The Giants finally are looking for kicking insurance behind Graham Gano, though it might be one week too late to save the season.
Veteran kickers Robbie Gould, Mason Crosby, Randy Bullock and Matthew Wright tried out Thursday, as first reported by former Giants kicker and current New York Post “Blue Rush” podcast co-host Lawrence Tynes.
All but Bullock were spotted in the locker room during media availability.
Gano (knee) first appeared on the Oct. 18 injury report.
After he missed two field goals last Sunday against the Jets, including what essentially would have been a game-clincher with 24 seconds remaining, head coach Brian Daboll said that Gano is “alright” and “going into it, felt comfortable with him.”
But it’s clear that something is wrong with Gano given that he made 91.8 percent of his field goals with the Giants from 2020-22 but is 11-for-17 (64.7 percent) this season.
The Giants say that the Jets committed an unflagged penalty on Gano’s last miss.
“I think if he goes out on the field, he’s got to be capable of doing the job, you know what I mean?” special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey said. “It’s just one of those deals: You sign up, you put a jersey on, here we go. It’s time to go, they call your number, you’ve got to make the kick. That’s part of the job.”
McGaughey declined to discuss the specifics of Gano’s knee injury before Thursday’s practice and subsequent workout.
Gano was not seen during Thursday’s media availability but refused to use his injury as an excuse for missing the critical kick during the postgame locker room.
“He’s just working on some things right now and hopefully it can get ironed out and keep rolling,” McGaughey said. “You know, Graham’s pretty good. And he’s better than most even when he’s at 80-85 percent, 70 percent. So, we are just going to work through it. If it’s something that we’ve got to address later, we’ll address it later.”
Gould, who kicked for the 49ers last season, and Bullock, who kicked for the Titans last season, both are former Giants.
Crosby has spent his entire 16-year career, through last season, with the Packers.
Wright, who has much less experience than the others, kicked in six games combined for the Chiefs and Steelers last season.
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