New York Giants officially sign Graham Gano to 1-year deal (Report)

Per reports, the New York Giants have officially signed Graham Gano after parting ways with placekicker Chandler Catanzaro.

In regard to who would play kicker for the New York Giants in 2020, Big Blue has undergone numerous sagas in the past few months. Aldrick Rosas was to be the starter for the fourth consecutive season after signing his one-year tender but found himself in significant legal trouble that led to the conclusion of his Giants tenure. Then, New York decided to bring in Chandler Catanzaro, who most recently spent time with the crosstown-rival New York Jets.

But after just a few weeks, the Giants released Catanzaro and agreed to terms with former Carolina Panther Graham Gano, and on Wednesday, the signing was made official.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the organization inked Gano to a one-year deal that includes a maximum value of $2.5 million with $1 million guaranteed.

The #Giants are giving former Pro Bowl K Graham Gano a 1-year deal worth a max value of $2.5M, source said. Gano got $1M guaranteed and has incentives worth $250K. NYG has its kicker.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 19, 2020

Gano was a solid kicker during his run with the Panthers (2012-19), having earned his lone Pro Bowl bid in 2017. Nonetheless, he spent all of last year on injured reserve, which seemingly caused teams to speculate whether he was worth bringing in or not.

The Giants weighed their options and ultimately felt Gano was the best possible option at placekicker, which led to this short-term deal.

Big Blue certainly experienced some kicking woes last year. After Rosas’ successful 2018 campaign that encompassed him earning a Pro Bowl nod along with a spot on the AP All-Pro second team, the 25-year-old connected on just 70.6% of his field-goal attempts and 89.7% of his extra-point attempts in 2019.

Gano will be working among a special teams unit that was one of the lone positives for the Giants last year. It’s the reason the team ultimately decided to retain special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey, who worked for two years under the Pat Shurmur regime.