Kehl today, gone tomorrow

Yesterday, I spoke with Bryan Kehl about “buying in” to being a special teams player.

“For me, unfortunately, I don’t get to play on defense right now, so that’s all I do,” Kehl said.

Now, unfortunately, he doesn’t even get to do that. Kehl was waived today to make room on the roster for much-needed Bear Pascoe, elevated from the practice squad. The Giants required Pascoe’s services after Kevin Boss suffered a concussion on Sunday. While Boss’ status for the upcoming game is officially “uncertain,” it would be surprising to see him play against the Colts.

Kehl had three special teams tackles (two solo) in the Carolina game. He joined the Giants as a fourth-round draft choice in 2008 and played in 31 games with three starts. Last year, Kehl tied Zak DeOssie for the team lead with 16 special teams tackles. In his first two years, he had 32 tackles (19 solo) and an interception on defense.

He also had a nice tackle on a goal line stand in the preseason win over the Patriots earlier this month.

Of course, he was also the guy who whiffed on Greg Hardy at the line of scrimmage on the blocked punt. Tom Coughlin said of that miss:

"We had no business getting a punt blocked. There was a six-man rush. There was a breakdown up front, it wasn’t complicated, we turned a guy loose. You never turn a guy loose. We did. That’s really difficult to understand. It’s embarrassing, to be honest with you. It should never have happened so I do not expect that sound to ever occur again."

Kehl wasn't asked directly about that block yesterday, but he did talk about watching the film.

"Anytime you have some of those plays that happened, the special teams coaches are going to be a little more on edge than normal," Kehl said. "We knew what happened. You know what happens before watching the film. When you mess up, you know when the play happens. The thing is to learn from your mistakes and hopefully not do that again."

Kehl won't. At least not for the Giants.