Film breakdown: Micah McFadden’s big day

The New York Giants‘ defense was without Dexter Lawrence, Bobby Okereke, Dru Phillips, Deonte Banks, and Cor’Dale Flott against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Names like Elijah Garcia, Cory Durden, Casey Rogers, and Greg Stroman Jr. donned blue in the Giants’ 14-11 loss.

New York’s defense held Derek Carr and the Saints to two touchdowns. The defense played well above their head, and third-year linebacker Micah McFadden was the leader in lieu of Okereke. McFadden recorded five tackles for a loss and six stops while leading the game with 11 tackles. Here are some McFadden highlights from the game:

Defensive structure

I would love to attribute the excellent performance solely to McFadden’s ascension, which is one reason. Still, Shane Bowen’s defensive structure assisted McFadden on his big day. The defensive front resembled the 2023 Giants—a TITE five-man front with three down linemen.

A linebacker has more free range of motion behind a TITE front where every gap is accounted for; this hinders the offensive line from locating a bubble and quickly climbing to the second level. McFadden benefited from this reality. New York was in base personnel (3-4) on 58% of snaps in this game; on the season, they’ve employed base on 12% of plays.Here’s a good example on a crucial third-and-1 tackle for a loss:

The Saints run I-Formation field crack-toss. Cesar Ruiz (51) is tasked to climb and locate McFadden on the back side of the run. Ruiz is held up by Elijah Chatman (94) and Jordon Riley (95) at the line of scrimmage. When Ruiz squared up, McFadden was heading to the ball carrier. New York did a great job containing Kendre Miller (25) and McFadden made the tackle for a loss.

Bowen’s approach was conducive to the Saints’ personnel. During the season, New Orleans employed 11 personnel at a low rate of 24%, and they used 11 at 36% against the Giants. That’s infrequent for NFL standards; the Giants use 11 personnel at a 74% rate on the season. The Saints use a lot of 22 and 12-personnel — beefier offensive packages.

The Giants needed to use heavier personnel on defense to replace the loss of Lawrence and Okereke. Two-high, six-man-box defensive structures would be exposed against the run. New York had seven or more defenders in the box on just under half of their defensive snaps against the Saints. They average seven or more defenders in the box on just 28% of snaps this season.

McFadden’s development

McFadden struggled with missed tackles throughout his career. He took a step in development last season but missed 25 tackles — a 20.7% missed tackle rate. McFadden had the highest missed tackle rate of linebackers with at least 50% of snaps. He ranked fourth overall in total missed tackles. It’s been a problem.

He has done a better job securing his tackles in 2024. He’s missed 12 tackles this season — an 11.9% missed tackle rate. McFadden has only missed more than one tackle in one game this season. He matched his total STOPs from last season with 36 on the year.

It’s safe to say he’s taking positive steps in his development. I would contend he looks much more explosive as well this season. A play like the one below signals as much:

McFadden undercut the play-side from the far hash and tackled Alvin Kamara (41) near the sideline after Tomon Fox (45) did well in slowing the running back down. I appreciate how McFadden accelerated after slightly changing direction as the pursuit defender to Fox’s containment. His aiming points and physicality at the point of attack were impressive against the Saints.

McFadden did well to sift through traffic and work outside of Kayvon Thibodeaux (5) to locate Miller with Tre Hawkins III, who did a fantastic job avoiding the tight end’s block. McFadden, though, stayed square to Miller, was patient, and showed closing burst and solid redirection to make the tackle for a loss.

McFadden also earned this stop by avoiding the offensive lineman, who had a relatively clean release and spatial leverage up to the linebacker. This was an excellent path to the ball carrier by McFadden. This was yet another play where McFadden replaced Muasau outside the tackle box to force a negative offensive play for the Saints.

McFadden displayed exceptional patience in sifting through the blocks to locate the ball carrier outside the numbers. This was a first-and-ten rush that put the Saints into a second-and-twelve situation. He is the play-side linebacker on this one, and Hawkins III did a great job as the contain defender to the boundary.

McFadden sniffed out this tight end screen to Juwaan Johnson (83) for one of his five tackles for a loss. Saints’ offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak dialed up the screen on first-and-ten with the Giants’ bringing pressure. McFadden read it well, and Elijah Chatman (94) was in position to help with the tackle since he dropped off the line of scrimmage into coverage.

The hammer

Micah McFadden made plenty of plays that didn’t make the stat sheet:

Kamara earned 5 yards on this second-and-10 rush backed up in Saints’ territory. New Orleans ran to the strong side in I-Formation. McFadden quickly filled the A-Gap to absorb the lead-blocking fullback. There’s heavy pop on contact as McFadden meets the fullback in the backfield. Kamara hit the back-side A-Gap, Muasau was pinned by Ruiz away from the hole, and Jason Pinnock (27) made the play in the ally.

Here’s another example of McFadden taking on a lead-blocker to allow his teammates to fit their responsibility. Both Muasau and Hawkins III did a great job positioning themselves to make the play.

The Saints attempted an I-Formation run, and Chatman did a great job pushing the offensive lineman into the backfield. McFadden quickly hammered the full-back, forcing Kamara off his spot. McFadden’s fit allowed Garcia (90) and Fox (45) to earn the tackle for a loss from the backside.

Final thoughts

McFadden was not perfect against the Saints, but he played well, especially as a run defender. Pro Football Focus graded this performance as McFadden’s fourth-best run defense game of his career. He continues to develop and proves to be an asset for the Giants moving forward.