Giants kicker Graham Gano returned to practice on Thursday, after dealing with “a little bug” according to special teams coach Thomas McGaughey.
That note, however, brought out a little levity in McGaughey’s weekly press meeting, as we found out who might be the Giants’ backup kicker in case Gano is unable to go and it’s too late to vet a replacement.
“Will Hernandez. He can kick,” McGaughey laughed. “He's been bugging us to try and kick off. He'll tell you, he'll show it to you if you ask him to.”
Coach joked that he’s never asked Hernandez to do it, although there is precedent there; just a few years back, the Giants likely watched as the division rival Eagles had linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill have to take over in a game against the Cowboys after Jake Elliott went down with a concussion.
Grugier-Hill didn’t attempt any field goals or extra points, but the former All-State high school punter did notch one touchback on his four kickoffs, and McGaughey is confident Hernandez could do similar if absolutely necessary.
“Will has a soccer background. It's not the old toe punch,” McGaughey laughed.
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Truth be told, though, much like a lot of teams, it’s the punter who would be the backup kicker in an emergency, and the Giants do keep Riley Dixon loose now and again.
“From time to time he'll do some kicking. Maybe once every three or four weeks,” McGaughey said. “It's nothing that, you know, you don't want to screw with that leg swing. That's a whole different set of circumstances. We deal with it when we have to deal with it.”
Hopefully the Giants don’t have to find out, but between injury potential and COVID protocols, the possibility of an emergency is why you see things like the Giants working out punters seemingly randomly, as they did before the Raiders game two weeks ago.
“We're always just in case. You just never know with all this COVID stuff. It's just always having a short list of guys that you can go to in a pinch,” McGaughey said. “That's something that we're always doing – kickers, punters, long snappers, making sure we always have a list of guys that we can go to if something happens.”
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