Giants trade K Ryan Santoso to Panthers for conditional 7th-round draft pick

Ryan Santoso had been kicking for the Giants in the preseason but was unlikely to make the final roster in the end.

Ryan Santoso is headed out of East Rutherford.

On Thursday, Tom Rock of Newsday reported the Giants traded the placekicker to the Carolina Panthers. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo additionally noted Big Blue received a conditional seventh-round draft pick in return.

A conditional seventh back to the #Giants https://t.co/9iUV9JXor5

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 26, 2021

Santoso didn’t attempt a field goal in either of the Giants’ first two preseason games (against the Jets and Browns). However, he did knock through one extra-point attempt in each matchup.

The Panthers are seemingly unsatisfied with Joey Slye, their placekicker who missed a field-goal attempt in each of the team’s first two preseason games. Slye was actually with the Giants prior to the 2019 season.

Following Big Blue’s most recent meeting with the Browns, head coach Joe Judge raved about his now-former special teams weapon.

“This guy has had a tremendous camp for us,” Judge said, per Tom Rock. “We’re happy we have Graham [Gano]. Graham is a phenomenal kicker, but if we didn’t have Graham, he would be our kicker. I have a lot of faith in him…This guy deserves to be on the field and he deserves to be one of the 32 [kickers in the NFL]. He has that kind of ability.”

It was originally unclear if anyone was going to trade for Santoso given the fact he was likely going to be cut at some point. Big Blue’s No. 1 kicker is set to be Gano, who inked a three-year contract extension last November and underwent a fabulous 2020 season (his first with the Giants).

Gano converted 31 of 32 field-goal attempts last year along with 21 of 23 extra-point attempts.

Santoso has never recorded a field-goal or extra-point attempt in a regular-season game. However, he did kick off 17 times through three games with the Titans in 2019.