Giants sign WR Cole Beasley and RB James Robinson

The New York Giants added two veterans Friday: wide receiver Cole Beasley and running back James Robinson, the team announced.

Beasley, 34, will reunite with Giants head coach Brian Daboll, who coached the veteran wideout for three seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. Beasley caught 231 passes for 2,438 yards and 11 touchdowns in 46 games from 2019-21 in Daboll's offense.

He was released during the 2022 offseason but later signed and played two games for the Tampa Buccaneers. He suddenly retired from the NFL in October, two weeks after he joined the Buccaneers. Two months later, Beasley unretired to sign with the Bills practice squad and played in three games at the end of the regular season and two playoff games.

For his career, Beasley has caught 556 passes for 5,744 yards and 34 touchdowns in 153 games. He began his career with the Dallas Cowboys and played with them for seven seasons.

Beasley will join an already crowded receiver room with the Giants. New York brought back veterans Darius Slayton, Sterling Shepard and Isaiah Hodgins (another former Bills teammate), along with 2022 second-rounder Wan'Dale Robinson, and then drafted Jalin Hyatt in the third round this spring and signed Parris Campbell and Jamison Crowder in free agency. The team also traded for veteran tight end Darren Waller this offseason to play alongside second-year tight end Daniel Bellinger.

More than likely, Beasley is just an experienced training camp body with familiarity in running Daboll's offense. He very well could carve out a role on the team, but it would take an extraordinary summer for Beasley, who will be in his 12th season this year, to beat out that group of pass-catchers.

Robinson, meanwhile, has a better chance to make the team because of the Giants' Saquon Barkley-sized hole in the backfield.

New York's running back situation looks dire if Barkley holds out of at least training camp, something he pondered publicly before he and the Giants failed to reach a long-term extension. Without Barkley, the Giants' have journeyman Matt Breida, 2023 fifth-round rookie Eric Gray and 2021 sixth-rounder Gary Brightwell. That trio has a combined 552 career carries, 520 of which are Breida's.

Robinson, 24, broke out as an undrafted rookie for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He rushed for 1,070 yards and seven touchdowns in 2020 and then for 767 yards and eight touchdowns in 2021 before he tore his ACL in December. He was traded to the New York Jets midway through the 2022 season but only played four games and finished with 425 total rushing yards and three touchdowns. The New England Patriots signed Robinson to a two-year, $8 million deal this offseason but released him three months later.