Jude McAtamney converted on two short field goals and an extra point in place of injured placekicker Graham Gano on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. With veteran placekicker Younghoe Koo on the team’s practice squad, New York Giants special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial would not commit on Thursday to McAtamney keeping the job.
“Although Jude did a really nice job for us and excelled with everything we were asking him to do, I think ultimately, you still treat that like a competition and every week is a new week,” Ghobrial said. “We’ll take a common-sense approach as we have more discussions as a coaching staff later in the week.”
Sunday’s game was McAtamney’s second in the NFL. He was on the Giants’ practice squad last season and kicked in one game as a replacement for the injured Gano. Koo, 31, was recently released by the Atlanta Falcons. He has kicked in 93 regular-season games, and has made 181 of 211 field-goal attempts (85.8%).
Koo just joined the Giants last week.
“Koo obviously is a very accomplished kicker and there’s still an acclimation period where that guy has to get used to the operation of snap and hold, obviously,” Koo said. “The more time on task, I think that transition could happen for him. I think Jude just obviously having been here, understood the operation time a little bit more and we just felt like he gave us the best chance to win that week.”
Gano, on Injured Reserve with a groin injury, has to miss at least three more games. How the placekicking situation evolves will be worth watching.
Tae Banks, return man
The Giants surprisingly debuted cornerback Tae Banks, the team’s first-round pick in 2023, as a kickoff returner on Sunday against the Chargers. It doesn’t sound like Sunday’s kickoff return appearance, during which he had returns of 33 and 21 yards, will be a one-off for Banks.
The Giants have rotated kickoff returners next to Gunner Olszewski this season, using Wan’Dale Robinson, Tyrone Tracy, Devin Singletary and Banks. Those four players have had 16 return opportunities. Opposing teams have kicked to Olszewski just one time.
Ghobrial said Banks, who is splitting cornerback reps with Cor’Dale Flott, could “potentially” be the answer to the return rotation.
“We’ll have more conversations at the end of the week, but Tae is definitely a guy that could do it at a high level for a long time,” Ghobrial said.
Banks is 6-foot, 197 pounds and ran a 4.35 40-yard dash before the 2023 NFL Combine.
“Tae is obviously a gifted athlete. He has the elite top-end speed. He has the frame that you’d want in a returner and he showed us that he has good ball skills,” said a smiling Ghobrial when asked about using Banks as a return man. “The ability to have good catch mechanics is always number one priority for me as a returner. The second thing, when the run skill shows up and the frame shows up and the speed shows up, you’re like, okay, this guy has a chance to do it. He’s done it before in his career of just playing football.
“He showed us a lot of promise throughout training camp, through these past few weeks, and it was cool to see him get a couple explosives last week. He was fired up to do it and there’s also something to be said about a player that genuinely wants to be back there and do it. He’s well-liked by his teammates so there’s something to be said about the guys wanting to block for him as well. So, it was cool to give that guy an opportunity and cool to see him have success.”
The sum total of Banks’ return experience is one kickoff return for 19 yards at Maryland in 2022. He played some wide receiver in high school, but if he returned kickoffs there are no stats I could find that prove it.
So, how did this come about?
It happened when Banks, insistent he could catch and return kickoffs, proved it to Ghobrial by jumping into a kickoff drill and smoothly catching kickoffs off the JUGS machine. If you think that’s easy, watch NFL players who aren’t familiar with it try to catch them.
“It was probably a few months ago, our returners were catching off the JUGS machine and he kind of came up to me. He’s like, ‘You know I can do that.’ I said, ‘Don’t tempt me right there,‘” Ghobrial said. “Because obviously he has the skill set to do it and then he was back there just catching it very free and easy. I was like, okay, let’s start working with him a little bit more and that’s something obviously he had a lot of success with on Sunday.”
From the sounds of it, that won’t be the last time we see Banks in that role.
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