The New York Giants have recently made a change to their offensive line depth. Ethan Cooper, who played his college football at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has been waived from the team after joining the practice squad in October and signing a reserve contract in January.
Cooper, a projected fifth round selection leading up to the 2017 NFL Draft, was previously signed as an undrafted free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and made it to September before he was waived from the practice squad.
His replacement is Zac Kerin, who was also originally signed as an undrafted free agent. Kerin played college football at Toledo and was an All-Conference player three times in a row during his college career. However, that didn’t translate to NFL success and Kerin went undrafted in 2014, being picked up by the Minnesota Vikings after the draft.
He was waived last September, when he was claimed one day later by the Detroit Lions. We’ll never know how his stint with the Lions would have went if he was healthy, because he ended up on the injured reserve list less than a month after signing with the team.
The Giants are Kerin’s third NFL team, and he begins his Giants career with 14 games played in the NFL. However, only one of those games was a start, and Kerin will be hard pressed to find playing time over players such as veterans John Jerry and Patrick Omaneh, and promising rookies such as Will Hernandez and Nick Gates.
Staying on the roster going into the season is what Kerin should be aiming for, but the Giants obviously saw something in him or they wouldn’t have brought him in over a player that they signed earlier in the year, and have had more practice time with.