Julian Love

New York Giants: Julian Love talks offseason, how he wants to be a ‘factor’

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New York Giants, Julian Love

Like the rest of the NFL, the New York Giants are in the midst of a virtual offseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, defensive back Julian Love feels the offseason is going well.

In an appearance on the “Giants Huddle” podcast, Love said the Giants have worked trivia about their teammates and the New Jersey area into the mix.

“There’s an importance on getting to know the area because we’re the New York Giants and we encompass a lot of demographics, a lot of people, a lot of areas geographically as well,” Love said. “So part of it could be know the New Jersey area, know different areas of New York in trivia and geographic ways, and then there is get to know your teammates. It could be where somebody is from, what high school they went to, their picture and name this person – coaches as well. Everybody is involved into who could pop up on the trivia. So that’s a conversation starter with that person going forward. You learn such interesting [backstories] on people. I think you learn more doing that than you do in person with each other in a way.”

“That implementation has been awesome. I really enjoyed each day hopping online to meet with people and meet with teammates and to see what the new challenge is for that day. Communication has been flowing, very fluid and open. I think that’s important right now to build that camaraderie, which we’re not able to because we’re not in the facility together.”

Love feels he has been able to grasp new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham’s playbook.

“It’s tough at first, but they’ve done a great job setting up film, setting up meetings, certain PowerPoints,” Love said. “Some coaches might step back in the camera and demonstrate something, which is kind of funny. But I think it’s gone well. None of us can control what is happening right now and why we’re in this virtual setting, but all we can do is our very best to learn as much as possible in this setting. And I think we’ve done a great job so far. Everything is very easy, they put it in front of you, a lot of guys are asking a lot of questions, and I think that’s a start of building something great.”

Love finds that applying pressure is pivotal to one’s growth.

“I like to say I’m always confident in my abilities and learning playbooks and being intelligent, just learning to grow – and I am,” Love said. “I’m excited for all that, but then you’ve got to have that element of pressure behind you to be able to grow and get better. I think that’s kind of what I’ve always done every year of football no matter what level I’m at, no matter what I accomplished the year before. You’ve got to feel that element of pressure in order to grow.”

Love expresses how he wants to be a “factor” for the Giants.

“I want to just be a factor,” Love said. “I want to contribute in a positive way and do whatever I have to do to do that. Last year – I don’t want to talk about last year too much – but I tried to be there in any way I could [by] knowing the playbook, knowing different things I could do to see the field and just try to help. And it’s not for, ‘Oh, I want to play, I want to play.’ No, I want to help. I want to build on this. So my personal goal is just to be ready for that.”

The Giants selected Love with the 108th pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. He was inserted into the starting lineup when safety Jabrill Peppers suffered an injury in a Week 12 matchup against the Chicago Bears. Love started five games, totaling 37 combined tackles, five tackles for loss and one interception.

New York Giants: Who Will Start At Slot Cornerback In 2020?

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The New York Giants have invested heavily in their secondary over the past two years. The Giants drafted three defensive backs in each of the last two NFL Drafts. They spent a first-round pick on DeAndre Baker, a second-round pick on Xavier McKinney, and two fourth-round picks on Julian Love and Darnay Holmes.

New York has a lot of potential in its young secondary, however, it is not yet a position of strength. In particular, the slot cornerback is a position of weakness for the Giants. Heading into 2020, there is a positional battle brewing at the nickel cornerback position, with a few young cornerbacks ready to compete. Who will start at slot cornerback in 2020?

Grant Haley

For the majority of the 2019 season, Grant Haley started at slot cornerback for the Giants. Haley’s performance was highly inconsistent, though. The young Penn State product struggled immensely in coverage. Haley allowed an 82.1% completion percentage in coverage last year, along with 342 yards and 1 touchdown.

Haley showed minimal improvement in coverage after an inconsistent rookie season in 2018. However, Grant has been consistently efficient as a tackler. In 2019 the cornerback recorded 43 combined tackles, 4 tackles for loss, and only 3 missed tackles.

Grant Haley is an efficient run-defender. But his lack of production in coverage will likely take him out of the running for the starting role in 2020.

Julian Love

Julian Love had an impressive rookie season in 2019. Love played cornerback in college and was considered for the Giants’ nickel corner job last season, however, he ended up playing safety instead. Julian Love was very impressive as a safety and made a strong impact, starting in 5 games while Jabrill Peppers was out with injury.

It seemed like Love would be the starting safety alongside Peppers in 2020. That was until the NFL Draft. New York selected the talented safety Xavier McKinney in the second round this year. Julian Love could stick around at the safety position, giving the Giants plenty of flexibility and versatility in their secondary. However, he could make the move back inside to slot cornerback and receive more playing time.

Julian Love has the coverage skills and experience to compete for the slot cornerback job. However, his impressive play at safety as a rookie will likely keep him in that role this season.

Darnay Holmes

The newest option for the Giants at slot cornerback is rookie Darnay Holmes out of UCLA. New York selected Holmes in the fourth round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Darnay Holmes was not a slot cornerback in college- he was an excellent outside cornerback. But he is a bit undersized for the outside, so he projects better as a nickel cornerback in the NFL.

Darnay Holmes was impressive working as a slot cornerback at the Senior Bowl. He dealt with an injury in his last collegiate season, but he still showed plenty of promise and potential. The Giants may not want to put Holmes out there as a rookie immediately, however, the upside is clearly there. He is a talented and athletic cornerback that could be a difference-maker on the Giants’ defense for years to come.

New York Giants: Julian Love Called Most Underrated Player

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New York Giants, Julian Love

The New York Giants will be in a state of flux in the secondary this year. James Bradberry comes in from Carolina to replace Janoris Jenkins in the number one spot, but no one can say definitively yet if Bradberry will work in the Giants’ system and play like someone worth the money. DeAndre Baker would have been the top candidate for the number two corner after playing there last season and making improvements towards the end, but his ongoing legal trouble means that his future with the team entirely is in question. And no one knows exactly where Julian Love is going to line up.

Love came onto the scene last season and made an impact during the second half when the coaches finally gave him a chance, and he gave them reason to not look back with one interception and five starts overall. His play also earned him a decent title from Pro Football Focus – the most underrated player on the Giants, according to their list of the most underrated player on every team.

The Giants’ secondary has some definite question marks with DeAndre Baker facing possible legal trouble and an unproven group at cornerback behind free agent acquisition James Bradberry. But Julian Love is someone they should feel pretty good about after a promising start to his NFL career as a rookie last season. Love is a guy who graded extremely well at the college ranks as an outside cornerback for the Fighting Irish, earning coverage grades of 83.7 and 90.9 during his final two seasons with Notre Dame. Love followed that up by coming away from the 2019 season with an encouraging 70.5 overall grade despite being a 21-year-old rookie playing a new position. Whether he remains at safety or moves back to cornerback to potentially fill in for Baker outside, Love is a player to watch as he enters his second season.

While it remains to be seen what position Love will play, his versatility is one of his strengths in this case and will help his chances with getting into the starting lineup. Though, it’s debatable whether Love can truly be considered the most underrated player on the Giants, because his position has gotten plenty of attention which has put Love on the radar of most fans who look beyond the surface to see which players could break out this season.

If Love does remain at safety, where he played last season, he would have to compete with Xavier McKinney. Due to the marquee nature of the second round pick, a move to corner seems more likely. Love can play both positions, but there’s multiple ways a full time move like that could go overall. If Love can hold the position down, though, he may not be so underrated anymore as it would bring more mainstream popularity for him and his game among Giants fans.

New York Giants: Is Jabrill Peppers ready for a breakout 2020 campaign?

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New York Giants, Xavier McKinney, Jabrill Peppers

What should the New York Giants expect from Jabrill Peppers in 2020?

The New York Giants invested plenty of capital into bolstering their defensive secondary, and strong safety Jabrill Peppers will likely benefit from the drafting of Xavier McKinney and the increase in experience from their 2019 draft picks. Peppers was traded to the Giants in the deal that sent Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns.

The former first-round pick struggled and his first two seasons in Cleveland, playing both strong safety and free safety. However, under James Bettcher, he moved specifically to the strong safety position and put up substantial numbers in just 11 games.

His 76 combine tackles, five tackles for loss, five passes defended, three forced fumbles, and one interception showed an increase in nearly every court category from the year prior. In addition, he only allowed a 63.9% completion rate against and just one touchdown, decreasing his five TDs allowed in 2018 by four. While he does tend to miss some tackles, logging a 12.6% missed tackle right last season, he has the versatility and athleticism to improve across the board.

Paired with a trustworthy ball hawk in McKinney, Peppers should be able to move closer to the line of scrimmage and play more aggressively against the run, knowing his back is covered.

Clearly, the New York Giants believe they have something special and Peppers, considering they picked up his fifth-year option for 2021. This guarantees him to be on the team for at least two more seasons. While he only ranked as the 41st safety out of 71 in the NFL to play at least 500 snaps last season, according to PFF, his development was evident. He did earn the third-highest pass-rush grade out of that entire group of players.

I am most excited to see Peppers play closer to the line of scrimmage with McKinney in the deeper portion of the secondary. New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will likely install plenty of three safety looks, moving Peppers, Julian love, and McKinney around the field. It is possible that Peppers could adapt to a de-facto linebacker position on passing downs, While McKinney and Love prowl of the secondary as ballhawks.

Graham likes to utilize man coverage schemes frequently, which could indicate Peppers matching up against tight ends in man. Nonetheless, the Giants are developing a nice trio of safeties, and Peppers remains an integral part of the defense.

New York Giants: How Will Patrick Graham Utilize The Giants’ Safety Trio?

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New York Giants, Patrick Graham

The New York Giants have a trio of talented safeties on their roster. Jabrill Peppers is entering his second season with the team, as is former cornerback Julian Love. Love’s experience at cornerback made him a solid option as a coverage safety while Jabrill Peppers’s high-speed, hard-hitting playstyle made him an ideal box safety. Now the Giants are adding a third safety to the mix, Xavier McKinney, who is kind of a perfect blend of Love and Peppers. McKinney can play deep coverage and stuff the run in the box.

That makes for a plethora of versatile talent at the safety position for the Giants. Sometimes it can be difficult for defensive coordinators to utilize such versatile talent in their defensive schemes. The Giants hired Patrick Graham this offseason to be their new defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Graham will run a blitz-heavy multiple defense that emphasizes versatility.

Multiple Defensive Looks

The Giants ran a 3-4 defense under James Bettcher over the last two seasons. Bettcher received plenty of criticism during his time in New York as the defense often underperformed. The Giants’ hiring of Patrick Graham is exciting because he is as versatile and aggressive as a defensive coordinator can get. Patrick Graham will run a multiple, blitz-heavy defensive scheme with the Giants.

“The scheme is going to be based on the [personnel],” Graham said. “You can anticipate it being multiple. . . People ask if it’ll be 4-3 or 3-4, and I say yes. 2-4? Yes. 3-3-5? Yes. However you want to rearrange the front 7 or all 11, yes.” – Patrick Graham in an interview with Giants.com, via Giants Wire

Based on the personnel and the opposing offense, the Giants’ defensive scheme will change. One week they could play primarily in a 3-4 and the next week it could primarily be a 4-3 defense. This will keep opposing offenses guessing and allow Patrick Graham to get the best out of his players. Some weeks, the Giants will run mostly single-high safety looks, but Graham could also opt to run plenty of two-safety looks and even some three-safety rotations.

Typically there are only two starting safeties on a defense. But the Giants have three starting-caliber safeties in Love, McKinney, and Peppers. Luckily, Patrick Graham is determined to get the best players on the field, so they will all be rotated in depending on their matchups and could even see extended time on the field together.

Safety Blitzes

Patrick Graham loves to blitz. With the Miami Dolphins in 2019, Graham blitzed frequently:

“The Dolphins Blitzed on 35% of their snaps, 41% on third down (which was the third-most in the league). The Dolphins ran man to man coverage 50% of the time in the 2019 season and would often show blitz and drop back into coverage. This was a great strategy in the Graham defense, keeping opposing offenses on their toes because of the constant blitzing formations.” – via Jack Quartararo of Empire Sports Media

One of the most exciting aspects of Graham’s defense is the way he blitzes. Graham loves to utilize defensive back blitzes, and he has the talent to blitz his safeties with extreme efficiency. According to Pro Football Focus, Xavier McKinney earned an 89.2 coverage grade as a junior while also recording 10 pressures. In the past two years, Xavier recorded 21 pressures across 71 pass-rushing snaps. Graham’s usage of the safety blitz will allow Xavier McKinney to make an instant impact on this defense in his rookie season.

New York Giants: Julian Love Completes Degree At Notre Dame

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New York Giants, Julian Love

The offseason isn’t going as planned for many members of the New York Giants, and it seems that many players have more time on their hands with the disruption of the usual offseason training due to the current coronavirus pandemic. Some have focused their time on training at home in anticipation for when the team is able to meet up once again – one Giants player, however, stands out in using that time for something useful off the field.

Julian Love broke out as a member of the Giants last season when he entered the lineup in the secondary during the second half of the year, helping to give the Giants some hope at the safety position, but more recently, Love reached an accomplishment that doesn’t have to do with football.

That, of course, is graduating from Notre Dame. Love left school early to enter the NFL Draft, where he was selected in the mid rounds by the Giants, but returned following last season to finish getting his degree. That goal of his was completed in recent days.

When Love does get back to the Giants, he’ll find himself in a position battle with rookie Xavier McKinney – but as a versatile player in the secondary, there’s multiple spots where Love could line up. Even if McKinney ends up as the safety next to Jabrill Peppers, the layout of the rest of the secondary has been thrown into question by DeAndre Baker’s legal trouble and the possibility that he might not take up his previous number two cornerback spot once again, next to new addition James Bradberry.

Regardless of where Love plays, the Giants know that they’re getting a committed player with him – it takes commitment, after all, to bother with finishing college not long after entering the NFL rather than waiting years.

New York Giants: Three Players Already On The Roster Who Could Replace DeAndre Baker

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New York Giants, Darnay Holmes, Julian Love, Jabrill Peppers, DeAndre Baker, Xavier McKinney, Corey Ballentine

The New York Giants are once again at the forefront of sports media for all the wrong reasons. Last night, disappointing and gutwrenching news broke about Giants cornerback DeAndre Baker. The Miami Police Department issued an arrest warrant on DeAndre Baker. Baker is accused of committing four counts of armed robbery and aggravated assault. With Baker likely to be jailed, the Giants will need to look elsewhere at cornerback and find his replacement. Here are three players that are already on the roster who could potentially replace DeAndre Baker:

Julian Love

Julian Love started five games at safety for the Giants in 2019. He was expected to continue in a rotational safety role in 2020, but expectations have been subverted by DeAndre Baker’s incident. This makes Julian Love a potential option at outside cornerback.

Julian Love played safety as a rookie in the NFL, but he played cornerback in college. At that position, Love recorded 32 pass breakups and 4 interceptions over his last two years at Notre Dame.

“Pure and simple, Love is a cover guy who possesses the feet, hips, instincts and competitiveness you want in a corner.” – NFL.com analyst Lance Zierelein

Sam Beal

The Giants had high hopes when they selected Sam Beal in the third round of the 2018 Supplemental Draft. So far, he has not exactly lived up to expectations. Injuries held Beal back in his first two seasons, but he was not overly impressive when he found the field.

Sam Beal played in 6 games and started 3 games in 2019. In those games, Beal allowed a 76.2% completion percentage when targeted. He allowed opposing receivers to gain 171 yards and 1 touchdown. Opposing quarterbacks recorded a passer rating of 115.4 against Sam Beal. If Beal is going to replace DeAndre Baker, the Giants will need him to improve his performance significantly.

Corey Ballentine

Corey Ballentine, the Giants’ 2019 sixth-round draft pick, could be an option to replace DeAndre Baker. Unfortunately, Ballentine’s situation is similar to Sam Beal’s. If he wants to earn this promotion, he needs to improve his performance.

Ballentine dealt with some injuries in 2019, but he did manage to play in 13 games and start 2 games. While Ballentine’s performance was slightly better than Beal’s, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Corey Ballentine allowed opposing offenses to complete 64.3% of their passes in his coverage. They totaled 393 yards and 4 touchdowns against Ballentine, too. Ballentine was a rookie, so his struggles are understood. However, if his impressive performances in last year’s training camp and preseason are any indication as to what Ballentine has in store for the future, then there is reason to believe he could earn the job.

New York Giants: The youth in the Giants’ secondary should excite the fan base

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New York Giants, Darnay Holmes, Julian Love, Jabrill Peppers, DeAndre Baker, Xavier McKinney, Corey Ballentine

The New York Giants are in the middle of an entire roster rebuild, and their secondary’s age attests to that.

From an overhead view, it is quite clear that the Giants are in the middle of a rebuild. Looking at how old every player is should be a good indication of what stage they are in, and with James Bradberry being the oldest of the bunch at just 26 and recent free-agent signing, we can conclude they’re in stage two of three.

The first round of premium free-agent signings indicates that the Giants feel they can win games but aren’t just quite at the position to be a playoff-contending team. General manager Dave Gettleman signed the majority of free agents this off-season to three-year contracts, and the second year of their deal will likely be the most influential and significant.

They will clear cap space in 2021 and hopefully find an elite defender to add to the defense. I would imagine it would be a star pass rusher, considering the lack of talent the Giants currently hold at the outside linebacker position. However, Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham is used to scheming a pass rush, and he will utilize both safeties and linebackers to keep opposing offenses on their toes.

Nonetheless, let’s take a look at how young the secondary is and what that means for the Giants.

Jabrill Peppers: 24 years old

Peppers is one of the rising players for Big Blue, having posted solid numbers in 2019. He features in the strong safety role and will likely rotate with Xavier McKinney in 2020. His athleticism allows him to stick with tight ends in coverage but is also solid against the run, and we should expect to see more of that next season. At just 24 years old, the Giants could have their staple at the position for the next few seasons.

Xavier McKinney: 21 years old

McKinney was the Giants’ second-round pick this past NFL draft, and what a selection it was. As the top-rated safety on the board, the Giants gained a sure-fire tackler and turnover machine. He logged four forced fumbles and three interceptions last season as a junior for Alabama. Legendary head coach Nick Saban had nothing but good things to say about McKinney, and he should bring versatility and game speed to a defense that severely lacks playmakers.

DeAndre Baker: 22 years old

DeAndre Baker struggled significantly in his rookie campaign, but he got better as the season went on. Reports of him sleeping in meetings and not understanding the defensive playbook entirely emerged last season, which was extremely problematic given the state of the team. New head coach Joe Judge will not allow Baker to fall into those same tendencies, so expect him to be on his best behavior. Graham plays man-coverage a majority of the time, which will benefit Baker, who was playing in zone and off by coverage for most of 2019 with James Bettcher. Playing out of position and against his strengths was a significant reason why he failed to develop correctly last year.

James Bradberry: 26 years old

Bradberry is the oldest of the bunch, and he signed a three-year deal with the Giants this off-season. He is a quality corner and was the second-best available on the market, aside from Byron Jones. The Giants gained a corner that can mirror and contain opposing number one wideouts and follow them into the slot. Expect him to be all over the field and replacing Janoris Jenkins with youth and quality.

Julian Love: 22 years old

Love is the most underrated player of the bunch, having played only the last few games in 2019. He was the supplement to Jabrill Peppers’ hip injury that prematurely ended his campaign, and Love stepped in and played admirably in his absence. Love posted a 65.5 completion rate against, and only allowed one touchdown on 29 targets. He was a solid tackler close to the line of scrimmage and played all over the defense. He has experience at strong safety, free safety, and in the slot, which will make him an asset moving forward.

Corey Ballentine: 24 years old

Ballentine is a bit old for being a second-year player in the NFL, and he struggled heavily last year. However, he was a late-round selection was always expected to be a developmental piece. He posted a 64.3 completion rate against an allowed for touchdowns, which was extremely troubling. He played only 27% of defensive snaps and will likely stick in the slot with Darnay Holmes and Grant Haley. Youth is on his side and will allow him more time to grow into his role.

Sam Beal: 23 years old

Beal has been injured for the last two seasons, barely making an impact since his inception as a supplemental draft pick in 2018. Last year, Beal played in just six games, allowing a 76.2 completion rate. At just 23 years old, he has plenty of time to develop and grow, but going into his third season in the NFL is a bit problematic. He must take a big step this year, or he could be in danger of being cut.

Grant Haley: 24 years old

Grant Haley, formally out of Penn State, is a great tackle close to the line of scrimmage. The problem is, he is quite inadequate in coverage, making his role in the slot a bit shaky. The Giants drafted Darnay Holmes to supplement his inability to cover speedy receivers, but his ability against the run still makes him valuable. I anticipate him playing in situational spots and maybe early downs when the probability of an offense running the ball is high.

Darnay Holmes: 21 years old

Holmes, who was drafted in the fourth round in the most recent NFL draft, was coined as the best nickel corner available. While he only played in the nickel during the Senior Bowl, his size at 5-foot-10 and 195 pounds attest to his ability to match up again speedy NFL receivers in the slot. Darnay will compete with Haley, Love, and Ballentine for starting reps, but he has the athleticism and tenacity to earn a starting spot on the Giants’ defense quickly.

Meet The New York Giants’ New & Improved 2020 Secondary

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New York Giants, Darnay Holmes, Julian Love, Jabrill Peppers, DeAndre Baker, Xavier McKinney, Corey Ballentine

The New York Giants‘ secondary dealt with peaks and valleys in 2019. There were some big-plays mixed in with plenty of rookie mistakes and persistent struggles against top offenses. New York invested a lot of draft capital into its secondary in 2019 and doubled down this offseason.

The Giants made a big splash-signing at cornerback in free agency. They then followed that up by drafting a potential day-one starter at slot cornerback this past weekend. The New York Giants’ secondary is now loaded with young, versatile talents. The potential is there for the Giants to have one of the best young secondaries in the NFL in 2020.

The Versatile Safeties

Jabrill Peppers, Julian Love, and Xavier McKinney combine to create arguably the most versatile safety group in the NFL. Each of the players in this trio can line up in at least three different positions. Julian Love has played slot cornerback, deep free safety, and in-the-box strong safety. Jabrill Peppers is primarily an in-the-box strong safety but has also played linebacker and deep safety. In college, Xavier McKinney played over 200 snaps at three different positions; 323 snaps in the box, 227 in the slot, and 271 deep (PFF).

Thie trio of versatile safeties will allow Patrick Graham to be very creative with his defense. Having three different safeties that can each play three different positions efficiently will keep opposing offenses guessing. Typically there are only two safeties on the field at a time, but with this trio, Giants fans can expect to see plenty of three-safety looks.

Young, Talented Outside Cornerbacks

The Giants have invested heavily in their secondary over the past two years. They spent a first-round pick on DeAndre Baker last year. Baker struggled for much of his rookie season but seemed to show significant signs of improvement towards the end of the year. In 2020, DeAndre will start on the outside again and hopefully build on a promising finish to the 2019 season.

Starting opposite of Baker as the Giants’ primary cornerback will be newly signed free agent James Bradberry. Bradberry, coming from Carolina, is no stranger to following top-tier receiving talent. Bradberry shadowed the likes of Julio Jones, Mike Evans, and Michael Thomas twice a year as a member of the Panthers. He will instantly join the Giants’ secondary as the best coverage man and take on the most challenging tasks for the defense week to week.

DeAndre Baker and James Bradberry will man the outside cornerback positions. But who will play the slot/nickel cornerback position? There will be a competition to see who gets that starting role but expect to see a rotation in this position.

Nickel Cornerback Competition

Last year, the slot cornerback position was manned by Grant Haley and Corey Ballentine. Haley struggled immensely in coverage but demonstrated impressive open-field tackling. Ballentine, a sixth-round draft pick from 2019, was not ready to perform and struggled considerably. But he showed a lot of promise last preseason, so hopefully, Ballentine can take a step forward and improve in 2020.

The latest addition to the slot cornerback position is 2020 fourth-round pick, Darnay Holmes, out of UCLA. Holmes played on the outside in college, but his limited size will move him into the slot at the professional level. Holmes did try out nickel cornerback at the Senior Bowl this year, and he said he loved it. Analysts pointed out that he excelled in that new role in Mobile.

The Giants have plenty of depth at the slot cornerback position. But who will be the starter at the nickel? As I stated earlier, expect to see rotation. Since day one, Joe Judge has made it clear: players will play to their strengths. They will not be asked to do things at which they are not proficient. These three slot cornerbacks all have different skillsets that can be applied in various ways.

Maximizing Potential Through Rotations

For example, Grant Haley struggles in coverage but is a solid open-field tackler. This is why the Giants can use Haley in goal-line or short-yardage packages. Third-and-goal, fourth-and-two, Grant Haley can go in there and make a clutch tackle to keep the defense short of the line to gain.

On the flip side, in long-yardage situations and obvious passing-downs, Darnay Holmes’s speed and athleticism will come into play. He has the speed to keep up with quicker receivers going deep and the coverage ability to stick with slot receivers on deep-breaking routes.

The Giants’ two-year investment into the secondary is paying off. They have the versatility and flexibility to move their players around and put them in the best situations possible to make an impact. Giants fans should be ecstatic about the foundation that has been laid out for the future of the defense.

New York Giants: Julian Love Still In Plans After Xavier McKinney Pick

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New York Giants, Julian Love, DeAndre Baker, Julian Love

The New York Giants drafted Xavier McKinney to be their safety of the future, and it looks like that’s what they’re getting out of the rookie from the same college program that not too long ago produced Landon Collins. With Antoine Bethea gone from the safety position it looks like McKinney is going to move right into his former spot next to Jabrill Peppers, which likely dismisses the chances of second year player Julian Love getting the spot instead.

Love was previously the favorite to take up a starting spot at safety, before the Draft changed things by introducing a new player to the competition. Mainly, this was because of Love breaking out in the second half of the 2019 season to get more playing time and impress coaches – he had five starts last season as a rookie, with an interception and 37 tackles and one fumble forced. In addition, five of those tackles were for a loss.

While it looks like McKinney is going to be the starter out of the two, those contributions are still enough for Love to land an important role this season.

“Julian has a great skill set. He can play corner, he can play in the slot and he can play back deep as a safety,” said head coach Joe Judge about the situation, on Friday. “We are going to use him as we need by each game plan. He may be an every-down safety, he may be an-every down corner.”

With safety addressed, it seems like corner is a bigger need for the Giants secondary right now, even if they did find their main man at the spot with James Bradberry.

“Nothing has been decided in terms of positions that will go into a depth chart at this point and nothing has been decided in how we are going to use guys by game plan. That will change week to week. We believe we have enough skillsets that it will give us flexibility within our packages,” continued Judge.

Considering how the Giants under Joe Judge haven’t even acknowledged Daniel Jones as the starter at quarterback yet, it makes sense that the winner of the position battle at safety won’t be announced anytime soon. If there is an official decision made publicly, it will likely be after the Giants are able to get back to training in-person, and the staff is given a chance to work with these new players in a more hands on way.