Which Giants helped, hurt themselves in preseason Week 3?

The New York Giants lost their third preseason game of the year to the New York Jets by a score of 10-6 on Saturday. New York struggled to do anything offensively. Quarterback Tommy DeVito played the entire game and finished 14 of 27 for 103 yards with eight sacks suffered. It was a rough watch overall.

The Giants suffered several injuries through the game: Timmy Horne (achilles), Evan Neal (ankle), John Michael Schmitz (ankle), Ovie Oghoufo (hamstring), Mario Goodrich (hamstring), Jalen Mayfield (ankle), and Darnay Holmes (neck). After the game, while in the locker room, both Schmitz and Neal said they were fine.

Both teams hardly played any starters, and most of the game was played by players who will likely be on the practice squad. Still, here are the players who helped themselves, and some players who did not help themselves.

Helped themselves

Casey Rogers, IDL

Rogers — with his funky face-mask and long hair — had a good overall preseason, and will be a practice squad candidate for the Giants. He finished with six tackles in the contest. The undrafted 25-year-old rookie had 56 pressures and six sacks through five seasons of college football, three of which were spent as a Nebraska Cornhusker.

Unfortunately, fellow IDL Timmy Horne hurt his Achilles on the opening play. Horne and Rogers were likely destined for the practice squad, and Rogers now has a more clear path to the roster if the Giants want to activate a defensive lineman.

Alex Johnson, SAF

Johnson played a lot of snaps against the Jets, and could find himself on the correct side of the 53-man cutdown on Tuesday. The undrafted defensive back out of UCLA had a respectable camp. He recorded a big open field tackle that mitigated a possible breakaway run late in the second quarter; he recorded three other tackles in the game.

Johnson’s game could have been much more noticeable; he jumped a route on the Jets’ first drive of the second half. Johnson and Jets’ tight end Lincoln Sefcik seemed to meet at the catch-point, and Sefcik came away with the football.

Johnson may benefit from the absence of Gervarrius Owens, who is currently dealing with a knee injury since August 11th. Owens is an exceptional special teams’ player. He was drafted in the seventh round last year by the Giants. I like Owens as an asset, but health is crucial for backend roster players, and that could be a benefit for Alex Johnson.

Tomon Fox and Benton Whitley, Edge

The Giants are thin in their edge group behind the top three (Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Azeez Ojulari). Tomon Fox recorded a first quarter sack and a huge tackle for a loss in the third quarter:

Fellow roster bubble edge, Ovie Oghoufo, left the game with an injury. Whitley has also had an impressive preseason. He recorded a sack and a half against the Jets as well, and could hurt Fox’s chances to secure a roster spot. Fox is likely a candidate for the practice squad. If I had to put money on one making the team over the other I’d bet on Whitley.

K.J. Cloyd, LB

The Giants rolled out the triage unit for their linebacker room in recent weeks. Dyontae Johnson, Matthew Adams, Carter Coughlin, and Micah McFadden all dealt with injuries at some point throughout camp, which led the Giants to signing Cloyd during camp.

Cloyd recorded 16 combined tackles against the Jets, six of those were solo tackles. He is certainly explosive on the field. He moves well with good closing burst, but he can get a bit wild and miss tackles. The undrafted rookie out of Miami is 6-foot-2, 228 pounds. He’s likely destined for the practice squad.

Did not help themselves

Giants offensive line

Leonard Taylor — an undrafted rookie defensive lineman out of Miami — lived in the Giants backfield all throughout the first half. He recorded 1.5 of the three consecutive sacks in the second quarter; he was the catalyst to the other sacks. Taylor had a tackle for a loss where he easily avoided Austin Schlottmann. The Giants struggled to contain the UDFA.

The only Giants starting offensive lineman to see snaps was Schmitz, who left after the first series with an ankle injury. Evan played into the second quarter, but suffered an ankle injury as well. Neal surrendered a bad sack to Takk McKinley:

The Giants struggled to do much offensively all game. Most of that was due to the pressure allowed by the Giants’ offensive line.

Darrian Beavers, LB

Beavers handled the majority of snaps at linebacker with the injuries to the linebacking corp and rookie Darius Muasau not playing. Beavers missed a few tackles, including one of three missed tackles on Israel Abanikanda’s 45-yard touchdown run:

Beavers suffered a devastating ACL injury against the Bengals two years ago in the preseason. Before the injury, he played well with his limited reps. The 25-year-old should still be a candidate for the practice squad.

Darnay Holmes, CB

It wasn’t a great sign that Holmes played just about the entire third preseason game. He’s operated as an outside cornerback for much of camp, and his probability of earning a roster spot was tenuous heading into the game. That probability was likely hindered by several missed tackles from the former Giants’ fourth-round pick. Holmes did leave the game in the fourth quarter with a neck injury.