The season’s over, but the Giants are already making plans for their mini-camps and next summer’s training camp. The team signed nine players this week, adding depth to the roster and competition for jobs.
Four players who ended the season on the practice squad were signed: WRs Jason Geathers of Miami and Michael Jennings of Florida State, DE Claude Harriott of Pittsburgh and DB Art Thomas of Virginia.
Also signed were WR Ataveus Cash of Hampton, who was with the Giants in training camp last summer, Tony Johnson of Penn State, kicker David Kimball (a seventh-round draft pick of the Colts last year) and CB Lamont Brightful, a return specialist from Eastern Washington.
Given the Giants’ dismal work on punt returns this season, Brightful makes sense. He was a 2002 sixth-round draft choice by the Ravens and in two seasons, he played in 28 games and averaged 22.5 yards on 63 kickoff returns and 9.8 yards on 60 punt returns, including a 95-yard TD against Cincinnati, which helped earn him AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
Brightful played the first two games of the 2004 season for the Dolphins and returned five kickoffs for a 25.2-yard average and nine punts for a 9.9-yard average.