Finally, Big Blue puts end to a Giant mistake
The Giants cut offensive guard Isaiah Wilson from their practice squad on Tuesday, unaccountably ending a ludicrous charade. An organization infamous for righteously cutting players in the name of “culture” signed Wilson on Sept. 30 despite rampant offfield issues that included arrests, drugs, and a documented lack of commitment to football.
A source told the Daily News when Wilson signed: “He’s not committed to the game. He doesn’t love football.”
Three months later, before last Thursday’s practice, offensive line coach Rob Sale indicated Wilson hadn’t been professional or dependable.
“Next question,” Sale said when asked how Wilson had conducted himself. “Be dependable.”
Joe Judge’s design is to build a program of players who love football. It never added up why he agreed to sign and employ a player who doesn’t love or commit to the game.
GM Dave Gettleman’s failure to build a competent offensive line in four years no doubt sent the Giants scrambling for emergency solutions and probably led to this compromise.
But it was never worth the risk due to the new culture Judge has been building.
ESPN reported on Tuesday that Wilson “was falling asleep in meetings with regularity.” And he lasted here three months? What are the other players supposed to think?
The Giants listed an inaccurate weight (330 pounds) for Wilson on their official roster, even though he showed up out of shape and never got into it. But the worst part of Wilson’s three months with the Giants was the club’s unacceptable lack of transparency.
The Giants never made Wilson available to the media. Not once.
He was requested constantly, daily most weeks, and never given a forum to tell his own side of the story, to reflect on his habits of unreliability that got the 2020 first-round pick cut by the Titans and Dolphins.
Miami traded for him in the spring and cut him in three days. Three days!
Plenty of Giants practice squad players have done interviews this season, from Brian Lewerke to Pharoh Cooper to David Sills to Benardrick McKinney. If the Giants didn’t trust Wilson in front of a microphone for five minutes, why did they trust him to do anything else?
The NFL protected the Giants late in the season, saying the media rules focus on active-roster players and not practice-squad players, and punted the decision back to the club.
The league conveniently ignored that Wilson already had been elevated to the active roster and in uniform on the sideline in Philadelphia the day after Christmas (his only time as a Giant).
Public relations overlords aside, cutting Wilson was necessary and overdue. Multiple sources say Wilson is not malicious, but he’s habitually unreliable. Hopefully, personally, Wilson finds what he’s looking for and needs.
But if Judge wanted to continue strengthening the foundation he’s built, he needed to start cleaning his house of guys who didn’t belong. Wilson should be just the start.
GIANT CUTS: The Giants also cut tight end Chris Myarick, who caught Daniel Jones’ final touchdown pass of the season in their last win on Nov. 28 over the Eagles. Myarick, 26, played in eight games this season, starting three, and caught three passes for 17 yards and that score. He played through a hip injury in last Sunday’s loss in Chicago before he was released on Tuesday. … Offensive tackle Matt Peart, who is on injured reserve, was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list. … The Giants protected four players on their practice squad: LB Omari Cobb, DB Natrell Jamerson, QB Brian Lewerke and DT David Moa. Lewerke is expected to dress as Jake Fromm’s backup in Sunday’s finale against Washington at MetLife Stadium.