Of all the longshots brought in by the Giants trying to make the final roster, Craig Dahl may have been the longest of them all. But there he was yesterday, inside the locker room at Giants Stadium, for now a member of the 53-man roster.
“It’s starting to sink in more and more each day,” Dahl said.
An undrafted rookie safety out of North Dakota State, Dahl looked to be no more than training-camp fodder when he arrived in Albany and seemed destined to get cut after a rough preseason debut against the Panthers. There was a logjam ahead of him, with starting safeties Gibril Wilson and James Butler and veteran backups Will Demps, Jason Bell and Michael Stone.
“You can’t go into the situation knowing you can’t make it or else you’ve already failed,” Dahl said. “I went in with the mindset it’s a possibility, it’s a chance.”
The safety ranks were decimated. Stone and Bell went on season-ending injured reserve. Demps when down with a dislocated elbow. Still, Dahl’s chances weren’t helped when J.R. Reed, a former Eagles prospect, was signed. Dahl came up with an interception in the preseason finale in New England, Reed did not make the final round of cuts and, surprisingly, Demps was put on injured reserve and is awaiting an injury settlement to make him a free agent. If Michael Strahan is activated, the Giants have another move to make, as they at present have 54 players (with Strahan granted a two-week exemption).
For now, Dahl and another rookie, Michael Johnson (a seventh-round draft pick from Arizona) fill out the depth chart as backup safeties. Dahl impressed the coaching staff with his work on special teams.
Dahl admitted it was “quite nerve-wracking” as he hoped his phone Saturday morning would not ring, bringing bad news. He arrived at the stadium for treatment at 10 a.m. and Charles Way, the team’s director of player development, approached him with a smile.
“He came up and handed me a list of apartments and housing and said ‘Congratulations,'” Dahl said. “That was the way I found out I made the team.”
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K Dave Rayner, a recent Packers cut , was in for a tryout. “He felt he had a great workout,” said agent Paul Sheehy. “If that organization makes an offer, we’d jump on it in a second.” The Giants Saturday cut Josh Huston, leaving them with Lawrence Tynes. Rayner’s workout supposedly did not overwhelm them.
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The Giants added three to their practice squad: OL Na’Shan Goddard, who was on the roster last season but inactive for the first seven games, WR Fred Gibson (Georgia) and DB Geoffrey Pope (Howard).