The Giants signed Kelvin Benjamin on May 17. They cut the tight end before the end of their first training camp practice.
Benjamin blames Joe Judge, saying the head coach tried to “sabotage me to get me out of there.”
“I just felt like from Day 1, once I stepped on the field, once I put on the colors, he never liked me,” Benjamin told Zack Rosenblatt of NJ Advance Media. “He didn’t even want me there.”
Judge spoke to the media before Benjamin was cut Wednesday, so Judge has not addressed Benjamin’s departure yet.
General Manager Dave Gettleman drafted Benjamin in the first round with the Panthers in 2014. The Giants signed Benjamin, who hadn’t played in the NFL since 2018, after giving him a tryout at their rookie minicamp.
Benjamin, 30, played receiver before this year.
Benjamin said he weighed 265 pounds at the end of the mandatory minicamp in June, and the Giants wanted him at 251 pounds. He instead showed up to training camp weighing 268, Benjamin said, after adding muscle.
Benjamin passed the Giants’ conditioning test Tuesday, he said, but Judge told him Wednesday the Giants were fining him for being 17 pounds overweight. The Giants also wouldn’t let him practice.
“To be honest, man, I just felt like it was all a hoax,” Benjamin said. “I felt like they didn’t give me a chance. I finished the conditioning. I finished all of that. I did what I was supposed to do.”
Benjamin, who said he does not plan to pursue any other NFL opportunities, bashed Judge on his way out the door.
“I have a perspective on Joe Judge,” Benjamin said. “He’s not a coach that can ever win a Super Bowl because he sits there and cusses all day. You can tell he’s one-sided about everything. He’s a know-it-all. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. We all can learn from each other. We’re all humans at the end of the day. The true colors will come out.”