The New York Giants have seemingly made their decision on their outside cornerback opposite Paulson Adebo, and it appears to be Cor’Dale Flott.
Cornerbacks Flott and Deonte Banks have split snaps as the “starting” outside cornerback opposite Adebo all year long, dating back to training camp. When the Giants released their initial depth chart, they listed Flott and Banks as “co-starters” on the outside. They held to that through the first four games, rotating the two players over the course of the game.
Then something seemingly changed in Week 5. Banks was coming off his most active — and best — week against the Chargers, only to play just 8 snaps against the New Orleans Saints. He then played just 3 defensive snaps against the Philadelphia Eagles.
To be fair, Flott was generally more consistent and is a more versatile corner. He is more advanced at the catch point and his game more easily lends itself to blending man and zone principles. At the same time, Banks was flagged for a pass interference penalty against the Saints that wiped out a Jevon Holland interception and marked the start of the Giants’ collapse.
Fans and writers alike wondered why the Giants even bothered putting Banks on the field in the first month of the season. That led to a certain amount of satisfaction when the third year corner was a virtual non-presence against the Philadelphia Eagles. We’ve seen proclamations from several outlets that Thursday night’s game, and Flott’s game-sealing interception, have ended the experiment.
And that may be, or even probably is, the case.
However, it’s also possible that the snap distribution against the Eagles was planned — something of a one-off and part of the plan to facilitate the gameplan.
Tony Del Genio noted in our staff chat that reports prior to Thursday Night Football indicated that the Giants could abandon the rotation and rely solely on Flott opposite Adebo against the Eagles.
I responded that “Man coverage makes less sense tonight. Banks has been awesome at forcing tight windows, but Flott is definitely better at zone coverage.”
I won’t rehash my entire preview of the Eagles offense, but zone coverage and disciplined defense was the key to the Broncos suffocating the Eagles in Week 5.
That’s notable because the Broncos are the NFL’s premier man coverage team. They ran man coverage at the highest rate in the NFL through Week 5, calling it on 62.8 percent of plays per FieldVisionSports. That’s a full 5 points higher than the next highest rate and 9 points higher than the man-heavy defense called by the Giants this year.
Yet the Broncos flipped the script against the Eagles and used zone coverage to keep the play in front of them while also preventing the running game form getting on track.
The Giants clearly went to school on the Broncos defense and used zone coverage and disciplined rushes to frustrate the Philly defense (much to the frustration of some fans who wanted them to be blitz-happy and sell out to hit Hurts). And it obviously worked, shutting the Eagles down in the second half and holding them to 17 points for the second consecutive week.
It helped that Flott had, easily, the best game of his career. Next Gen Stats credits him with allowing just 1 reception for 10 yards, while also getting an interception, in 3 targets. He allowed a -30.7 percent catch rate over expected and a coverage EPA of -10.
Flott’s previous play has been fine — not to the level he showed against the Eagles, but fine.
Flott’s play on Thursday likely cements him as the “starter” (at least for now) but the question is whether the rotation between he and Banks is over, and I’m not so sure.
To circle back, I mentioned in my reply to Tony that Banks has been excellent at forcing tight window throws, and player tracking data backs that up. Banks has allowed an average of 0.8 yards — 28.8 inches — of separation this year. That’s less than an arm length worth of separation on average between he and the receiver. Nobody in the NFL who has played as many coverage snaps as Banks has allowed less average separation. The closest player to him in terms of forcing tight window throws is probably Sauce Gardner, who has allowed 1.2 yards of separation on 150 coverage snaps.
Banks had 68 coverage snaps prior to Thursday night, but was only targeted 3 times (giving up 2 receptions for 24 yards), per NextGenStats
But what about that pass interference call against the Saints? In my personal view, I’m not so sure that was defensive pass interference, and could have been an offensive pass interference or perhaps a “no-call”.
We’ll start with the All-22 tape, which certainly looks bad.
Banks is at the bottom in tight man coverage with Chris Olave. He does a great job of being patient, using his positioning to squeeze Olave to the sideline, and then running with him down the field. There’s incidental contact with both players putting a hand out at the same time around the 35-yard line. Then Banks appears to slip and pull Olave down just before Holland makes the interception and it rains flags.
But the replay shown on the broadcast angle shows things a bit differently.
Slowing things down at the point they lose their footing, it appears as though Olave got his hand inside Banks’ left sleeve and pulled him down as he tried to work back to an under-thrown pass.
Of course, we’re limited by our perspective from the near sideline. It’s certainly possible that Banks committed a more obvious penalty that the officials saw but wasn’t apparent from either broadcast or All-22 angle. On the flip side, it’s possible that they didn’t see Olave pull Banks down because of the proximity between the two players and the officials reacted to the receiver going down and assumed that it was Banks’ fault.
Final thoughts
As I said above, I feel fairly confident in saying that Cor’Dale Flott is the Giants’ “primary” CB2 for the foreseeable future. But I don’t think that necessarily means that Banks won’t see the field on defense.
I tend to think that the risk of reputation penalties is the bigger concern than Banks’ ability on the field, considering his target rate in man coverage is just 4 percent.
Even if they may not be warranted, reputation calls still hurt the team. If Banks is playing tight enough coverage that incidental contact is likely and officials are inclined to flag him if there’s any doubt, the coaches are taking a risk by playing him. It isn’t fair to Banks, but the Giants shouldn’t be in the business of “fair”. They’re in the business of putting themselves in the best position to win games.
So is the rotation over with?
Again, I’m not so sure. Barring behind-the-scenes developments that could have the Giants “out” on Banks, I suspect he’ll be on the field when the situation and game-plan warrant it. We could well see him against the Broncos, considering Banks was primarily matched up against Quentin Johnston and the similarities between he and Courtland Sutton. Banks did well against the big, physical receiver and had his best game of the season. He probably shouldn’t be exiled to the bench, and there will likely be situations in which Banks’ skill set as a man coverage specialist is desirable.
How often that comes up, of course, remains to be seen.
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