Film Study | Is Julian Love the Giants' Answer at Free Safety?
After another disappointing season, the Giants will try and turn the page forward and establish a winning mentality with the new coaching staff.
Although many holes on the roster were mended, there are still pressing needs at tackle, center, EDGE, and single high safety. It’s improbable for the Giants to rectify these issues for 2020 in the draft alone.
Maybe, just maybe, the solution for one of these issues lies within the roster. Could the answer at free safety be the former boundary cornerback out of Notre Dame, better know as Julian Love?
An interesting proposition for sure, but is it realistic?
According to PFF, Love played 77 snaps at free safety last year, with 176 in the box, and 129 at slot corner after playing almost exclusively as the boundary corner for the Fighting Irish.
It wasn’t until Jabrill Peppers suffered a season-ending back injury after the bye week against Chicago, that Love started seeing the field on defense. I would argue his talent level should have earned him earlier snaps, but he was trying to learn a new position, and just wasn’t ready.
Pragmatically, the Giants may have been developing Love into their future single-high safety, and I feel he has the lower body explosiveness, hip fluidity, immediate acceleration, man coverage ability, and range to fill this position.
But there is a lot to playing safety, including high football IQ to judge angles, know route combinations, and be able to maintain run fits are vital parts of the position, which may not be developed in just one year.
However, I feel Love shows traits that may suggest he could play this role. Let’s look at some tape, shall we?
Against the Dolphins, we can see Love over tight end Mike Gesicki (No. 86) pre-snap. Right when the snap happens, Love, from the near hash, turns his hips to the sideline and drops into the deep one-third zone on top of the numbers.
His hip transitions on the three-man route combinations are executed well. He opens his hips three different times to cover his assignment, and we can see in the second clip against the Eagles, Ertz runs the double move and Love shows the patience to stay with Ertz while flipping his hips and maintaining speed to stay in the hip pocket of the Pro Bowl tight end.
Throughout my film study, Love showed exceptional ability to cover big bodies out of the slot, which is a testament to his man coverage ability.
In the third clip, Love looks like the Eagle in the middle of the field is about to eat him on the 43-yard line. Watch Love subtly open and close his hips while watching Ertz’s route develop. Love stays low and plays with discipline, which is precocious for young defensive backs.
Above, we see Love playing the single-high role. We can see the smooth backpedal and awareness on both routes; the reason why he didn’t break on the deep post immediately was that he was following Wentz’s eyes.
Again, in a middle-of-the field closed, single-high, defense, we see Love looking at the two vertical routes that are being man covered. Love effortlessly changes direction and opens his hips without a hitch. This type of fluidity in a player’s lower half is not easy to find.
Against the Bears, we see click and close ability; Love (No. 24) sees the rollout, scans the field, and breaks downhill hard on the horizontal cross.
Look at the angle he takes and the suddenness in his movements. If Mitch Trubisky threw the ball to the cross, Love would have met him at the catch point with physicality, due to Love’s angle, awareness, and short-area athletic ability.
Love’s ability to explode in no time and utilize exceptional quick, athletic traits is impressive, and we can see that above. These quick out routes to Ertz are hard to cover but watch the suddenness in Love’s ability to close width.
There’s a twitch in Love’s step, and he can accelerate fast, which is a trait that could come in real handy when covering vertical passes. Love shows a similar look in the second clip; only this time, Love’s coming a bit more from the top, and the angle is slightly less lateral, but those same athletic traits are on display.
Against Miami, Love is playing towards the box and bails at the snap to the deep half. Watch how Love opens his hips, resets, backpedals, and reacts to the three routes in front of him.
It’s fluid, it’s impressive, and it’s all relatively new for Love. This isn’t the position he was drafted to play, but he’s adapting and taking to coaching enough to show positive signs.
Check out Love’s acceleration ability in the first clip, endzone cam, against the Eagles. Wentz gets flushed out of the pocket, and from about 5 yards off the far numbers, Love runs on a line to track him down. It’s easy to see Love’s speed and foot quickness here; he’s just moving to a different beat.
Another underrated part of Love’s game is his ability in the box. As Giants’ fans, we all probably remember several plays made near the line of scrimmage where Love was the aggressor. Just like the Dolphins clip above, Love utilizes short-area quickness and decisiveness to quickly beat blocks or shoot gaps to force stops or tackles for a loss.
The clips against the Bears is poor because the ALL-22 for Chicago is abysmal, but we watch as Trubisky makes a mistake and underthrows the deep post. Love puts himself in position as the single high safety and makes a play on the ball.
In his three seasons with the Fighting Irish, Love had 5 interceptions, and 31 passes defensed. He does a good job disrupting the catch point upon reception, and that is a valued trait to possess.
In my opinion, Love was the best slot cornerback the Giants had in 2019. Just like free safety, nickel is new to Love, but he was able to cover tight ends and bigger receivers with ease.
Above are three clips where Love showcases his ability to stay in phase with these types of receivers. He’s much more balanced and controlled than Corey Ballentine, and he has the athletic traits to cover the deep ball, unlike Grant Haley.
I love how Love (pun intended), can disrupt the catch point and bring a level of physicality to the nickel position. Love’s versatility in the box, at the nickel, and his ability to play deep, are reasons why I have pause to label him as only a free safety in 2020.
He’s learning new positions and showed a lot of ability at each of them; Patrick Graham can utilize that versatility and use Love interchangeably.
I felt Love was a home run pick in the fourth round, and he had a good rookie season, albeit started later than most of us expected. Love’s athletic traits show up on film. He does a good job staying in phase, is disruptive at the catch point, is a willing tackler, and has shown the ability to judge angles when deep.
However, I do feel he still has some experience to be gained, which can happen in 2020. At times, his angles to ball carriers result in poor tackling attempts, and I feel he needs more reps to be fully ready for an every-down single high role.
With that being said, I believe Julian Love can be the answer at free safety for the Giants, but I don’t feel like that should preclude the Giants from selecting any 2020 single high prospects.
Love is going to find his way onto the football field; he’s too good not to at this point. I believe competition at positions and adding competent football players brings the best out in teams.
Love could find himself playing nickel if Haley, Ballentine, and Askew-Henry don’t work out. Love can play the Jabrill Peppers role if Peppers gets hurt again. Love may eventually replace Peppers if the Giants are unable to re-sign Peppers.
Love could also be that single-high option if the coaching staff feels he’s developed enough in that area. Either way, there’s a place for Love on this team. If the Giants decide to go single high safety in this draft class, it will more than likely be on Day 3, so here are some prospects that can fill that role.
K’Von Wallace, Clemson
Like Love, Wallace played in a variety of roles on Brent Venables' 2018 Tigers defense, but in 2019, Wallace was more utilized at slot corner.
I feel Wallace has the lower body explosiveness and speed to play deep safety, but it may take time to develop. Both Love Wallace had exceptional 3-cone times at their combines, and I feel like it shows up on both of their tapes.
Wallace may not have the hip fluidity of Love, and he needs some help with his deep ability, but the disruption and footspeed, along with the range, are evident. Wallace is a name to watch for the Giants on Day 3.
Terrell Burgess, Utah
Burgess played about a third of his defensive snaps as free safety in Utah’s stout defensive backfield. Burgess ranked sixth in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus, in 2019, and that is substantiated in his film.
He has impressive coverage ability, burst, and he’s a high effort tackler. A significant negative is his overall lack of length; he ranks in the one percentile at safety with 29½” arms, which is far from ideal.
Nevertheless, he’ll slide down draft boards for that reason, and the Giants may land a good player who lacks ideal physical measurements but can be a difference-making player in the second level.
Jaylinn Hawkins, Cal
Another versatile backend player who lined up almost 450 times at free safety in 2019 is Hawkins, who has some substantial range and can cover ground well, while also showing no fear of contact.
A physical player with range sounds good, but Hawkins has some issues with his tackling form, and he’s not an elite type athlete, despite his ability to cover ground effectively.
He has solid size though, standing at 6’1", 208 pounds, but he didn’t show a lot of lower body explosiveness at the combine. Hawkins could be available late on Day 3. He is a high-effort player who processes the game well and utilizes very good angles on the backend. That doesn't sound like a miss to me for a prospect who likely can be had late in the draft.
