After the developments this week, with Beal and Baker both likely out for the 2020 season, the Giants at best will have a single 2019 day one secondary starter back this year — Peppers.
At the time, I thought the secondary was in dire need of investment last year and the cluster drafting and veteran acquisitions were a home run. I thought it was a bigger need than the defensive line, offensive line, and linebacker.
Outside of Love, who had some rough patches, but really showed well for making a position move, not much went right. I really hope the reinvestment this year nets more, but I’ll certainly be more conservative in my expectations.
- Jenkins was retained as a top 5 paid corner, only to be cut after a second straight year of uneven performance and acting out like a total idiot (after the GM put the trust of mentoring the group to him)
- Bethea was DOA, after signing a relatively decent 2 year deal, where he looked like a vet minimum or worse contributor
- Forget about the legal woes, first round pick Baker looked way in over his head, and came off like an asshole to boot
- Incumbent Grant Haley made no improvement, and was sat down the 2nd of the year as his snaps declined
- Peppers, as the other first-round value in the Beckham trade had an up-and-down year in coverage, and had issues with missed tackles
- Beal looked the part, but was picked on in coverage, with a really bad completion % and rating against
- Ballentine, got a rude awakening to the NFL, giving up nearly 15 YPC and 4 TDs in part time action
The Giants might have to move Love back to CB, but I think it'd be a mistake given how comfortable he started to look at S last year and also given that (just a hunch) 3 safety sets with Peppers,Love and McKinney all playing S are gonna be featured in Graham's D at times.
If you can field 3 superior S, why fork with that?
Meanwhile the Giants are looking hard at finding 2 CBs who can simply play, one outside on the boundary and the other in the slot.
One of those two is likely Darnay Holmes, in the slot, and the other...
Let's hope Corey Ballentine takes the bull by the horns.
I'm encouraged Robbieballs likes him. It sucks that Beal isn't in the mix, but hopefully he hits the weights and comes back thicker and more injury resistant in 2021.
I still think Peppers can be a player. The high safety pick I think will be a good one.
Good players matter in coaching. Last year though the defense just seemed so confused and out of place. Hopefully Graham does better. If he learned well from Belichick then we can expect more man concepts. I think the run D will be much better which will help the secondary. We have better Linebackers this year.
So while not a strength good coaching and a above average front seven will help a lot. Dallas and Philly both rely on the run for their pass offense to work. Washington.....is Washington for now.
I blame much of last year on the coaches
Contrast the attitudes and Ballentine further separates himself. 1 guy battles back from losing his best friend while the other guy is being an a-hole in the building & out gambling and robbing people. But the actual football was in Ballentine's favor too. Both coverage and tackling.
RE: Love - agree with BlueLou above. Did not like him at CB but thought he showed very well at SS. He is definitely a Malcolm Jenkins-type. The "problem" with Love is that he's a SS (IMO - that is the position he looked good in last year). And of course Jabrill Peppers looks to be the starting SS on this football team. I would use Peppers in more of a roaming role with Love and McKinney at S, but that's me.
I have zero worry about anything right now in terms of plusses or minuses.
Say what you want about our old coaches... but all NFL coaches know how to evaluate a player to determine if they have the basic skill set requirements to play a position.
I think when our current coaches get Love on the field, they'll come to the same conslusion and keep Love at S.
1. Bettcher gave hot garbage a bad name. Just look at the job Greg Williams did with the NYJ in year 1 with Moseley and many others injured, terrible, or both (Trumaine Johnson). Their starting CB's were Daryl Roberts and Brian Poole and as a unit they were top 5 in yards per play, top 10 in % of drives ending in a score, and middle of the pack in points allowed. Meanwhile here blown coverages and miscommunications were the most constant thing about this team the past 2 years. The impact of good or bad coaching can not be overstating - and all we can do is hope we have it with Graham. I'd have personally preferred someone more experienced like Williams who has simply proven himself many times over but understand you need to let Judge pick his own guys.
2. Poor drafting with premium picks. To some degree this bundles the last 2 regimes because this essentially amounts to Baker and Apple. How either got through the psych eval with someone thinking these guys were building block investments I have no idea - and I actually suspect on the Baker side it may have gotten the SEC scout fired this year. Beal was a semi-premium pick and he was damaged goods. Hopefully McKinney is the curse breaker.
3. Lack of FA investment. There's a storyline some have bought into overdramatizing how much they've invested in the secondary to the point they thought a pick like Holmes was unnecessary, but the reality is that I believe this is the first offseason they added a non-minimum CB FA since signing Jenkins 4 years ago. Adding a bunch of young talent is fine but there needs to be some base level of experienced competence too. Bradberry will provide that, and hopefully Cockerill will as well.
They've taken steps to improve in all 3 areas but whether or not it will work remains to be seen.
I love the Bradberry acquisition — he’s not a star, but he’s a reliable true no. 1 corner. I suspect Cockrell grabs the other starting position. That’s a reliable, if not spectacular starting duo, with question marks in the slot.
I love McKinney. He was my favorite player in the draft and I was thrilled he dropped.
The player I really hope puts it all together is Peppers. He’s got much to prove as a tackler and cover safety. He’s clearly athletically a notch above, hopefully this is the program that gets the best out of him.
The downside was the missed tackles. I didn't have a good feel for his deep coverage because it seemed like we put Bethea in that spot.
I like all 3 of Peppers, Love, and McKinney in some version of interchangeable slot safeties. I'm not sure any of the 3 is a + deep safety though, so that would be the area where I'm concerned. Can they scheme to protect those guys from playing single high? Or is McKinney like Fitzpatrick, a guy who has been used as a swiss army knife who can play single high if that's where you let him settle in?
Solving the CF coverage role is probably going to be Graham's biggest test because that's where this defense got decimated by big plays, breakdowns, and penalties the past couple years. IMO even more so than the pass rush.
Peppers was playing better as the year progressed. One of very few we can say that about. Peppers/McKinney/Love should be the best safety group we've had since Guyton/Jackson.
For me Love is a safety. Another guy I don't see the first step quickness, long speed and quick twitch CoD to play CB. I do think he's smart, tough and competitive though. IF he's one of those guys that's a step ahead of the QB progressions he could carve out a role as a nickel/dime CB. With him that will rely on mental strengths though, not physical ones.
So the camp battles and how our defensive staff aligns these guys is one of the critical decisions and probably the first major test of Graham's ability to assess talent and delegate roles.