How Jason Pinnock went from Jets to Giants
New York Jets defensive back Jason Pinnock makes a catch during drills on July 27, 2022. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
When Jason Pinnock was at the Giants’ facility for a joint practice as a member of the Jets last week, he was focused mostly on earning a spot with the team that had drafted him and trying to secure a starting role in its defense. He did, however, at one point notice someone who seemed to be taking an unusually keen interest in him.
It was Giants special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey.
A few days later, Pinnock was waived by the Jets and claimed by the Giants with coach Brian Daboll stressing how helpful the second-year safety might be for his new squad’s special teams. That’s when the McGaughey once-over finally made sense.
It was a few minutes after noon on Wednesday that Pinnock got the call from his agent telling him about his new home just a few miles up the road.
“I was like, ‘What’s the address?’ ” Pinnock said. “I was like ‘Let’s hit the road!’ ”
Pinnock said besides those special teams attributes the Giants are getting a player who is “a ballhawk . . . a freak of nature as far as talent.”
“Hopefully I can clean up my eyes and get more comfortable playing the safety position and that way I can show my athletic ability,” he said.
Pinnock will be trying to break through a position group that has two firmly entrenched starters in Xavier McKinney and Julian Love, a highly regarded draft pick in Dane Belton, and now veteran Tony Jefferson just a Saturday elevation away from the games on the practice squad.
“If you’re in the NFL you’re always in competition," Pinnock said. "There’s always somebody coming, somebody younger trying to climb the mountain. I was always told there is nobody hungrier than the wolf at the bottom of the hill.”
Pinnock grew up in Connecticut as a Jets fan (his family was mostly Patriots fans) largely because he admired Darrelle Revis. Pinnock went to Pitt like Revis, which is how they met, and then was drafted by the Jets like Revis was too.
“I’ll have love for them, always,” he said. “But I’m in blue and red now.”
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.
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