Given his background as a former special teams coordinator, and his continued focus on that side of the ball, it would have been no great surprise if John Harbaugh pushed for the Giants to consider taking a kicker late in the NFL draft. With no seventh-round pick, though, that was going to be difficult to justify.
The Giants did not go for a kicker with any of their seven selections but they did strike quickly immediately after the draft to add one to their roster. They agreed to terms with Dominic Zvada, who was near-perfect for Michigan in helping the Wolverines win the 2024 national championship.
“Let’s do it!’’ Zvada posted on his X account Saturday night, standing in front of a swimming pool, giving two thumb-up gestures while wearing a blue Giants hat.
Zvada has a shot to make the team as a rookie, with the position in a state of flux. The Giants after six seasons parted ways with 39-year old Graham Gano and signed veteran Jason Sanders, who spent seven years with the Dolphins but spent the 2025 season on injured reserve with a hip issue. Ben Sauls, who went 8-for-8 on field goals as a rookie late last season for the Giants, is also on the roster.
There was only one kicker selected in the 2026 draft — Trey Smack of Florida, who went to the Packers in the sixth round. The Giants moved quickly following the seventh round, as competition for undrafted free agents is an intense and rushed free-for-all, a rapid-fire recruiting process to scoop up players not taken Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
“Yeah, we’ve been working on it for weeks,’’ general manager Joe Schoen said after the Giants took linebacker Jack Kelly out of BYU with the third of their three sixth-round picks to complete their 2026 draft class. “Talking about the communication with the coaching staff and our scouts, we’ve been well ahead of this. A lot of it is relationship-based for some of these kids. We’re sending coaches out, working kids out privately, going to pro days, meeting with them at All-Star games.
“It’s all part of the process from first round to seventh round and then priority free agents. The recruiting process has been ongoing. As soon as the draft is over, we’ll attack it. We have a really good plan in place. We have targeted players.’’
Zvada, 22, spent his first two college seasons at Arkansas State before transferring to Michigan. In 2024, he went 21-for-22 on field goals, with his only miss a blocked kick. In the storied rivalry game against Ohio State, Zvada hit a 54-yard field goal in the second quarter and then kicked himself into Wolverines lore by nailing a 21-yard field goal with 45 seconds remaining, providing the decisive points in a 13-10 Michigan victory.
Zvada did not duplicate that success in 2025, as he hit 17 of 25 field goals. His career-long field goal is 56 yards.
Here are a few other reported undrafted free agent signings for the Giants:
- CB Thaddeus Dixon, North Carolina
- RB Damon Bankston, New Mexico
- DT Anquin Barnes, Colorado
- Long snapper Ben Mann, Boston College
- OL Ryan Schernecke, Kutztown
- DT Ben Barten, Wisconsin
Mann will compete with Zach Triner, a 35-year old, well-traveled long snapper signed after longtime Giants long snapper Casey Kreiter left for the Cardinals. Mann is the grandson of Chuck Mercein, a Giants draft pick in 1965 best known for playing for Vince Lombardi’s Packers in the Ice Bowl victory over the Giants in the 1967 Championship game.
