LIer Kyle O'Brien hired by Giants to fill new senior personnel executive position
Kyle O’Brien, a Garden City product with 19 years of NFL experience, has been hired by the Giants to fill the newly created position of senior personnel executive, the team announced on Monday.
O’Brien, who grew up on Long Island but attended high school in Massachusetts before attending Harvard where he played lacrosse, arrives after spending the past five seasons with the Lions, the last four as vice president of player personnel. He’s also had stops in his career with Jacksonville, Kansas City and New England and began his NFL career as an intern with the Jets’ player personnel department in 1999.
From 2002-11, O’Brien served in several roles within the Patriots’ player personnel department including area scout, pro personnel scout and national scout. While he shares roots with Giants coach Joe Judge from New England, their time there did no overlap. Judge joined the Patriots’ coaching staff in 2012, the year after O’Brien left.
The Giants also announced Drew Wilson will be their new assistant strength and conditioning coach. Wilson spent the past four years as the director of football strength and conditioning at the University of Colorado. This is his first NFL job. He replaces Thomas Stallworth, who left the Giants after three seasons to become the Falcons’ strength and conditioning coach.
Toilolo stays. Veteran tight end Levine Toilolo, who was due to earn $2.95 million in 2021, reworked that salary number to remain with the team for the upcoming season. NFL Network first reported the "restructuring," without which the Giants would almost certainly have parted ways with the player after one season with them. While he did not have much impact as a receiving threat in his first season with the Giants (five receptions for 46 yards), he played in all 16 games lining up mostly as a blocker . . . The deadline for NFL teams to use the franchise or transition tags is 4 p.m. on Tuesday, but it may be extended if the league and union have not agreed to a salary cap for 2021 by then. The Giants could consider using the tag on either of their defensive linemen who are potential free agents, Leonard Williams and Dalvin Tomlinson. They used the franchise tag on Williams last season . . . The Giants released WR Cody Core, who missed the entire 2020 season with an Achilles injury. The move saves $2 million against the 2021 salary cap.
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.
