{"id":186639,"date":"2024-08-26T15:30:30","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T19:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=186639"},"modified":"2024-08-26T15:12:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T19:12:33","slug":"giants-holes-in-secondary-could-doom-improved-defensive-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/08\/26\/giants-holes-in-secondary-could-doom-improved-defensive-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants\u2019 Holes in Secondary Could Doom Improved Defensive Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The talk <\/span>in NFL circles <\/span>about the <\/span>New York Giants<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>has <\/span>been <\/span>extremely<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>negative<\/span>. <\/span>Training camp observers and analysts from several NFL <\/span>news sites <\/span>predict the <\/span>G-Men <\/span>could be one of the worst teams in the NFL<\/span>. Before the season has even begun, pundits are <\/span>already <\/span>blaming quarterback Daniel Jones<\/a> for <\/span>the team\u2019s expected poor play<\/span>. <\/span>An average of the top five mainstream media polls\u00a0predicts the Giants <\/span><\/span>will be the 28th-ranked<\/span><\/span>\u00a0team in the <\/span>league<\/span><\/span><\/a>. Plus, Las Vegas agrees<\/span> with the<\/span>se<\/span> prognosticators<\/span>. <\/span>Big Blue\u2019s total number of wins <\/span>for the year currently <\/span>stands at <\/span>6.5<\/span>.<\/span> If the Giants are going to prove their detractors wrong, the defense <\/span>must<\/span>\u00a0le<\/span>ad the way. But <\/span>while NT<\/span> Dexter Lawrence<\/span>, newly-arrived DE Brian Burns, and LB Kayvon Thibodeaux can wreak havoc<\/span> on opponents’ offensive<\/span> lines<\/span>, the <\/span>holes in the<\/span>ir Giants’ defensive <\/span>secondary could prove the haters right.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Giants\u2019 Holes in Secondary Could Doom Improved Defensive Unit<\/h2>\n

Better Giants Pash Rush, But Defensive Secondary Lacks Depth<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Under new defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, the Giants\u2019 revamped pass rush<\/a> appears improved, but it hasn\u2019t made an impact on the field yet. In Week 2 against the Houston Texans<\/a>, quarterback C.J. Stroud<\/a> went 7-10 for 88 yards before the Texans\u2019 second-stringers took over. Unfortunately, the performance of the Giants secondary has been more concerning.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot is expected of second-year cornerback Deonte Banks and some NFL analysts agree \u2013 Banks could be a stud. <\/span>Peter Schrager of Good Morning Football on the NFL Network<\/span><\/a> selected Tre Banks as one of his 2024 breakout stars. He said, \u201cThe Giants love this dude. Their No. 1 corner, it’s Year 2. He’s going up against guys like A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin, [and] CeeDee Lamb this season, at least we think, and I think Deonte Banks is ready for that action… He’s entering Year No. 2, I think he is a breakout stud.\u201d But the real concern is the corner opposite Banks and the rest of the secondary.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

SNY\u2019s NFL insider Connor Hughes<\/span><\/span><\/a> reported on the Giants\u2019 secondary plans after <\/span>their <\/span>poor showing against<\/span> the New York Jets in joint practices<\/span> during the preseason<\/span>. <\/span>Cor\u2019Dale<\/span> Flott has <\/span>struggled,<\/span> and Nick McCloud <\/span>hasn\u2019t<\/span> been much better. The Giants’ internal option<\/span>s at RCB could be rookie Tru Phillps, second-year cornerback Tre Hawkins<\/span>, <\/span>or Breon Borders.<\/span> That said, the <\/span>Giants <\/span>are in desperate need of a<\/span> reliable <\/span>veteran <\/span>cornerback across from Tre Banks.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondary Help on the Way, Not Really<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Giants are expected to actively check the waiver wire to add to their defensive backfield. Unfortunately, Pro Bowl corner Stephon Gilmore signed a one-year contract worth $10 million with the Minnesota Vikings. The deal was announced on August 19. Ironically, the Vikings are the Giants’ Week 1 opponent.<\/span><\/p>\n

The improved pass rush could become a non-factor for Big Blue if receivers are wide-open across patterns. Despite the changes in the unit with Burns and more active linebackers, the Giants defense is expected to struggle. Anthony DiBona of Pro Football Network, in his <\/span>new ranking of every team’s defense<\/span><\/a>\u00a0ahead of the 2024 season, put the Giants at No.<\/span>\u00a020<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for one specific reason. The unproven secondary, especially at right cornerback.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The options for a veteran corner heading into the regular season are limited, so Big Blue may need to fix their cornerback issues from within. Bowen and Daboll<\/a> will need to coach up their young cornerbacks to avoid the Giants’ defensive secondary performing worse than expected.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: [Lucas Boland] – USA Today Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ’24 Big Blue defense seems improved with new players. But the lack of depth in the Giants defensive secondary could doom the unit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5259,"featured_media":187058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,54,36,6431],"tags":[4415,3472,9802,4752,9040,45,92,7300,32776],"class_list":["post-186639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giants","category-editorials","category-nfl-news","category-nfl-teams","tag-brian-burns","tag-brian-daboll","tag-deonte-banks","tag-dexter-lawrence","tag-kayvon-thibodeaux","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-giants-news","tag-shane-bowen"],"modified_by":"Michael Zimmelman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}