Ex-Jets safety Jason Pinnock claimed off waivers by Giants
Jason Pinnock #41 of the New York Jets in action at NRG Stadium on November 28, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Credit: Getty Images/Carmen Mandato
A week ago safety Jason Pinnock was practicing on the Giants’ fields as a member of the Jets. ON Wednesday those fields became his new home.
The Giants were awarded Pinnock off waivers, one of four roster additions they made through that process. They also added cornerbacks Nick McCloud from the Bills and Justin Layne from the Steelers and interior offensive lineman Jack Anderson from the Eagles.
Pinnock, though, is the most recognizable name having just been waived by the team with whom the Giants share a stadium. He played 20 defensive snaps and nine on special teams in the preseason finale against the Giants on Sunday, finishing the game with one tackle.
“He had some good film out there playing in the deep part of the field,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “We practiced against him, played against him. He has some redeeming qualities and traits that when the guys watched him in our scouting department and the coaches, they though it would be a good claim.”
In their hearts the Jets probably thought it was a good move, too. Pinnock played with the Jets starters for most of the summer and head coach Robert Saleh said on Tuesday cutting him was “very hard.”
Pinnock joins a Giants team that trimmed its roster to 53 on Tuesday and kept just two healthy safeties in Xavier McKinney and Julian Love (Dane Belton is still recovering from a fractured collarbone but could return for Week 1).
The secondary added three new players, all of whom spent this summer playing for other teams. Now the process of getting them ready for the Giants’ regular season opener next Sunday begins.
“You try to get the best guys you can get to help improve the team, and then it’s the coaches’ job and our job to get them acclimated to how we do things here and the system of how we do things,” Daboll said. “There have been plenty of times when we acquired a player and as a position coach I’m up with this guy for three, four days in a row just going through stuff.”
Daboll noted that joining a team at this point means not having to necessarily learn the playbook but just the specific week-to-week game plans.
“It’s a smaller menu,” he said.
Unlike the other acquisitions, Pinnock was already in the area when he became a Giant. He underwent his physical on Wednesday and even stopped by the Giants facility. He posted a picture of the building on social media, making the move Instagram official, and dropped a quick message on Twitter.
“I always looked good in blue,” he wrote.
The Giants thought he might too.
NOTES & QUOTES: The Giants terminated the contracts of LB Austin Calitro, OL Max Garcia, TE Tanner Hudson and DE Nick Williams to make room for the four new players claimed off waivers. However, because they are all veterans who did not need to clear waivers themselves they were able to re-sign hours later on Wednesday night when OL Shane Lemieux, LB Elerson Smith and CB Rodarius Williams are officially placed on injured reserve. Calitro, Hudson and Williams came back to the active roster and Garcia signed to the practice squad … The initial Giants practice squad is made up entirely of players who were in camp with the team, notable among them QB Davis Webb, WR C.J. Board and LB Quincy Roche. Someone will have to go if safety Tony Jefferson, a 10-year veteran who played for defensive coordinator Wink Martindale in Baltimore, passes his physical and joins the Giants. Jefferson was released by the Ravens this week but rather than stay on their practice squad he came to the Giants to reunite with Martindale and also have a better chance of finding playing time.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
