Rookie RJ McIntosh may get a chance to play this season for Giants
Giants defensive tackle RJ McIntosh walks from the field during Organized Team Activities on May 29, 2018. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
RJ McIntosh got the call from the Giants in April, the one telling him he was going to be their fifth-round draft pick. Now he’s hoping to get another call from the team. This time, he wants them to tell him he can play this season.
The rookie defensive tackle missed all of the offseason and preseason with a medical condition and began the regular season on the active non-football illness list. Three weeks ago he was cleared to resume practicing with the team, and the Giants have to make a decision on him by Tuesday. Either they activate him to the 53-man roster, making him eligible to play this year, or he is placed on the reserve list and his season is over before it ever began.
“I’m really looking forward to being told I can go out there and be activated,” McIntosh told Newsday last week, before he left for the bye. “I haven’t had many opportunities [in practice], but hopefully they believe in me and believe that I’m ready.”
Three weeks ago, it didn’t seem that way. McIntosh’s return to practice seemed more like a formality than a tryout, just part of the paperwork to shuffle him from one inactive part of the roster to another.
Pat Shurmur said at the time that he wanted McIntosh to get “banged around a little bit” and go through some of the things most of his teammates did in training camp, though at a clearly abbreviated level. He called it a “crazy question” when asked how far behind McIntosh is compared to the other players.
“He hasn’t had pads on,” Shurmur said on Oct. 18. “The last time he had pads on, he was in college. Let’s keep that in mind… It’s not like basketball where you can still shoot [on the side while injured]. He’s got to learn how to play again, and that’s what we’re going to use this three weeks for. So, yeah, he’s way behind.”
The question now is whether he has closed the gap enough to get a chance in 2018.
“I’m ready to be out there,” McIntosh said, noting that he has participated in all of the full-pad drills in practices since he returned to the field. “Everything they do, I do.”
McIntosh has not disclosed the nature of his medical condition.
“It’s something that just popped up,” he said. “I don’t really feel comfortable talking about it. Something that popped up and it shouldn’t come back up.”
He also admitted he did not think it would take as long as it did to return to the field.
“My family, it was a big deal with them,” he said. “Explaining to them that it’s a process. And these guys [in the locker room] were also telling me not to walk around here sad and stuff. Just get better… I didn’t think it would take this long. I understand it’s a process, and we’re at the end of that process.”
There are two possible outcomes for which McIntosh has been preparing.
“I’ll be very excited to finally get the opportunity to go out there and play football,” he said of potentially being added to the 53-man list.
And if he isn’t?
“It will be sad to hear that I have to sit out for the next half a season,” he said. “I’ll be disappointed. But I understand it’s a business.”
The Giants are in a different place than they were three weeks ago when McIntosh began practicing. They traded Damon Harrison to the Lions, creating more opportunities on the defensive line. And they are 1-7, no longer harboring ideas about making a run at a playoff berth. As they look toward the future, they may want to see what McIntosh can offer. When they drafted him out of Miami (Florida) as a 6-4, 283-pounder, they lauded his versatility and quickness. Even if he isn’t ready to play against the 49ers on Monday night, they may want to activate him now to get him game action at some point later this season.
That’s what McIntosh wants, too.
“I’ve been out of football for a while,” he said. “I think the more you practice, the closer you get. I haven’t been in a game situation in a while. But going off practice, yeah, I think I’m ready.”
He also knows that doesn’t matter. It’s what the Giants think that counts. It’s their call. He can only hope they make it.
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.
