PFF appears unimpressed with New York’s upgrades
Just how good can the New York Giants defense be?
While we’re all excited about their defensive line, the ceiling for the unit as a whole could be determined by their secondary.
The Giants added two of the top free agents in this year’s class, and they also had two of the top rookie defensive backs in the NFL last year. They’re looking to field a group consisting of Paulson Adebo, Deonte Banks, Dru Phillips, Jevon Holland, and Tyler Nubin — with Cor’Dale Flott and Dane Belton pushing for playing time as well.
All told, that looks to be an exceptionally young, athletic, and talented secondary.
And yet, Pro Football Focus only ranks the Giants’ secondary 24th in the NFL.
PFF does still consider the Giants to have the second-best secondary in the NFC East, but that’s more a commentary on the state of the Commanders and Cowboys.
Is the Giants’ secondary really in the bottom third of the NFL? Or is PFF penalizing the Giants for players who are no longer on the team?
24. New York Giants
The Giants’ two highest-graded secondary players in 2024 were rookies: cornerback Andru Phillips and safety Tyler Nubin. To bolster a secondary that has struggled for several years, the team signed safety Jevon Holland and cornerback Paulson Adebo this offseason. If the young players continue to develop and the new additions maintain their strong play, this unit could emerge as a surprise in 2025.
Raptor’s thoughts
I’m going to start by cautioning reading too much into PFF’s grades when it comes to receivers and defensive backs. They only grade those positions when they’re targeted, so many plays go ungraded.
In other words, a play in which the cornerback shuts down his opponent and forces the quarterback off his read might be great from a defensive point of view, but didn’t happen in PFF’s eyes.
The flip side is that in order to get a good grade, the quarterback needs to think he can successfully attack a corner, followed by the corner either forcing an incompletion or coming up with an interception.
Either way, a grain of salt is advised.
But on to what they actually said.
I’ll absolutely agree that both Dru Phillips and Tyler Nubin were fantastic last year. While there were some coverge breakdowns on tape, both players largely acquitted themselves well. In fact, Coach Cody Alexander, working with Field Vision Sports, wrote that Phillips was his top nickel defender in 2024.
Alexander said:
I knew the Giants had something with Phillips in the pre-season. On multiple occasions, DC Shane Bowen used him and rookie Safety Tyler Nubin to blitz the box and plug the run in his Nickel defense. Phillips’ Slot Havoc/100 of 9.80 is over a point higher than [Marlon] Humphrey’s. Though he struggled in man, Phillips made up for it in zone coverage and run defense, finishing in the top 15 and 25, respectively. Phillips finished with 31 Stops and had five tackles for loss. Though his coverage numbers are slightly worse than those of his coverage-dominant counterparts, Phillips played in the Slot over 80% of the time, more than anyone else on this list. Not bad for a debut.
That matches up with what we saw on tape in the season, and one of the reasons why we’re excited about the Giants’ young defensive backs.
I strongly suspect that the Giants’ secondary will out-play PFF’s ranking of 24th — likely significantly outplay it.
Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland should represent big upgrades over the likes of Adoree Jackson, Greg Stroman, and Jason Pinnock. Their presence alone should be a significant boost to the Giants’ secondary play.
But the upgrades at cornerback and safety could also allow the Giants to be much more aggressive in their coverage calls.
Last year, the Giants called man coverage on 31.6 percent of plays, compared to 68.4 percent of plays in zone coverage. However, they were significantly better in man coverage (Off or Press) than in zone, with an EPA of 0.00 in Man (19th), as opposed to -0.046 (27th).
Both Deonte Banks and Paulson Adebo are big, long, and athletic corners who are at their best in press-man coverage. The addition of Adebo could signal that the Giants are looking at playing more man coverage in general and press-man in particular. Last year, Banks was 11th in forced incompletions and 12th in forced incompletion rate, and playing more mana accelerate his his growth.
It’s also notable that much of the Giants’ coverage scheme last year included accepting short passes, while rallying to limit yards after the catch. This year, The Giants could look to lean into man coverage to keep the ball in quarterbacks’ hands to better enable what should be a ferocious pass rush.
The front and secondary work together, and the Giants could wind up not so much “surprising” as “shocking” if everything comes together.
