Giants place Graham Gano on Reserve/COVID-19 list

The New York Giants announced Tuesday morning that a player has tested positive for COVID-19, and that two “close contacts” have also been identified.

Per Paul Schwartz, the player who tested positive is placekicker Graham Gano. Mike Grafolo reporting that Gano “will miss some practice next week but should be fine by the team’s next game.”

The Giants have now officially announced that Gano is being placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Punter/placekicker Ryan Santoso is being signed to the active roster off their practice squad, and tight end Nate Wieing is being signed to the practice squad.

Santoso handled kickoffs for three games last season for the Tennessee Titans.

Santoso, a massive kicker at 6-foot-5, 258 pounds, handled both punting and placekicking duties in college at Minnesota. He punted 144 times for an average of 41.9 yards. As a placekicker, he made 29 of 39 field-goal attempts (74.4 percent) and 76 of 77 extra-point attempts (98.7 percent). He did not placekick during his final two seasons at Minnesota, so he has not done that on a regular basis since 2015.

Here is the full statement from the Giants:

Last night, we were notified that a Giants player tested positive for COVID-19. The player was immediately self-isolated, and the contact tracing process was initiated.

Two close contacts, both staff members, were identified and were informed to remain home today. The Giants players will meet remotely today.

The Quest Diagnostics Training Center will be open to staff. We are working closely with the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer regarding next protocol steps.

Giants guard Will Hernandez recently missed two games due to being placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list prior to Week 8. He returned Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Giants are on a bye week. Players, though, will not be able to leave the New York/New Jersey area as they have to report to the facility each day for a coronavirus test.

Giants coach Joe Judge addressed the responsibilities of players and their families during his Monday videoconference:

“If there’s someone coming in town [to visit players], obviously, we want to control who’s coming in. We want to make sure they’re smart about the number of people we expose ourselves to. We want to make sure that on the front end, we make sure that we test and that we make sure we’re putting ourselves in the safest environment possible,” Judge said. “At the same time, we’re realists. We want to make sure that if something does happen, we’re treating it the best way possible and that we’re doing it in the safest way possible. We made it available to the players, I’ve echoed to all the players that if they have someone coming in that they need tested, to go to our training staff and talk with Ronnie and make sure we get that arranged on the front end.”

Wieting played collegiately at Iowa.