New York Giants place offseason acquisition on injured reserve

The New York Giants have placed wide receiver John Ross on the injured reserve with a hamstring injury, the team announced Wednesday.

Ross suffered the injury in a practice early in August. He’s been rehabbing to work back from the injury throughout the preseason, but ultimately the Giants will have to place their speedy offseason acquisition on the sideline to begin the season. He will be eligible for reactivation after the first three games of the regular season, though the Giants have not indicated whether it might take longer.

Ross, a product of the Washington Huskies, was drafted in the first round, with the ninth overall of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. He had a prolific Pac-12 career, earning both first team All-Pac-12 and AP Pac-12 Player of the Year honors in 2016. That year — his redshirt junior year — he was an All-American by most outlets after tallying 17 touchdown receptions, the second-highest total in both Washington and Pac-12 history. Additionally, Ross had 81 receptions, the third-most in Huskies’ program history, and 1,150 receiving yards, fourth-most in program history.

He played three full seasons at Washington and had a cumulative 114 receptions, 1,729 yards and 22 touchdowns. Ross was a unique weapon for the Huskies not just for his speed, but also his ability to return both kicks and punts. In his Washington career, he averaged 24.1 yards per kick return, and took four kicks back for a touchdown.

Held back by injuries, Ross’ four-year NFL career has not been as productive as one might expect from a top-10 draft selection. He’s logged just 733 yards receiving on 51 receptions, hauling in ten touchdowns. In 2020, Ross played just three games due to injuries, and he’s played just 20 in four seasons. His most productive season came in 2019, when he had 506 yards on 28 receptions and three touchdowns — however, even then, he was only able to play eight games due to various injuries throughout the season.

Ross is known in part for his immense speed, as he helped solidify his draft stock in the NFL Combine back in 2017. Ross ran a 4.22-second 40-yard dash — a new NFL record, beating Chris Johnson’s longstanding record of 4.24 seconds, which he set back in 2008. His 40-yard dash time was enough to boost his stock into the early first round.

Ross signed a four-year, $17.1 million contract with the Bengals, which he saw through after the 2020 season. The Giants then signed Ross this offseason to a one-year, $2.25 million contract.