New York Giants lose starting kicker and punter to COVID-19 list

The New York Giants have been lucky this season in dealing with a pandemic. While the team hasn’t come out without any problems at all, they’ve mostly avoided having players and staff get sick and the COVID-19 list hasn’t seen much use by the team. However, that’s starting to change as the Giants’ special teams unit has been hit hard recently and could see big changes for their week 12 game against the Bengals.

Starting kicker Graham Gano ended up on the reserve/COVID-19 list this week and it remains to be seen whether he’ll be ready in time to make a return against the Bengals. As if that’s not bad on its own, the Giants also lose starting punter Riley Dixon to the list. He was placed on it Wednesday along with long snapper Casey Kreiter.

However, there is no guarantee that these players actually tested positive. It’s possible for players to end up on the list simply because they were around contacts who did, or were at higher risk for infection.

The team didn’t report new positive tests on Wednesday when Dixon and Kreiter were placed on the reserve list.

The Giants have brought in alternative option Ryan Santoso from the practice squad to fill in for these two players. Santoso is a dual kicker and punter and played in three games last season for the Titans. However, he was waived by the team in December and joined the Giants during September of this year.

Graham Gano definitely did test positive for the virus, unlike Dixon and Kreiter, so it remains to be seen if all three players will be ready to go against Cincinnati. If not, the Giants might just have a relative unknown player kicking their big field goals for them.