Giants cut five, have until Friday to reduce roster to 80

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants have been given an extension by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in cutting their roster.

The Giants were supposed to reduce their roster to 80 players Tuesday. Goodell, however, will allow the team to keep an extra five players because their preseason game against the Jets was postponed for two days by Hurricane Irene and not played until Monday night.

Because the Giants' preseason finale is Thursday night in New England, the commissioner says the Giants and Jets can keep 85 players until 4 p.m. Friday.

The Giants did place second-round draft pick Marvin Austin on injured reserve and receiver Ramses Barden and center Adam Koets on the reserve-physically-unable-to-perform list. Receiver Duke Calhoun was waived-injured.

Austin, who was ineligible for his final season at North Carolina, tore his left pectoral muscle in last week's preseason victory over Chicago. The defensive tackle underwent surgery Tuesday and will miss the entire season.

Barden (ankle) and Koets (knee) are recovering from surgery and have been on the physically-unable-to-perform list since the beginning of training camp.

Koets had arthroscopic surgery last week to help in his recovery. Barden had been running lately but he will now have to wait to play.

The earliest either Koets or Barden can come back is the day after the sixth regular-season weekend, which is mid-October.

Players removed from the PUP list are allowed up to 21 days of practice before a decision has to be made whether to activate, terminate, or keep them on the reserve/PUP list.

Calhoun played in nine games for the Giants in 2010 and had seven special teams tackles. The second-year pro has an injured hamstring and did not play against the Jets on Monday.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press