The New York Giants’ search for defensive line help this season apparently will continue.
Big Blue is planning to release defensive lineman Jihad Ward, whom they signed off the Vikings’ practice squad three weeks ago to fill the hole left by Chauncey Golston’s neck injury and to help with the pass rush after outside linebacker Brian Burns suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 3.
Ward, who was in his second stint with the Giants, was no stranger to the team’s current coaching staff. He was with Giants head coach John Harbaugh in Baltimore from 2019 through 2020, and with Giants defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson in Tennessee last year.
In his first stint with the Giants, during the 2022 and 2023 seasons, Ward appeared in 34 games with 20 starts in then-defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s defense. He posted 67 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, four pass breakups, and 8.0 sacks, five of them (a career high) in 2023.
In his most recent stint with Big Blue, Ward was inactive for the team’s Week 4 game against the Arizona Cardinals after just arriving from Minnesota. He then played the next two games, against Washington and New Orleans, but registered only one tackle in 41 defensive snaps (he also played four snaps on special teams).
The Giants have been trying to bolster their defensive line depth ever since trading Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals before the draft.
The team most recently held a tryout for a pair of nose tackles: Jahmeer Carter, whom the Los Angeles Chargers originally signed as an undrafted free agent, and Taki Taimani, an undrafted player who was with the Vikings from 2024 until he was waived with an injury designation this past summer. It’s unclear whether either player will sign soon.
The Giants’ run defense has been a season-long problem, with Big Blue allowing 120-plus yards in four of its six games. In the last two games, Washington gouged the unit for 202 yards and the Saints for 175.
The problem has been depth. When starters D.J. Reader and Shelby Harris have both been on the field, the Giants’ run defense has held opponents to 4.9 yards per rushing attempt.
When they have not been on the field together, that average has swelled to 6.2 yards per rush attempt.
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