Giants’ 90-man roster: Getting to know DE Stansly Maponga

Wait. Stansly Maponga? There are probably some New York Giants fans (admit it, you’re one of them) who don’t know who Maponga is and didn’t know he was a member of the Giants. Well, he is, so let’s take a closer look at Maponga as we continue our player-by-player profiles of the 90-man roster the Giants will bring to training camp next month.

We will start with the basics. Maponga, 25, is a 6-foot-2, 365-pound defensive end from TCU. He was a fifth-round pick by the Atlanta Falcons in 2013, and played in 24 games (no starts) during his first two seasons there. He had one sack and seven tackles in those 24 games. Maponga had 15.5 sacks in three seasons at TCU.

2015 Season in Review

Maponga was cut by Atlanta at the end of training camp and landed on the Falcons’ practice squad until the Giants signed him to their active roster for the final two games of the season. He did not appear on defense in either games, but did play 15 snaps on special teams.

The folks at The Falcoholic, SB Nation’s Falcons web site, were’t broken up when Maponga became a Giant, since he barely played in his two seasons. Matthew Chambers wrote "That makes two coaching staffs that did not really see the point in giving him meaningful, if any, defensive snaps."

2016 Season Outlook

While the Giants could be looking for an extra reserve defensive lineman, each time we have discussed it here Maponga’s name has never come up as a guy who could fill that role. Maybe that’s because he doesn’t have much of a chance. More likely, though, it’s because we know almost nothing about the guy. Giants fans have never seen the Zimbabwe native take a snap.

Maybe defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and defensive line coach Patrick Graham can unlock talent the coaches in Atlanta couldn’t reach. More likely, Maponga is just an insurance policy who’s best chance to stick is via injuries or the failures of others.