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The decision makers on the Giants staff chose to keep five defensive ends when it came time for the 53-man roster to be finalized on Friday. In addition to the usual suspects of Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Pierre-Paul, Adrian Tracy and rookie free agent Adewale Ojomo will be along for the ride this season, as it currently stands.

Part of group known for the “NASCAR” package – which sometimes lines up four defensive ends in a row to crash the quarterback – all five may be called on to help out the interior, which has seen its share of injuries this offseason.

Defensive tackle Marvin Austin is on a day-to-day basis with a back injury, and veteran Chris Canty won’t be seen for at least the first six weeks of the season after being placed on the PUP list. That leaves Linval Joseph, Rocky Bernard, and an inexperienced Markus Kuhn to man the position. In turn, that led to Tom Coughlin being asked on Saturday if Tuck could see more reps inside at defensive tackle.

“Not necessarily,” Coughlin said before the first practice with the trimmed roster. “He comes down in there in certain substituted defensive situations. Not much against regular people.”

We’ll just have to wait and see when the season opens up on Wednesday night.