The Giants acquired a player on draft day hours before the first selection was made.
The defending Super Bowl champions announced this afternoon that they have signed defensive tackle Shaun Rogers, a 12-year veteran and three-time Pro Bowler who previously played for Detroit, Cleveland and New Orleans.
Rogers, 6-4 and 350 pounds, spent played for the Saints in 2011. He played in all 16 regular season games with four starts and was credited with 22 tackles (14 solo). Rogers also played in the Saints' two postseason games.
Now he's joining the reigning Super Bowl champions and playing on a defensive line that includes Pro Bowlers Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul, as well as tackles Chris Canty and Linval Joseph.
"I'm kind of honored and I appreciated them holding me in a regard enough to put me in along those guys," Rogers said. "Those guys are most definitely top-notch pass rushers, defensive linemen right now, especially in their prime. I'm just happy to be a part of that group, those guys are going to help me out and hopefully I can help them out.
"Hopefully, we can be another Super Bowl champion. You get an opportunity to join an organization of this caliber with lofty goals and a great track record, you go ahead and do that. Hopefully, I can bring some of my experience over the past few years and just fit in and play a part."
In his career, Rogers has played in 156 regular season games with 128 starts. He has 504 tackles (366 solo), 37.5 sacks, 27 passes defensed – and an interception he returned 66 yards for a touchdown playing for the Lions in 2007. Rogers has also blocked 14 field goal attempts in his career. He was a Pro Bowl starter on the NFC team in 2004 and 2005 and a reserve on the AFC team in 2008.
Rogers admits he wondered if his career was over when the Saints chose not to re-sign him.
"When you're sitting out there you always have that in the back of your head being an 11-year vet – maybe this is the time, is it not the time, how I am feeling, how am I transitioning this offseason?" he said. "There are a lot of variables that play into that whole card. But there was still some interest, so I figured as long as they're still interested I have something to offer.
"I still most definitely feel that I can bring something to the table. I might not be exactly like I was in '06, but I still have some tricks and I still have some good push in me."
Rogers entered the NFL from the University of Texas as Detroit's second-round draft choice in 2001, the 61st overall selection. He played for the Lions for seven years. Rogers started all 16 games and had a career-high 81 tackles as a rookie. Rogers also started every game in 2003, 2004 and 2007. In 2004, he was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week after a game against the Giants in which he had four tackles, one pass breakup and a sack. He finished that season with 68 tackles and 4.0 sacks and was selected to his first Pro Bowl.
He was honored again the following season, despite missing two games. Rogers scored his first career touchdown on Dec. 24, 2005, when teammate James Hall stripped the ball from Aaron Stecker and Rogers picked it up and returned it 21 yards for a touchdown at New Orleans.
In his final season in Detroit in 2007, Rogers had a career-high 7.0 sacks and went to the Pro Bowl for the third time. He also had perhaps the most memorable play of his career, picking off a pass by Denver's Patrick Ramsey and returning it 66 yards for a touchdown on Nov. 4. That helped him earn another NFC Defensive Player of the Week award.
On March 1, 2008, Detroit traded Rogers to Cleveland for cornerback Leigh Bodden and the Browns' third-round choice in that year's draft.
In his first season in Cleveland, Rogers started all 16 games, was credited with 86 tackles and had 4.5 sacks and was selected to the AFC Pro Bowl team.
After three seasons with the Browns, Rogers was released on Feb. 9, 2011. He signed with New Orleans on March 2. Rogers started games vs. Houston, Carolina, Indianapolis and Tampa Bay and had a season-high three solo tackles at St. Louis and Tennessee.
At Texas, Rogers played in 41 games with 20 starts from 1997-2000. He had 199 tackles, 14 sacks and 53 tackles for losses, the third-highest total in school history. Rogers was an All-Big 12 second-team choice as a senior in 2000 and a first-team selection as a junior, when he joined
Pittsburgh Steelers 2000 first round choice Casey Hampton in becoming the Longhorns' first defensive tackle tandem to be honored in the same season since 1971. As a junior he played in 13 games with 12 starts and recorded a career-high 80 tackles with 5.5 sacks for 33 yards and 27 tackles for losses.
Rogers, 33, was born in LaPorte, Texas and was a two-way tackle and basketball player at LaPorte High School.
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