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Giants line up Monday workout for Yannick Ngakoue as Brian Burns’ absence thins the edge

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The veteran pass rusher, who has not played since 2024, gets a look from a John Harbaugh staff he knows from two stints in Baltimore, Jordan Schultz reported.

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John Harbaugh in a 2014 archive photograph.
John Harbaugh in 2014 (archive photo). Photo: DVIDSHUB / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

The New York Giants plan to work out veteran pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue on Monday, October 12, Jordan Schultz reported Sunday evening, a sign the club is shopping for edge help two weeks after losing Brian Burns for the season.

The Giants have not announced the workout, and nothing has been reported about a contract. A tryout is no guarantee of a signing; teams often bring in several veterans at once before deciding.

Schultz reported that Ngakoue, 31, spent last season getting healthy and is now fully recovered and ready to play again.

Why the Giants are looking

Burns went down late in the Giants’ 12-7 victory against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, September 27, with a torn ACL in his right knee, and is out for the rest of the year after surgery. Head coach John Harbaugh called him the leader of the defense and said, “I feel bad for Brian more than anything.”

Since then Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter have carried heavier loads on the edges. The depth took another hit on Saturday, October 10, when defensive lineman Chauncey Golston went on injured reserve with a neck injury, and outside linebacker Trace Ford was promoted from the practice squad for the trip to Washington.

The Giants came out of Landover with a 27-27 overtime tie against the Commanders, leaving them 3-1-1 heading into a home date with New Orleans.

Ngakoue’s road back

Ngakoue has 70.5 regular-season sacks and 21 forced fumbles across 134 games. Jacksonville took him in the third round in 2016 out of Maryland, and his 12-sack season in 2017 earned him a Pro Bowl spot. He reached at least eight sacks in each of his first seven seasons and has since played for Minnesota, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Indianapolis and Chicago.

His last two years were far quieter. He broke his ankle with the Bears in December 2023, then managed 1.5 sacks in 2024 while splitting time between the Ravens and the New England Patriots, who released him on December 31 of that year. He did not play in 2025.

The fit with Harbaugh is a familiar one. Ngakoue played for him in Baltimore in 2020 and again briefly in 2024, and after Burns went down he answered a fan’s suggestion that the Giants sign him by saying he was “willing and able.”

What comes next

Any signing would need to be in place quickly for Ngakoue to help this week. The Giants host the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, October 18, at 1 p.m. EDT. Follow every roster move on our transactions page.

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