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It isn’t often that a player becomes available half-way through the pre-season and it makes ears around the league perk up. That happened today when Ian Rapoport reported that the Cincinnati Bengals made the decision to release veteran safety George Iloka. Iloka is relatively young at 28 years old and possesses rare size for the position at 6 feet Authentic Rhett Ellison Jersey , 4 inches and 225 pounds. He also has experience as both a strong safety and free safety, and has been productive for the Bengals — generally averaging 75 tackles and 7 passes defensed in a 16 game season. The Giants’ secondary is a looming question mark as the the regular season approaches. The bigger questions are at the cornerback position, but adding talent to the secondary as a whole would help the defense. Even at the more-stable safety position, both potential starting free safeties, Curtis Riley and Darian Thompson, have missed time with injury recently.From a schematic point of view Authentic Kerry Wynn Jersey , James Bettcher likes to rotate safeties to disguise coverages and the source of potential pressure. Iloka’s size could also make for creative alignments to help neutralize the passes to tight ends and running backs which have generated most of the offensive production against the Giants’ defense to date.There is also the salary cap question. The Giants don’t have much room with which to work, and while creating space is possible, it could create problems for them down the road. So, with all that in mind, should the Giants be interested in Iloka? A national TV audience will get to witness whether the New York Giants save their season on Thursday night or doom themselves to yet another losing, playoff-less year.The 1-4 Giants face the 2-3 Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night. With no team in the NFC East having more than two victories at this point in the season the last-place Giants still have an opportunity to be competitive in the division.Linebacker Olivier Vernon will play for the Giants tonight Authentic Alec Ogletree Jersey , making his season debut after suffering a high ankle sprain in the preseason. Tight end Rhett Ellison [foot] will not, meaning the Giants will be without both Ellison and Evan Engram. [Complete inactives]Use this as your first-half open thread. Chris will be along with a thread for the second half, as usual.[E-mail Ed at [email protected] or via the Big Blue View Contact Page | Follow Big Blue View on Twitter | ‘Like’ Big Blue View on Facebook | Follow Big Blue View on Instagram]