. Chicago. Jude McAtamney is an international roster exemption on P-squad. Graham Gano has a neck injury,” ESPN's Jordan Raanan reported.
Gano has been excellent throughout his NFL career, but last-second injuries have cost the Giants multiple games in recent years. Koo was ousted from the Atlanta Falcons earlier in the year and made all of his kicks in his New York debut on Sunday. McAtamney was the backup kicker at Rutgers before joining the Giants on the international exemption. He was a reason they lost the historic Broncos collapse earlier this season.
Sauls has never kicked in the NFL and went undrafted out of Pittsburgh in the 2025 Draft. He made 81.3% of his kicks in college, which is not a great rate. But the Giants need someone who will reliably be able to kick on Sundays, which Gano is not at this point.
It is likely Sauls will never see the field for the Giants. Koo did enough to keep the role for at least one more week, even with a coaching change. And when Gano is healthy, he should be the kicker. But the recent history of Gano should lead Joe Schoen to leave a second kicker on the active roster for every game.
