Giants DT Elijah Chatman chasing a dream, and there's good chance he'll run it down
Giants defensive tackle Elijah Chatman is pictured after practice on Tuesday at the Giants facility in East Rutherford N.J. Credit: Tom Canavan
There were a lot of things that went through Elijah Chatman’s mind when he first saw Texans running back J.J. Taylor break through the line of scrimmage in Saturday’s preseason game in Houston. He immediately started to calculate the geometry of the situation, instinctively landing on the proper angles to launch his pursuit. He recognized, too, that very few of his Giants teammates were in a position to make a play on the ballcarrier who, at this point, was teetering along the sideline and looking like he might take the carry all the way to the end zone.
Most importantly, though, Chatman said he knew he would catch his prey.
Defensive tackles aren’t supposed to make the kind of play Chatman made in that game, shedding a block and then sprinting nearly 40 yards to close the gap and eventually bring down a running back at full stride. It’s like an elephant hunting a gazelle. Good luck, big fella!
Even though the 278-pound Chatman wasn’t officially credited with the tackle (the officials would say Taylor’s cleat had brushed out of bounds about halfway through his long run and the ball was spotted for a gain of 18), he still managed to get there to make the play.
“I didn’t know if he had another gear underneath him,” Chatman told Newsday of his chase scene that went viral over the weekend, “but I switched my gear and I guess I was able to catch him before he pulled that gear out.”
The one thing Chatman wasn’t thinking about during or after that play? It’s what nearly everyone else who saw it comes away thinking, and what Giants broadcaster Carl Banks so efficiently noted while calling the play on television in the moments after it happened: “He just made the team.”
That may wind up being true of course. There are plenty of examples of undrafted rookies such as Chatman making splashes in preseason contests that land them roster spots. That’s how Victor Cruz made it with this very team a little over a decade ago. But Chatman refuses to believe it.
“I just see myself doing my job,” he said. “There was no one else to catch him so I did everything I could to make that happen. I just did my job. I was full tilt to the job like Coach Shane [Bowen, the defensive coordinator] always tells us.”
If Chatman is a Giant at this time next week, after the cuts are made that trim every NFL roster from 90 players to 53 by Tuesday afternoon, it probably won’t be on the strength of his viral pursuit alone. That play, spectacular as it was, is exactly what the Giants have been seeing from this player who is so undersized for his position (he’s listed at 5-11) that he was literally below the league’s radar, snubbed by the Combine and not invited to a single college all-star game despite a productive career at SMU. No one drafted him and no one even signed him as a priority free agent after the draft.
“It’s because I’m short,” Chatman said of being so ignored.
If you think Chatman came out of nowhere to make that now famous tackle, wait ‘til you hear how he landed with the Giants in the first place.
He showed up at their rookie minicamp in May without a contract, merely as a tryout, fighting to get himself noticed. He’d already gone to one team’s minicamp and the Seahawks wanted to convert him to an outside linebacker. When that didn’t work out he came to New Jersey.
“Quickness off the ball, has twitch, and for a guy that's sub-six-foot, just power,” assistant general manager Brandon Brown said of that first impression Chatman made. “When he strikes a bag, you almost feel the air kind of compress out of the bag. It sounds different. . . . He put his best foot forward.”
The Giants knew of him of course. Their scouts had seen him play. They learned that he was a 1,600-yard running back himself in high school and that SMU had a series of plays that used him as a fullback (although, to his eternal heartbreak, he never got to receive a handoff). They noted how this massive defensive tackle was running down the field to cover kickoffs and punts. They’d clocked him at his pro day. But they needed to see more to be certain.
Chatman has given that to them.
By the time those couple of days of work at the minicamp were over the Giants offered Chatman a contract. He was so overwhelmed by that moment coming off the field he had to excuse himself from the conversation with the front office and headed into the bathroom.
He did not want anyone to see him crying.
The contract didn’t guarantee much of anything at the time other than a chance to stick around and see where this might wind up. Pretty soon, Chatman was flashing in all of the drills, not just the ones against fellow rookie walk-ons. About midway through training camp he began climbing the depth chart. Eventually he was even taking reps with the first unit, coming in on passing downs and lining up alongside stalwarts Dexter Lawrence, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns.
“You look at what he can do, don't focus on what he can't do,” Brown said. “Part of Joe [Schoen]'s mindset and philosophy is a good player can come from anywhere. The coaches . . . don't care how we acquire them. The best guys are going to play. I think when you look at what Elijah's done, the platform that he's been given, the more reps that he's been given, it's because he's earned it.”
He recorded a sack in the preseason opener against the Lions. He forced a key holding penalty early on in the game against the Texans.
And now? He may be a week away from being a full-fledged NFL player.
“Hopefully I’m a New York Giant this regular season,” Chatman said.
It is a dream he has been chasing for as long as he can remember.
If these past few months have taught us anything about Chatman, it’s that he usually catches what he sets out after.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
