Giants looking for DTs Rogers and Austin to make an impact

When the Giants get to training camp this year they’ll have two returning defensive tackles in Linval Joseph and Chris Canty. But backing them up will be an interesting duo. One guy who has been playing a long, long time and another who hasn’t played in a long, long time.

That’d be recently-signed veteran Shaun Rogers and last year’s draft pick Marvin Austin who has missed two full seasons due to a suspension in college and an injury last summer.

Perry Fewell was asked about both today. He recalled Rogers as an athletic player he saw scoop up a fumble and run it down the field with the Lions and who, Fewell said, could have been Defensive Player of the Year with the Browns.

“We obviously evaluated him off the film from last year with the New Orleans Saints,” Fewell said. “And I thought he ran well. I thought he was a load in there, a big man that can push the pocket in the pass game. You better put two people on him, okay. And that helps us, that helps our defensive ends. That helps us as a pass rush team. And then he’s a big anchor as far as the run game is concerned. You have to take two (players to block him). He can swallow up a hole.”

He’s swallowed a lot more than that. He’s listed at 350 pounds, but everyone knows that’s a lie.

“He has got to get himself into football shape,” Fewell said. “We really like what we evaluated and we hope he is motivated enough to come in and provide us with that dominant guy up front.”

And then there’s Austin. Earlier this preseason, general manager Jerry Reese said he was concerned about Austin’s long layoff from competitive football (by the time the regular season starts, it will have been nearly three years since Austin played in a game that counted, which was in December 2009). Fewell said he actually sees that time off as a positive for Austin.

“I think that drives him a little bit more, because Marvin is a very hungry young player,” Fewell said. “Now, the concern is, ‘Wow, he hasn’t seen this block or that block, or experienced this in such a long time that he is rusty.’ But, again, we are going to try to give him as many reps as we possibly can in the preseason to knock that rust off. If you can play football, you can play football. And I think Marvin is a good football player.”