Big Blue View
The New York Giants secondary finds itself in a position that is at once very familiar from a year ago and very different at the same time.
Last year, we saw incumbent starter and former first round pick cornerback Deonte Banks pit against Cor’Dale Flott in a battle to start opposite free agent corner Paulson Adebo. It was widely assumed that Banks’ superior athletic traits would carry the day and he would settle into being a good “CB2” opposite Adebo with another off-season of development.
Instead Flott won the battle, never relinquished his starting spot, and earned a big second contract with the Tennessee Titans.
And here we are, once again with Banks embroiled in a battle for the Giants’ second starting cornerback job. There are some notable differences this time around, however.
First and foremost, Banks is competing with another former first round pick in Greg Newsome II, and Newsome has started the off-season program as the “starting” corner, with Banks rotating in. And in an added wrinkle, both Newsome II and Banks have to fend off second-round rookie Colton Hood. Hood has primarily served as a second-team cornerback during OTAs.
Newsome had success early in his career, breaking out early for the Cleveland Browns. However, he too regressed amid coaching turmoil in Cleveland and a trade to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Like Banks, Newsome bring upside in man
The second difference between now and a year ago is coaching. There were a few coaching factors that we simply didn’t take into account last year. To start, we discounted the impact that Jerome Henderson may have had on the Giants’ corners. Henderson was widely regarded as one of the best secondary coaches in the NFL, and was one of Banks’ biggest supporters. Henderson was also the coach who publicly called out Banks’ effort in his sophomore season, which might have contributed to his firing. That, however, looks markedly different after revelations regarding a lack of accountability from the top down under Brian Daboll, as well as questions regarding attention to detail under Shane Bowen.
Daboll has been replaced by a much more experienced head coach in John Harbaugh, and Bowne by Dennard Wilson.
We don’t yet know precisely what Wilson’s scheme will look like, but we can assume it will be aggressive. While Wilson is generally considered a “Ravens 2.0” disciple he has coached under a very interesting selection of defensive minds: Gregg Williams (Rams: 2012, 2014-2016, Jets: 2019), Todd Bowles (Jets: 2017-2018), Jonathan Gannon (Eagles, 2021-2022), Vic Fangio (Eagles: 2022), Mike MacDonald (Ravens: 2023).
Coming with Wilson is secondary coach Donald D’Alesio and defensive backs coach Addison Lynch. D’Alesio previously coached under Steve Spagnuolo with the Kansas City Chiefs while Lynch coached under Vance Joseph with the Denver Broncos.
The Eagles (Fangio) called the highest rate of man coverage a year ago, the Broncos the second-highest rate, and the Chiefs called the eighth-highest rate of man coverage. The Eagles (1st), Chiefs (2nd), and Broncos (9th)...
