Former New York Giants safety Jalen Mills resurfaced on September 23 after spending parts of the offseason with Big Blue.
“Former [New England] Patriots and [Philadelphia] Eagles DB Jalen Mills is signing with the [New York] Jets practice squad, per source,” ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter relayed on X. “The 30-year-old Mills has 406 tackles in the NFL, and spent training camp with the Giants. Now he goes to the Jets.”
After signing with the Giants this spring, Mills was expected to serve as veteran safety and nickel depth, but he couldn’t get himself healthy after suffering a non-football injury. Eventually, when Mills was finally ready to return, Big Blue elected to release him and roll with their younger players for the remainder of training camp and the preseason.
Second-round selection Tyler Nubin, 2023 seventh rounder Gervarrius Owens and undrafted rookie Alex Johnson were among the prospects that made Mills expendable.
Giants Work out 4 Tight Ends on Monday of Week 4
Along with the Mills signing, there were four more bits of Giants-related news to report on September 23.
“Giants worked out [tight ends] Teagan Quitoriano, Armani Rogers, Stephen Sullivan [and] Joel Wilson,” KPRC 2 NFL insider Aaron Wilson informed.
Of the four, Quitoriano and Sullivan have made the largest impact at the NFL level so far.
The former has spent the past two seasons and parts of 2024 with the Houston Texans according to Football Database. He’s accumulated 146 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns off 9 receptions over that span, appearing in 16 games.
Quitoriano also played four years at Oregon State from 2018 through 2021 with over 500 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns.
As for Sullivan, the former LSU tight end has spent the past three seasons with the Carolina Panthers, recording 14 receptions for 171 yards over 28 games. He appeared in 1 game with the Seattle Seahawks before that in 2020.
At LSU, Sullivan had over 700 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns in 48 appearances.
The second name on the list, Rogers, has remained inside the NFC East so far, with 11 games in Washington in 2022 and a preseason with the Eagles this summer. He has 64 career receiving yards and transferred from UNLV to Ohio within an unimpactful collegiate career.
Finally, Wilson has yet to see action in a regular season game, but he’s spent the past two preseasons with the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers. The second-year TE attended Central Michigan before that, posting 874 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns over 33 appearances.
Giants Reporters Attempt to Make Sense of Tight End Workouts
New York Daily News reporter Pat Leonard called the tight end workouts “interesting” after seeing Wilson’s post.
Similarly, NorthJersey.com beat writer Art Stapleton then tried his best to make sense of the curious news.
“Four tight ends. Lawrence Cager was not at practice on Friday. Possible his injury is not coming along and Giants want to explore whether to add a TE to the [practice squad],” Stapleton deduced.
Cager was making some waves at OTAs and training camp before suffering a hamstring injury. He’s appeared in 17 games for the Giants over the past two seasons but has yet to suit up for a regular season outing in 2024.
After his initial hunch, Stapleton also noted that “then again, [the] Giants [are] not practicing this week and only holding walkthroughs.” Meaning they might just be updating their “lists” of potential off-roster reserves should any injuries occur.
It remains to be seen if NYG will end up signing any of these players.
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