Dawuane Smoot is on the Giants’ practice squad, but the real question is whether he can give them a little breathing room before they decide they need to pay up for help.
That’s the lane here. Not a rescue act, not a Brian Burns replacement, and not a reason to pretend an old sack total solves a current injury problem. Smoot is the kind of low-cost move that only matters if New York uses it the right way - as a test, not a conclusion.
The Giants signed Smoot to the practice squad Tuesday, and that’s where things stand for now. He is not on the active roster, and there’s no confirmed game-day role attached to the move. The idea of getting him on the field against New Orleans is just that: an idea worth exploring if he looks ready and the staff likes what it sees in practice.
The timing makes the signing interesting. Burns and Chauncey Golston are both on injured reserve, while Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Jihad Ward are on the active roster. With that group, New York doesn’t just need names - it needs someone who can take some of the load off the rest of the edge rotation.
Smoot at least brings recent NFL work to the table. He played in all 17 regular-season games for Jacksonville in 2025 and finished with two sacks, without starting a game. That’s useful background because it says he was available throughout the season, though it does not tell us anything about where his conditioning is now after months without a 2026 game appearance.
The bigger picture is mixed. Smoot has 27 sacks in 127 career games, and his best stretch came a few years back: six sacks in 2019, 5 1/2 in 2020, six in 2021 and five in 2022. The more recent production has been far quieter, which is exactly why the Giants need to evaluate the player in front of them rather than the version they remember.
If the practice work is encouraging, the next step would be modest. The suggestion here is a game-day elevation and a small workload - something in the 10 to 15 snap range, not a starter’s load.
The point wouldn’t be to chase a splash play. It would be to see whether he can hold his edge responsibility, move the quarterback and let one of the main rushers catch a breath.
That matters because the stat line alone won’t tell New York what it needs to know. A sack would be nice, sure, but so would doing the job cleanly and making the rush easier for everyone else around him.
There’s also the bigger roster decision hanging in the background. The Giants can either keep working with the current rotation, or go after a more proven contributor elsewhere.
No specific trade target, asking price or negotiation has been confirmed, so there’s no real way to map out the exact path. But the club shouldn’t rush into a costlier move until it finds out whether the inexpensive one has any real value.
Smoot doesn’t need to recreate his Jacksonville peak to matter here. He only needs to make the pass-rush rotation a little more manageable right now.
If he can do that, New York can keep its options open. If he can’t, the Giants should move on fast.
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