New York Giants hidden gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2025 roster

It’s not just that the 2024 New York Giants finished with a 3-14 record, and were a team that was singularly unimpressive in just about every category that didn’t have something to do with Dexter Lawrence. No, these Giants have been pretty bad for a while now, with all different types of leadership up top. Since the 2017 season, Big Blue has had the NFL’s worst record (40-91-1), and of course, the NFL’s worst win percentage (.307).

You’d have to go back to the misbegotten Giants of the 1970s, when the team was shuffling from coach to coach and personnel guy to personnel guy in whipsaw fashion, to find such a record of consistent disappointment.

By the end of the 2024 season, team president, CEO, and co-owner John Mara had endured more than enough.

“We stunk this year,” Mara said in January. “It’s my instinct and my strong belief that we are going to go in the right direction. It’s hard for me to say we’re going in the right direction right now, because we’ve been going backward.”

Okay, whatever THAT means.

As to the decision to keep head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen on board despite all of this. Mara spoke to a need for greater consistency.

“When you make these changes — and God knows we’ve made them in the past and been impatient in the past — when you do that, you feel like you take one step forward, two steps back, and I just didn’t want to fall into that cycle again,” Mara concluded. “I wanted to give people a chance to build this thing the right way, and to get us to where we need to be.”

Whether that’s the right decision or not, it is what it is. The Giants have spackled over football’s most important position with the additions of veteran quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston; hopefully the selection of Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart with the 25th overall pick in the draft can lead to something more lasting. There have been serious adds to a defense that fell all over itself last season, and hopefully the offense can at least hold things together enough for meaningful improvement.

If that is to actually happen — and there’s more than enough legitimate reasons for doubt — it will be about more than just the guys at the top of the roster, because there’s not enough top there for this franchise at this point. In the continuation of our “Hidden Gems” series, we look at three Secret Superstars on the team — one underrated veteran, free agent, and draft pick.

Underrated veteran: RB Tyrone Tracy Jr.

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When it comes to Secret Superstars for the Giants who were on the roster last season… well, you have to look around a bit. One guy who caught my eye before Big Blue selected him in the fifth round of the 2024 draft was Purdue running back Tyrone Tracy. And it wasn’t because of what he did for the Boilermakers per se, though that was pretty nice. No, before he transferred to Purdue in 2022, Tracy was a receiver for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and he was responsible for explosive passing plays in Kirk Ferentz’s offense.

If you’ve watched Iowa’s offense over the last decade — first, my condolences. Second, you know how rare explosive passing plays are. Tracy’s catches weren’t of the swing and scree variety, either — in 2019, 74% of his snaps came as an outside receiver.

Tracy did his level best to bolster the Giants’ run game while everyone was suffering through the inevitable post-Saquon malaise, gaining 839 yards and scoring five touchdowns on 192 carries. He forced 34 missed tackles and had 10 runs of 15 or more yards, and he added value as a receiver (why not?) with 284 yards and a touchdown on 38 catches. Last season, the Giants had a total of 14 explosive run plays, so if it wasn’t Tracy with the ball, it basically wasn’t going to happen.

At 6’1 and 210 pounds, Tracy combines lateral agility and second-level speed with the power required to bull through enemy defenders. He’s also conversant with the idea of making big gains behind just about every blocking scheme, and doing so behind offensive lines that can be… problematic.

“I wouldn’t say it’s any different than last year, really,” Tracy said in June of the value of experience in the NFL. “The only difference is I’ve been here before. I know what’s going to happen. I know training camp is coming up. I know I’ve got to prepare my body, prepare my mind, prepare my soul for what’s going to happen during the season. But I’m still grinding, man. I’m still grinding. There’s really no safe space in the league. In the NFL, everyone’s trying to take your spot. I’m grinding every day trying to make sure that the coaches can trust me and that my teammates trust me.”

Tracy is working on ball security as well, which is important. Four fumbles as a runner, and six drops as a receiver in your rookie season? Not great numbers if you want to keep getting the ball.

“First of all, it starts on the football field,” he said of those issues. “Every time I’m holding the ball, or I get the ball, whatever it is, making sure I’m carrying it the right way. And then I also bought, I don’t know if y’all know what it is, but it’s a little grip strengthener off Amazon that I use every night. It just helps me. Also, it just makes sure that I’m being fundamentally sound when I’m holding the ball as well. So again, just take your coaching and the meeting room to the field.”

Regardless of the effect of rookie Cam Skattebo on the run game, the Giants are expecting big things from Tracy in Year 2, and they’re right to do so. Especially if the Kung-Fu Grip thing pays off.

Underrated free-agent signing: DL Chauncey Golston

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The Giants did add two highly valuable free agents to their secondary in former New Orleans Saints cornerback Paulson Adebo, and ex-Miami Dolphins safety Jevon Holland. But neither of those guys are Secret Superstars, and I’m assuming that fans of the team already know how much they can improve a pass defense that ranked 30th in DVOA last season.

Goodness knows the team has allocated more than enough resources to the edge pressure group, but as much as we’ll all be talking about Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and that Abdul Carter guy as the preseason progresses and when the regular season comes along, the addition of former Dallas Cowboys pass disruptor Chauncey Golston could add a a little spice and a lot of glue to a defensive line rotation that’s already overstuffed from a talent perspective.

In 2024, the 6’5, 268-pound Golston enjoyed career highs in sacks (seven), total pressures (37), tackles (36), and stops (30). And given his ability to get it done from multiple gaps — he lined up as a defensive tackle on 26% of his snaps last season — that’s where the glue comes in. When you have a combination of specialized tone-setters and versatile rotational players, that’s when your crew becomes especially difficult to deal with.

Golston has a full array of moves to deal with enemy blockers as well, which could make the three-year, $18 million contract he signed with $12 million guaranteed quite a bargain in the end. On the outside, he can skirt the edge, swipe hands away, and bring the bull-rush, Inside, he can double up on the power, and shoot multiple lanes to create enemy losses.

“It’s a mindset,” Golston said in March of his ability to displace guys outweighing him by 50-60 pounds on the regular. “You get a chance to go and move a man against his own will, you’ve got to do that. That’s a mental thing. Also, you can’t go to jail for it out there. That’s a nice plus [laughs].”

As to his versatility, Golston had already looked as how he best fits in this potentially dominant line.

“With Burns, Burns is a speed guy,” Golston said of the different characteristics — and this was a month and a half before Carter was drafted. “I’m more of the bigger end guy, and finesse, power, those usually go hand in hand. With that, I’m just doing my part. I’m just here to help in my part of the role, and with time together, like with the OTAs and training camp, I will see exactly how that works. That question will be answered in time.”

I tend to lean toward the underrated multi-gap linemen in my own evaluations, because from Michael Bennett to Denico Autry, I’ve seen what they can do for a defense. Golston could well be That Guy for the 2025 Giants.

Underrated draft pick: DL Darius Alexander

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And speaking of that defensive line…

Before the dislocated elbow that cost him the last five games of his 2024 season, Dexter Lawrence was demolishing enemy offenses at a clip that had him in firm contention for the Defensive Player of the Year award, and from his positions on the field, very few were in the same universe. On snaps from zero- to three-tech tackle (where Lawrence spent 97% of his snaps last season), he totaled eight sacks and 34 pressures, despite the constant double teams that opened things up for everybody else on the line.

The pass rush obviously fell off without Lawrence on the field — New York’s sack rate plummeted from 9.1% to 6.1% — and it was clear that reinforcements among the IDL in the room were needed. Thus, the selection of Toledo’s Darius Alexander with the first pick in the third round.

With the Toledo Rockets last season, Alexander totaled four sacks, 37 total pressures, 27 solo tackles, and 27 stops. This after putting up seven sacks, 46 total pressures, 19 solo tackles, and 23 stops for the Rockets in 2023.

During Senior Bowl week, no opposing blocker had answers to deal with Alexander consistently — not even North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel, who parlayed his own positive Senior Bowl performance into a first-round selection by the Seattle Seahawks. Alexander was throwing dudes around left and right.

This wasn’t a case of an average player making the most of one week, either. Alexander’s 2024 tape displayed everything you need to know about his potential.

“Darius Alexander, a 3-technique that we did a lot of work on,” Schoen said after the pick was made. “He came in on a 30 visit as well, was down at the Senior Bowl, and just where we are, we felt we needed to add some youth to the defensive line, and this kid is just under 6’4, 315 pounds, 34-inch arms, and freaky athletic. Down at the Senior Bowl, he had a really good week. [Defensive line coach] Dre Patterson, thinks the world of him, [as does] [assistant defensive line coach] Bryan Cox. Getting a guy like this that can come in and develop with the depth that we have. Again, a high ceiling for this player, so we’re excited to add another player to our front seven.”

With all these moves made, Schoen couldn’t help but be a little giddy about those defensive fronts.

“There’s a lot of depth. There’s a lot of depth there. I’m excited about the group. Again, we’ve got to do a better job stopping the run this year, and I think we helped that with some of the depth. If we can get to third down, we’ve got a lot of options in terms of where guys can line up in terms of versatility. Chauncey has got some versatility. Darius has got some versatility. Obviously with Carter, there’s some versatile pieces in there that can move around, and that can be difficult for offenses.”

It certainly can, and taking this defense beyond where John Mara was with it at the end of last season would be very good from a job security perspective.

(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).