Last year, we saw Cor’Dale Flott overcome Adoree’ Jackson for a starting role as an outside cornerback, playing across from fellow starter Deonte Banks for much of the season. Jackson departed and in walks Paulson Adebo on a three-year, $54MM contract. All of the sudden, Flott is pushed to a CB3 role again. According to Dan Duggan of The Athletic, though, Flott may, once again, be making moves for the first-team defense. 
Despite missing more than half of the 2024 season, Adebo is making starter money. While this is largely based on a phenomenal 2023 campaign, in which Adebo had four interceptions, 18 passes defensed, 76 tackles, two forced fumbles, and a ranking as the 15th-best cornerback in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Adebo was arguably setting up for an even more impressive 2024 season. In only seven games before breaking his femur, Adebo had already logged three interceptions, 10 passes defensed, and 52 tackles.
The Giants are certainly counting on Adebo to make a full recovery and still be the same player, and so far in camp he’s been participating and working with the first team. The other starting spot is the one held in question, though. Banks was a full-time starter in 2024 for 14 games. He failed to log an interception, but his 12 passes defensed led the team.
Flott started for most of the season before an injury kept him out for two weeks late in the season. When he returned to the field, he worked behind Jackson for a bit before regaining starting honors in the regular season finale. In all, Flott had 10 starts in 14 games with an interception and seven passes defensed in 2024.
While it seems by the metrics of history and experience that Banks has the upper hand, Flott has the analytics on his side. According to PFF, Flott ranked as the 68th-best cornerback of 116 players graded at the position. Banks was all the way down at 108th. While analytics aren’t always a good measure of which player stands a better chance at starting, in this case they might end up being a decent indicator.
Duggan reports that at Organized Team Activities, Banks and Flott continued rotating at the cornerback spot opposite Adebo. Duggan adds that, “notably, Flott was with the starters while Banks was with the second-stringers when the defense broke into separate groups for an install period.”
We know that Flott is a strong camper. We saw it last year when he secured the starting job across from Banks. This year, it appears it’s Banks’ playing time that’s in danger here. There is still plenty of time for things to get shaken up, but at the moment, it’s looking like Flott is in play to relegate a prior year’s starter to CB3 for the second year in a row.