The Giants’ young secondary could be coming together
The New York Giants simply have to get better on offense and defense.
Interestingly, the Giants made the decision to heavily invest in their defense and only really upgraded the quarterback position on offense.
They started that investments by making a pair of big free agent signings at the start of free agency to upgrade a young and thin secondary. They brought in cornerback Paulson Adebo from the Saints to start on the outside and take the pressure off their young corners. Miami safety Javon Holland, meanwhile, was brought in to lock down the back end of the defense and help generate turnovers.
The one concern in the Giants’ signings is that Adebo is returning from a broken femur that limited him to just seven games last year. That’s obviously a significant injury, and there was concern that Adebo’s involvement in the offseason program might be curtailed.
Fortunately, Adebo is healing quickly and well. “I’m doing great,” he said. “I’m doing good. Recovery is all going great. I’m so happy to be out there.”
“So, once they said I was ready to go, then it’s just about getting in shape,” he said. “Being out there with the guys, building that team chemistry, it’s so big when you go through the duration of a season. So, being out there as soon as possible is definitely important.”
On the Giants’ young defense
The Giants fielded one of the youngest teams in the NFL last year — even with guys like Graham Gano and Greg Van Roten in the mix. Their team is once again young, but many of those young players are now veterans and Adebo believes the experience has helped them.
“Some of the guys are young,” he said. “But they’re definitely wise beyond their years as far as being able to take coaching and also being able to lead as well.”
Adebo himself is only 25, but he’s played a lot in the NFL. He acknowledges that he’s now the “Old Man” of the cornerback group, and that he’s expected to be a leader.
“I think for me,” he said, “it’s always about trying to put a good example out there regardless of if I’m coming in as a veteran or even before when I was a quote unquote younger guy. I mean, I played a lot of plays in this league and with that comes experience and being able to give people nuggets and also be coachable as well to be able to collaborate with those people that are around you. So that was a little bit spoken about as well to come in and kind of, you know, impart some of the experiences that, that I’ve had in the league.”
The subject of leadership in the secondary was a recurring theme, and he also believes the Giants have a solid leadership core despite their youth.
Adebo said, “I feel like we have a group of leaders, me, (safety) Jevón (Holland) and then (safety Tyler) Nubin.”
He added, “I feel like, you know, (cornerback) Dru’s (Phillips) doing his thing, (cornerback Deonte Banks) Tae’s doing this thing, (cornerback Cor’Dale Flott) Flott’s doing this thing. And then we got guys like (safety) Dane Belton, he like everybody collectively, is really coming together. So, I can’t say enough good things about the group that that I came into.”
Overall, Adebo has been very impressed with his new teammates and complimented Tae Banks in particular.
He mentioned that Banks has been “really locked in”, and playing great. “Just really impressed with his ability to move, cover guys, play zone, play man, super athletic and then super fun to be around. So, I feel like that was really, really good to see him, he’s been doing good.”
Adebo also had nothing but praise for third overall pick Abdul Carter
“He looks really really impressive,” Adebo said. “And then he has a great mind on him, great mindset on him as far as coming in and ready to learn and, and work and so, yeah, definitely excited about him”
The Giants have a difficult numbers game to balance, as well as a bunch of youngsters to develop. However, Adebo thinks that the Giants’ young defense is starting to gel.
“I think it can fit together really well,” he said. “I think we’re doing a great job of communicating and a really good job of executing and being on the same page. So that’s one of the big things about being a cohesive defense and I think we’re doing that.”
But how will it all fit together? What kind of defense will Shane Bowen field?
“A really good one.”