The Giants’ cutdown day mostly followed the script, until Elijah Chatman’s name hit the wire. The undrafted tackle had logged steady reps with the starters all camp, showed up in preseason games, and looked like a safe bet for the rotation. Instead, he was waived in what feels like the team’s first real surprise of roster trims. He cleared waivers and landed back on the practice squad, but the drumbeat has already started: Chatman looks more like a player who should be seen on Sundays than stashed away midweek.

And his case to be on the roster is loud, logical and, frankly, kind of fun. Chatman didn’t just grind his way into defensive tackle snaps as an undrafted rookie; he did a lot more. He moonlighted on the other side of the ball, lining up as a short-yardage fullback. In a league where every roster spot is guarded like gold, that kind of two-way utility is almost extinct.

At 6-0 and 278 pounds, he’s a low-centered wrecking ball who can double as a lead blocker in short yardage. You don’t just pluck that profile off the street. And Chatman knows exactly what he’s capable of. “I can catch and I can run the ball, but I prefer to run the ball because I know I have control of it. The backs get excited to see me because they know eventually they are going to have space. Whether it’s 1 yard, whether it’s 5 or 6, we are going to get something,” he said.

And history shows us the value of a defensive wild card on offense. Mike Vrabel turned 10 career catches into 10 Patriots touchdowns, and J.J. Watt bullied his way into goal-line packages for Houston scores. Chatman offers Daboll that same kind of curveball, only at rookie-practice-squad cost instead of superstar salary.

And there’s the obvious special teams upside. Practice-squad stashing works for now, but when the games count, bodies like Elijah Chatman’s tend to matter. He’s more than a rotational tackle. He’s someone who can punch in on defense, line up as a lead blocker in the red zone, and sprint down on kick coverage. Oh, and there’s another reason to keep him.

How Chatman aided Dart’s debut

You didn’t need cut-ups to feel Chatman’s impact. Jaxson Dart certainly didn’t. On the Giants’ first play of the preseason finale against New England, Chatman lined up between Jaxson Dart and rookie tailback Cam Skattebo, cleared a lane and Skattebo ripped a 4-yard gain. A play every coach would gladly bottle and take to Week 1.

Skattebo himself joked about the plan: “You get a [278]-pound guy going full speed at a linebacker, we know who is going to win that most of the time… I told him, ‘Let’s go. Let’s take somebody’s head off.’” That’s chemistry, that’s execution. The exact type of edge teams end up wishing they’d kept on the 53.

The bigger picture only strengthens the “why isn’t he on the 53?” case. Jaxson Dart has done everything you’d want from a rookie quarterback in August. 372 yards, three touchdowns, zero turnovers in his preseason run. If there’s even a chance he touches real snaps this fall, the Giants should be surrounding him with change-up pieces that steal rhythm from defenses. Chatman fits that bill.

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If there’s even a chance he touches real snaps this fall, the Giants should be surrounding him with change-up pieces that steal rhythm from defenses. Elijah Chatman is exactly that: a 278-pound wild card who forces opponents to prepare for something they can’t script off film.