New York Giants DB Montre Hartage and TE Cole Hikutini have cleared waivers and reverted to injured reserve.
In an effort to get their roster down to 80, the New York Giants made several moves earlier this week. Including among them was defensive back Montre Hartage (shoulder) and Cole Hikutini (hip) being waived/injured.
As expected, both Hartage and Hikutini went unclaimed on waivers and reverted to injured reserve.
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Like so many others before them, Hartage and Hikutini are now eligible for injury settlements. They have five days to agree to settlement terms or will remain on IR for the duration of the season.
In the mean time, Hartage and Hikutini join a growing list of players on injured reserve. The team has placed a total of nine players on IR, including tight end Levine Toilolo, linebacker TJ Brunson and offensive lineman Kyle Murphy.
The Giants will have to decrease their roster size to 53 by 4:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.
New York Giants head coach Joe Judge says his team’s recent string of injuries, particularly along the O-line, is “unfortunate.”
The New York Giants held out the majority of their starters in Saturday’s 12-7 loss to the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in an effort to protect them from unnecessary injury. Being the first preseason game of the year in a new era where the strategy has changed due to the shortened run up to the season, they appeared to be doing the right thing.
The game was meaningless in the grand scheme of things and with rosters due to be reduced to 85 players this week, the team actually needed to get a longer look at some their backups.
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There were some injuries during the game to report, however. Tight end Cole Hikutuni left the game with a hip injury and offensive lineman Kyle Murphy was carted off with an ankle injury and did not return. Linebacker T.J. Brunson also got banged up during the game and had to be attained to by the medical team.
“Hopefully Kyle and some of the other guys that left the game, hopefully it’s not too serious and we can get these guys back out there,” head coach Joe Judge said after the game. “They’re all working really hard for us and doing a good job. You hate to see a guy like Kyle or a guy like TJ or Cole have to leave the game with some kind of an injury. It’s unfortunate. Sometimes that’s the nature of the game. You don’t wanna see any player on either team get hurt. You always want every team to come out completely healthy, so we’ll find out what that is. And, again, we’re hoping for the best and we’ll get these guys as well as we can as fast we can.”
Rookie wide receiver Kadarius Toney was ruled out before the game with an unspecified injury. He was snot seen on the field during warmups.
“Any injured player who was not going to be able to play in the game tonight, we didn’t put on the sideline,” Judge said. “Everyone who was on the sideline would have been healthy enough to participate in the game. The only exception would be Saquon (Barkley) and if it’s a captain, there’s a different deal. Sometimes, we’ll let them on the field.”
When pressed about Toney’s injury, Judge offered little detail.
“I’m not gonna disclose any person’s individual injury at this moment, but we hope to get him out there this week…he’s been dealing with it for a little bit. Something was aggravated in practice towards the tail end of this week, so he was unable to play tonight.”
Here are the winners, losers and those in between from the New York Giants’ preseason Week 1 loss to the New York Jets.
The New York Giants opened the 2021 preseason on Saturday night with an embarrassing 12-7 loss to the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
It was an ugly game for both teams from the jump, but the Giants appeared lightyears behind where they should be. The saving grace is that the vast majority of their starters didn’t play or played very little.
Here’s a quick look at our immediate winners and losers (and those in between) from Week 1 of the preseason.
The New York Giants avoided a shutout but fell to the New York Jets, 12-7, in the preseason opener at MetLife Stadium.
The New York Giants opened the preseason on Saturday night in a game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
With fans in attendance for the first time since December of 2019, the Giants gave them little to cheer about through the first half. They were sloppy, confused and hardly looked like a team ready to compete.
But the second brought about change, right? Wrong.
The Giants got no better in the second half and arguably played even worse until midway through the fourth quarter. They were unable to generate any offensive momentum and had entirely too many defensive mishaps, but they did get one touchdown to avoid a shutout.
The Jets certainly weren’t dominant, but the Giants were not at all competitive until there was under 7:20 left to play and then that faded quickly.
Player profile for Dallas Cowboys tight end Cole Hikutini.
For some NFL players the path to their dream job is demanding yet straight forward. Play high school football, get recruited by big-name colleges, earn playing time, get drafted and move onto the league. For others, though, there are twists and turns that make reaching the pinnacle of American sports a bit more challenging.
Dallas Cowboys tight end, Cole Hikutini, despite always being immensely talented, falls into the latter group. Now, with the tight end room looking more different than ever in Dallas, Hikutini has a chance to carve out his most substantial NFL role to-date.
Before the NFL
Hikutini attended Pleasant Grove High School in Elk Grove, California, and didn’t play football until his sophomore year. Hikutini played both sides of the ball in high school, taking reps at defensive back and wide receiver. He didn’t garner much recruiting interest, possibly due to being overshadowed by 49ers defensive lineman Arik Armstead, his high school teammate, and an eventual first-round pick in the NFL draft.
The California native’s only scholarship offer was from the Sacramento State Hornets, which happened to be just a half hour from Hikutini’s hometown. Redshirting his freshman year, he started the last four games of 2013 and finished the season with five touchdowns. A coaching change at Sacramento State drove the developing wide-receiver-turned-tight-end, to a new school.
Hikutini landed at San Francisco City College, a junior college that he hoped would be a spring board to the FBS level. His decision would pay off quickly. In his first and only season with San Francisco, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound tight end was named a JUCO All-American. Entering the 2015 season, Hikutini decided to take his talents Midwest, to become a Louisville Cardinal.
At Louisville, Hikutini was able to team up with dynamic quarterback, Lamar Jackson, and the pairing would prove beneficial to both players. Hikutini started three games as a junior in 2015, but his real coming-out season was the next year. As a senior Hikutini led the team in receptions (50), receiving touchdowns (8), and was second in receiving yards (668).
Louisville moved Hikutini all around the offensive formations, and his combination of size, crisp route-running, and athleticism made him a nightmare matchup for most ACC defenders. These abilities caught the eye of many scouts, and at one point he was being slated to be picked in the mid rounds of the draft.
Ultimately, a knee injury in a bowl-game loss to Clemson hurt Hikutini’s stock, and he was not selected in the 2017 NFL draft.
Louisville TE Cole Hikutini has excellent quickness at the top of his route. Knows how to setup defenders and create separation. pic.twitter.com/oz36yQgvu4
Hikutini was signed as an undrafted free by the San Francisco 49ers shortly after the draft, reuniting him with the Bay Area. There he stayed on the practice squad until Week 7 of 2017, when he caught his first pass of his career against his current employer, the Dallas Cowboys.
The former ACC standout wouldn’t get many more opportunities in San Francisco, and was eventually released before the start of the 2018 season. Just two days following his release, Hikutini signed with the Minnesota Vikings practice squad, and spent the season there before facing the same fate he did in San Francisco.
On September 2, 2019, the Dallas Cowboys signed Hikutini to a practice squad spot, and on December 30 signed him to a reserves/future contract.
The Cowboys TE Room
For the better part of two decades future Hall of Famer Jason Witten locked down the tight end position in Dallas. Now, with Witten on the Las Vegas Raiders the only thing certain is that dynamic downfield threat Blake Jarwin, will have a noteworthy role within the offense.
It’s likely the Cowboys will keep two tight ends other Jarwin, though. Dalton Schultz is a well-rounded young player out of Stanford. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 2018 draft by the Jason Garrett regime, and while he appeared in all 16 games a season ago, he recorded one catch.
In the offseason the Cowboys signed Blake Bell to a one-year, $1.7 million deal. Bell spent the previous season starting seven games for the Super Bowl Champion Chiefs. While Bell isn’t known for his receiving prowess, he is probably the best blocker of the group and that could be enough to secure his spot on the roster.
This year’s UDFA Sean McKeon out of Michigan is another big-bodied, all-around tight end that will be pushing for a roster spot as well. Hikutini is an agile pass-catching threat that is a willing blocker but still has room to improve in that department.
Hikutini will be well-entrenched in a roster battle with the names mentioned above, but the Louisville product could certainly make the team should the Cowboys want to keep a third tight end that provides a versatile receiving option with room to grow.
This is part of our Countdown to the Regular Season player profile countdown. With 86 days* remaining until the NFL’s first game, up next is tight end Dalton Schultz.
