Giants’ backup Sunday kicker still in balance as Graham Gano nears return

As Graham Gano continues progressing toward a potential return this week from injured reserve, it certainly would make sense for the Giants to consider having a second kicker active Sunday in Philadelphia after being caught multiple times without a replacement when the veteran has been unable to play.

That most recently was the scenario in Week 3 last month against the Chiefs when the 38-year-old Gano suffered a groin injury during pregame warmups and was unavailable for much of the game before coming on to convert a short field goal in the fourth quarter.

“We’re going to have lots of discussions as coaches as this week progresses,” special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial said before Thursday’s practice. “They obviously opened up Graham’s window [to return], and [he] did a nice job kicking [Wednesday in practice].

“We’re going to explore every option in giving our team the best opportunity to win the football game. Every week is unique, so we’ll exhaust every option.”

The Giants could elevate experienced NFL kicker Younghoe Koo for Sunday’s game, and they also brought back rookie Jude McAtamney to the practice squad after he was cut following his costly performance last week in Denver.

McAtamney missed two extra points, including one that would have provided a 3-point lead with 37 seconds to play.

“We went into the game really confident with our operation. It had been clean before we had started. The past few weeks, there was a level of continuity and comfort,” Ghobrial said. “Jude had been doing a nice job kicking, did a nice job in pregame.

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“But ultimately, we don’t have four downs to get it right, and those misses are on me. I’m going to put that on me. We’ve got to be better. These games, I’ve said this before, are decided on a score differential of six points or less, over 50 percent of these games. When you don’t execute on fourth down, whatever unit it is, especially when it comes to points, that hurts us. So that’s my fault. We’ve got to be better, I’ve got to be better, and we’ll move forward.”

Gano, a Pro Bowler with Carolina in 2017, had nailed all six of his field-goal attempts and was 4-for-4 on PATs before heading to the IR.

He drilled a 55-yard field goal in the season opener against the Commanders.

“You just have to make sure that he’s at full health and he’s kicking the ball well,” Ghobrial said of Gano. “Those are things that, going into the week, you’ll never jeopardize if somebody is somewhat hurt or is still coming back.

“You’re going to look at where he is right now. You’re going to put in a lot of educated opinions based off of the medical staff and talk, obviously, as coaches and move forward from that.”