With New York Giants training camp beginning in late July, BigBlueInteractive.com (BBI) breaks down each of the team’s positional groups until the players report at Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
FIND A COMPLETE LIST OF ALL BREAKDOWNS HERE
POSITIONAL BREAKDOWN: Special Teams
2024 YEAR IN REVIEW: Unlike offense and defense, special teams can be a little easier to evaluate on statistical results without caveats or nuance. Under new Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial and Assistant Special Teams Coach Cameron Achord, the New York Giants finished 2024 with the following rankings:
- Field Goal Percentage: 23rd in the NFL (82.1 percent)
- Kickoff Returns: 13th in the NFL (28.3 yards per return)
- Net Punting: 27th in the NFL (40.3 yards per punt)
- Punt Returns: 26th in the NFL (7.6 yards per return)
- Kickoff Return Defense: 26th in the NFL (28.94 yards per return allowed)
- Punt Return Defense: 23rd in the NFL (10.54 yards per return allowed)
Clearly, based on these numbers, the New York Giants special teams remained bottom-tier. The lone bright spot was the transition from Eric Gray (21 returns, 26.4 yards per return) to Ihmir Smith-Marsette (11 returns, 34.6 yards per return, 1 touchdown) on kickoff returns. It was a bad look for the team to continue to try to force feed Gray as a kickoff returner, something he never became comfortable with, fumbling three times.
What was ridiculous was the number of kickers/punters the team went through. Punter Jamie Gillan missed a month with a hamstring injury and was replaced by Matt Haack for four games. Place kicker Graham Gano got hurt for the second season in a row, and missed seven games with a hamstring injury that landed him on Injured Reserve. He was replaced by Greg Joseph. That situation turned ugly in Week 2 as the Giants lost a game 21-18 to the Commanders because they failed to bring up Jude McAtamney from the Practice Squad with Gano ailing. Gillan was forced to kick, missed an extra point, and the Giants spent the rest of the game choosing to not kick extra points and field goals.
In the games that they did play, Gillan averaged 43.7 yards per punt with a net of 40.5. Gano ended up playing in 10 games, finishing 9-of-11 on field goal attempts (81.8 percent) and a perfect 15-of-15 on extra points. Joseph kicked in six games, finishing 13-of-16 on field goal attempts. McAtamney spent most of the season on the Practice Squad, although he kicked for the team for one game in November, with a field goal and an extra point.
ADDITIONS/SUBTRACTIONS: The Giants pretty much brought everyone back. Gano and McAtamney are the only place kickers on the roster. Gillan – who was re-signed to a 3-year, $9 million contract – remains the only punter. WR/Returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette and long snapper Casey Kreiter were also re-signed to 1-year deals.
In terms of special teams players, the Giants chose not to re-sign ILB Matthew Adams and LB/DB Isaiah Simmons. But they did sign ILB Chris Board, ILB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, OLB Victor Dimukeje, and WR Zach Pascal in free agency. Rookies who stood out in college on specials include WR Dalen Cambre, CB Korie Black, and S Makari Paige.
TRAINING CAMP STORY LINES: For better or worse, the team decided to stick with Jamie Gillan as punter with the 3-year contract. That leaves Graham Gano, who has two years and almost $10 million in salary left on his current contract. Gano was superb for the Giants for three years before his last two injury-plagued seasons. Jude McAtamney is his only competition. Can Gano return to his previous form at the age of 38?
Hopefully the coaching staff has finally learned its lesson to leave the kick and punt return jobs to a real specialist, in this case, Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
ON THE BUBBLE: At the current time, no one seems to be on the bubble. Gillan is locked up for three more years. At worst, McAtamney ends up on the Practice Squad again as the International exemption. It’s Gano’s job to lose.
FROM THE COACHES: Special Teams Coordinator Michael Ghobrial on Graham Gano: “He’s looked good. Year 17, a guy that’s done it at a high level for a long time. There is a lot of respect that guy has just obviously entering the building and when you see the way he approaches the game.”
Ghobrial on Jude McAtamney: “I would say that Jude has shown a lot of promise even from last year kicking in a game. You obviously see the leg talent, you see the leg strength, all those things that amount to being a good kicker in this league.”
Ghobrial on Jamie Gillan: “Yeah, number one, that is a difficult place to punt, right, our stadium. We embrace that. So when you are looking across the league of guys that have the ability to have success in that stadium, number one, you look at guy that’s done it before. I believe Jamie had an awesome year last year. When you look at the numbers, again, that won’t always be telling. What he did do a great job was he pinned the opponent inside the 10-yard line multiple times. When you talk about playing complementary football, you pin the opponent inside the 10-yard line, the defense takes the field, expected points goes less and less percentage-wise. He excelled in that fashion. The second thing he excelled in was obviously the field punts in a windy situation, understanding the ability to control returners. So Jamie just excelled in so many different attributes to be a successful punter in that stadium that we’re happy he’s back. He’s hit the ground running and doing a nice job.”
Ghobrial on Ihmir Smith-Marsette: “Number one, a good decision maker. I think when you’re talking about the returner spot, you want a guy that when he’s out there he makes good decisions, whether he’s in traffic, whether he’s in the open field. And then he obviously takes care of that football. That’s a priority number one. Second thing you saw was production. The guy scored twice in this league, albeit one got called back, but he scored twice, which not many returners in the league last year did that. He’s one of the few. Then you’re always talking about the character of a person and their competitive integrity. That guy has it. You see that in the manner in which he approaches the meetings. You hear the way he communicates with his teammates. I’ll never claim I can cross the white line. When he’s out there, he’s the voice. It’s good to hear that voice in the meeting room, which you guys obviously don’t hear, but he’s able to do that. His teammates respect that because they know how important it is to him. So you see just a leadership role from a returner standpoint show up, and that’s why obviously he’s had success and why we’re happy to have him back.”
Ghobrial on Chris Board: “Chris, number one, comes from a playoff team, so you bring a guy that was part of a winning culture, and then you bring a guy in that is – it’s not his rookie year, right? Seventh year in the league. So just not the veteran experience. It’s a guy that’s produced consistently every year he’s been in the league. He’s been one of the Top 5 leading tacklers on special teams for the past few years. You see all the traits physically that he has show up when he’s doing all this drill work. Then you obviously see the mental side of the game show up, too. He’s just covered so many kicks that he sees the game at a different speed than other people. Where some guys may do the drill, they may do the technique, they don’t always have the experience to say, I’ve been in that position. He’s been in that position so many times and he’s produced. So having a guy like Chris is awesome because even starting a drill in these practices, it’s like, ‘Chris, you’re the first guy up.’ ‘Okay, fellas, that’s exactly how I want it to look like.’ We call those guys tone setters. It’s not always something that they have to excel in vocally. It’s sometimes just your actions. He is a guy that embodies all that… He was a guy that I’ve followed the past few years. I’m like, I hope one day I get to coach this guy, so obviously when we signed him I was ultra excited because I know his ability and I know what he can do to impact this team. So really happy. Really happy that we signed him, and excited to coach him.”
FINAL THOUGHTS: From 2020-2022, Graham Gano had one of the most remarkable three years for a kicker in team history. But staying healthy and being available is a must for any kicker. Stating the obvious, the team is taking a big chance on him. McAtamney was more of a kickoff specialist than true field goal kicker in college, but he appears to have had a strong spring. Maybe there is more to his game than originally thought.
Gillan has a strong leg and has gotten better with his ball placement (27 of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line with only two touchbacks), but he has to get that net punting average up.
Keep an eye on Chris Board (65 special teams tackles since 2018 and a special teams captain in 2024 for John Harbaugh’s Ravens) and Dalen Cambre (ranked as one of the best special teams players in college in 2024).
FINAL DEPTH CHART: Graham Gano, Jamie Gillan, Casey Kreiter