Veteran tight end Chris Manhertz trying to ‘pay it forward’ with Giants

If you had told him back in 2014 that in 2024 he would be entering his 10th season as a pro football player, New York Giants tight end Chris Manhertz would not have believed you.

No one would have.

In 2014, Manhertz finished his basketball career at Canisius, averaging 6.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. He also served as a three-year team captain.

He had never played football.

Manhertz was considering going overseas to play basketball or getting on with his life when he said he was invited to “a Pro Day type thing” with the Buffalo Bills.

“I realized that not a lot of people even get that opportunity,” Manhertz said during a recent interview after practice. “Very open-minded about it in the beginning, and I kind of operated under the mindset that, look, I have nothing to lose here. The worst thing that could happen is, well, I got a shot and it didn’t work out.”

Manhertz ended up getting a Reserve/Futures contract from the Bills. He was cut by the Bills but has played for the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos, and now the Giants.

Manhertz said he “never” thought he would still be playing in the NFL at age 32.

“I always kind of had the mentality to take things one year at a time, not to look too far ahead and just be present, try to improve in one thing every day,” Manhertz said. “And I think that mentality has kind of carried me forward for a lot, even now.”

Listed at 6-foot-6, 235 pounds, Manhertz seems bigger than that in person. His basketball career at Canisius meant he was a good athlete, and the fact that he was a rebounder and defender tells you he was used to the dirty work that doesn’t get a lot of attention.

That, though, doesn’t mean learning what it takes to be an NFL tight end was easy.

“It didn’t come naturally at all,” Manhertz said. “To me, it’s synonymous with you kind of going into another country with a different language and a set of values and just going there and just figuring it out. So a lot of it was just getting thrown in the fire and learning. Thankfully, I had some great coaches to kind of be patient with me and to develop good habits and things like that. Definitely wasn’t an easy transition.”

Manhertz, much like veteran wide receiver Allen Robinson, has come full circle. He is both trying to make the Giants’ 53-man roster and trying to pass along what a decade in the game has taught him.

“It’s natural to me. I mean, what good are we as players, as tight ends? You want to leave things better than what you found it,” Manhertz said. “You want to add value to the room in whatever capacity you can.

“If that’s me being a leader in the room, teaching young guys how to be a pro, certain techniques, things like that. To me, it’s all about doing your part and paying it forward, regardless of whether you’re here or not or what have you. Because I had those same guys do the same thing for me.”

Manhertz credited players like Benjamin Watson and Greg Olsen, along with current Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell, who was his first position coach, with bringing him along as a pro.

“I think it’s all about respect for the game,” Manhertz said.

“Because respectfully, I don’t think anybody understands the amount of work at the level that we understand it. Because we’re in it. We’re going through it every single day,” Manhertz said. “For me, it’s all about respecting the game and paying it forward. One day, I’m not going to be playing anymore and I’m going to be looking at the people or the younger players that I’ve come across. Maybe I had some type of imprint or somewhere along the way kind of helped them.”

Manhertz is a Bronx native who went to Cardinal Spellman High School. He said that continuing to play, especially at home near his family, is “certainly something I don’t take for granted.”

Manhertz isn’t ready for a post-playing career yet.

The 32-year-old said he “one-thousand percent” believes he still has something to offer on the field, even if “things are not operating the way they once did, or as smoothly.”

The Giants have used a variety of combinations at tight end thus far. Manhertz, Daniel Bellinger, Lawrence Cager, and rookie Theo Johnson have all gotten first-team reps in different personnel packages.

Jack Stoll, another blocking tight end signed as a free agent in the offseason, has worked with the second and third units.

“I think competition kind of just brings the best out of all of us,” Manhertz said. “A lot of times, us as players, you play a long time. Our biggest enemy is complacency. Find a way to get better. Operate under the mindset of I’m truly in a race to improve.”

I asked Manhertz about the learning curve for a rookie like Johnson.

“We [tight ends] are asked to block. We are asked to catch. We are asked to know protections like linemen. Swiss Army knives, if you will,” Manhertz said. “So I think you kind of have to possess some level of cognitive capacity to really process information quickly and learn on the fly and have the toughness to say, if I do make a mistake, how am I going to respond to it?

“So a lot of those things are all-encompassing for our position. The good ones stay, and the not-so-good ones, you see what happens. So you just kind of have to stick with it.”

Manhertz has stuck with it. A lot longer than anyone figured he could. He is hoping to do so a little bit longer.