Panthers acquire kicker Santoso from Giants for 2022 pick

CHARLOTTE — The Carolina Panthers have acquired placekicker-punter and birthday boy Ryan Santoso from the New York Giants for a conditional 2022 seventh-round draft pick.

The Giants announced the deal on Thursday after completing two days of practice with the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Santoso, who has had an outstanding training camp, just didn’t fit in with the Giants because of the presence of former Panthers placekicker Graham Gano and punter Riley Dixon.

Gano, who kicked for Carolina from 2012-18, made 31 of 32 field-goal attempts last season in his first season with New York. He was released by the Panthers in July 2020.

Santoso spent last season on the Giants practice squad, although he was put on the roster for games on Nov. 17 and Jan. 2. He did not play. He signed a reserve/futures contract on Jan. 26.

Santoso played in three games for the Tennessee Titans in December 2019. He attempted no field goals, but had touchbacks on 9 of 16 kickoffs (56.3%).

In the Giants’ 17-13 loss to the Browns on Sunday, Santoso kicked an extra point and had touchbacks on all three of his kickoffs.

“A large part of our focus for this game was to take a look at some of the guys, like Santoso with kicks,” Giants coach Joe Judge said after the game. “He has been tremendous for us, so we wanted to make sure we got him out there. Those guys did a tremendous job for us. We’re happy to have Graham. He is a phenomenal kicker. I know he (Santoso) is a quality guy and we wanted to make sure we got him some tape, to be honest with you. This guy deserves to be 1 or 2.”

NFL teams must reduce their rosters to the regular-season limit of 53 players by 4 p.m. Tuesday.

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