It apparently just slipped Brian Daboll‘s mind that his kicker was hurt again.
Graham Gano complained about a “sore neck” on Monday morning, the Giants head coach said. But Daboll claimed the coach “missed” mentioning Gano’s injury until Thursday morning, after Gano had sat out Wednesday’s practice.
Veteran Younghoe Koo is now in line to make his Giants debut Sunday in Chicago against the Bears. And it could be an audition to become the Giants’ kicker for the remainder of the regular season.
“We’re gonna get Koo ready to go, and if he has to be the guy, he’ll be the guy,” Daboll said. “[Gano] came in the next day with a sore neck. His neck wasn’t feeling good, so he went to see the trainers.”
So why didn’t Daboll include Gano in his long list of players not practicing when the coach was on camera Wednesday?
“I missed him [on the injury list],” Daboll claimed during his off-camera Thursday interview. “He had a sore neck the next day, the day after the game. I missed it.”
At least Daboll didn’t continue the charade of a kicking competition between Koo and Jude McAtamney. The Giants cannot in good conscience put McAtamney back in a game after his two missed extra points during their catastrophic Week 7 loss in Denver.
The severity of Gano’s injury isn’t clear, either. So Koo might be auditioning for the full-time job for the final eight games of the season.
Daboll was asked if Gano might need to be shut down, and the coach left the door open to that possibility.
“Don’t know,” Daboll said. “I don’t think so, but I don’t want to say yes and then [it’s] no.”
Koo, who was born in South Korea and raised in Ridgewood, N.J., has a solid track record.
He has made 175 of 182 extra points in his career, including a perfect 26-of-26 last season and 2-of-2 in Week 1 for the Falcons this September before getting cut by Atlanta.
He has sunk 104 out of 108 field goals from inside 40 yards. He is 13 of 15 from inside 40 yards since the start of the 2024 season, and he is a perfect 52 of 52 from under 30 yards in his career.
He is only 48 of 63 on field goals between 40-49 yards since he entered the NFL in 2017 with the Chargers, including a combined 8 of 13 in 2024 and 2025. And he is 29 of 40 from 50 yards or longer, including 9 of 15 in the 2023 and 2024 seasons combined.
The Falcons cut him for missing a game tying 43-yard field goal attempt in Week 1 of this season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But he memorably sank a 40-yard field goal as time at MetLife Stadium expired to beat the Giants, 17-14, in the infamous ‘Medium Pepsi’ game of 2021.
And he was the NFC special teams player of the week as recently as Week 16 of the 2023 season for going 5-of-5 on field goals in a Falcons win over the Indianapolis Colts.
It also feels like Daboll is tired of the Gano yo-yo’ing in and out of the lineup. When Daboll was asked how a kicker can hurt his neck, the coach shrugged.
“He just came in with a sore neck,” he said.
When the coach was asked if Gano were able to do anything, Daboll said: “Other than get treatment?”
Both GM Joe Schoen and Daboll are complicit in this kicking disaster, though.
A kicker injury and team mismanagement of the position has cost the Giants at least four games in the last three seasons:
In Week 8 of the 2023 season against the Jets, Daboll sent out an injured Gano to miss a 35-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter. And the Giants lost in overtime, 13-10.
In Week 2 of last season at Washington, Gano aggravated an injury on the game’s opening kickoff. Punter Jamie Gillan missed an extra point after the Giants’ first touchdown. Daboll unsuccessfully went for two after the Giants’ second and third TDs. And the Giants lost, 21-18.
Gano got hurt during warmups and wasn’t available for most of the Giants’ Week 3 loss to Kansas City. And McAtamney’s performance in Denver took the cake.
What an operation. What a mess.
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/06/brian-daboll-graham-gano-update-younghoe-koo-giants/