The New York Giants have once again found themselves at risk of walking into their next matchup with a question mark at kicker.
Graham Gano has already missed four games this season and is at risk of missing more time due to a neck injury.
The Giants should move on from Graham Gano
Entering the 2025 season with Gano as the team’s starting kicker was a risk. Gano missed seven games due to injuries in 2024 after missing nine games with injuries in 2023.
Across those two seasons, he connected on just 71.4% of his field goal attempts — well below the league average and a significant drop off from his 90.6% field goal conversion rate in 2022.
Graham Gano, NFL: New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles
Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The Giants could have released Gano to save $4.4 million in cap space this summer. Instead, they opted to give him minimal competition during training camp and hold onto him and his $5.6 million cap hit.
This decision has blown back in their face. Gano got injured early this season, forcing them to turn to Jude McAtamney, whose missed extra points cost them a Week 8 matchup.
Now Gano is back on the injury report after just two games back in the lineup, returning from his four-game absence. He did not practice on Wednesday as the Giants prepare to travel to face the Bears in Chicago this Sunday.
Gano’s tone-deaf comments should be the icing on the cake
It’s bad enough that Gano, 38 years old, is continuously in and out of the lineup due to various injuries. But, to make matters worse, the former captain delivered some shockingly tone-deaf comments following the team’s Week 9 loss.
“Only miss all day – warm-ups and all,” Gano said when asked about his 45-yard missed FG in Week 9 (h/t Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post). “Have to hit that one. My [third] miss in two years.”
The comments express a staggering lack of accountability. Rather than acknowledging the way in which his miss hurt the team, Gano opted to highlight his individual achievements (which should have come with an asterisk, anyway, considering he has played in only 15 games since the start of the 2024 season.
I expressed my frustration with Gano’s comments on a recent episode of Empire Sports Media’s Fireside Giants podcast:
Graham Gano delivered some incredibly tone-deaf comments, bragging about how rarely he missed field goals, following the loss on Sunday.
He’s now back on the injury report entering Week 10. #NYGiants pic.twitter.com/ebqDYR5ak7
— Fireside Giants (@FiresideGiants) November 6, 2025
It’s time to give Younghoe Koo a try
Younghoe Koo, giants
Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images
Amidst Gano’s first injury this season, the Giants signed veteran kicker Younghoe Koo to their practice squad. He has yet to be elevated to the regular-season roster, but the time to give him a try is now.
With Gano once again dealing with an injury, the Giants need to protect themselves from further kicking mishaps. Koo is a former Pro Bowl kicker with a career 85.8% field goal conversion rate.
Although his play has dropped off in recent years (79.7% conversion rate from 2023 to 2025), Koo is the Giants’ healthiest option at kicker. And, more than anything, they cannot afford to leave themselves shorthanded at kicker — again.