Faalele trade, strong Week 2 grade put Giants rookie J.C. Davis on track to make the roster
The sixth-round pick played every offensive snap at left tackle against Miami, and head coach John Harbaugh said it marked "a big step" in his development, five days before New York's 53-man cutdown deadline.
New York Giants offensive lineman J.C. Davis is on track to make the team's initial 53-man roster, according to Sports Illustrated's Giants beat, after a Week 2 preseason performance that head coach John Harbaugh praised in unusually direct terms — five days before the Aug. 30 cutdown deadline.
Davis, a sixth-round pick out of Illinois, played all 81 offensive snaps at left tackle in New York's 26-3 preseason win over Miami on Aug. 22, filling in while regular starters Andrew Thomas and Francis Mauigoa both sat out. He added six more snaps on special teams. Yahoo Sports reported Davis graded 87.1 in pass blocking and 87.0 in run blocking, with an 89.3 overall grade that was the best of any Giants offensive player in the game, and that he did not allow a quarterback pressure.
Sports Illustrated's Bob Folger wrote Aug. 23 that Davis "has obviously made this team," and that if the Giants had to choose between Davis and fellow offensive line hopeful Joshua Ezeudu for a roster spot, "the choice is clear in our eyes: it's got to be Davis." Neither the Giants nor the NFL has made the roster official; the club's initial 53-man cutdown is due by 6 p.m. on Aug. 30, per Giants.com.
At his Aug. 23 press conference, Harbaugh called it "a challenging thing" that "doesn't happen too often" for a rookie sixth-round pick to play a full game at left tackle in that kind of heat and humidity.
"Going into the week, we decided to see — to put him into that situation to see how he handled it and also to help him grow into the ability to do it," Harbaugh said, according to a transcript published by Big Blue Interactive. "And he did it, he did it well. He had a lot of plus plays, he graded out very well and that's a big step in his development for sure."
Davis said the assignment was a chance to be seen.
"I think it was a great opportunity for the coaches to see my ability, what I could do at left tackle, and I think it went pretty good," Davis told reporters Monday, according to Big Blue View. "Of course, I've got things to improve on, but overall, it was a good game. We got the win. That was the most important thing."
Davis's competition thinned after the Giants traded backup guard Daniel Faalele to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Aug. 19 for a 2027 sixth-round pick, a move that saved New York $1.075 million in salary-cap space against $187,500 in dead money, according to Over The Cap. Faalele had signed with New York as a free agent in April, days before the Giants drafted Francis Mauigoa 10th overall and installed him as the starting right guard — a move that pushed Faalele into a backup role behind left guard Jon Runyan. His departure left the backup right guard job as an ongoing competition between Evan Neal and Aaron Stinnie and thinned the offensive-line bench overall, the group Davis is trying to crack alongside Marcus Mbow and Joshua Ezeudu. The retooled line entered the season ranked 23rd by Pro Football Focus, a 14-spot drop from ninth the year before.
Ezeudu, a versatile guard-tackle who left Saturday's game with a lower-body injury after getting kicked in the leg, is considered day-to-day and hopes to play in Friday's preseason finale, Harbaugh said. Folger's SI grades piece called Mbow "a lock for the swing tackle spot" but wrote that Neal "did nothing to solidify his spot on the roster" in his own Week 2 reps at right guard.
Davis was the 192nd overall pick in April's draft, a selection the Giants acquired from the Miami Dolphins in last year's trade sending tight end Darren Waller to Miami. He started 49 consecutive games over four seasons at New Mexico and Illinois, capping a college career that began at Contra Costa College in 2021, and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 2025 after Pro Football Focus rated him the No. 3 left tackle in the country that season. Illinois coach Bret Bielema said on draft day that Davis is "a guy that's got really, really unique length, size and upside" whose "best football's in front of him."
As recently as June 11, SI's Clemons had projected Davis as more likely to be cut than to make the roster, citing a crowded interior line that then included Faalele. That crowded picture no longer applies.
The Giants play the New York Jets in their preseason finale Friday before setting their initial 53-man roster by the Aug. 30 deadline.