Four Pending UFA Edge Rushers Considered Best Fits for Giants
The New York Giants have a new defensive coordinator in Shane Bowen, whom they'd like to succeed. And if he's to do that, he will need to get a lot more out of the edge-rushing group than the team did last year.
The Giants have tried to add to this position by selecting Azeez Ojulari in the second round of the 2021 draft and Kayvon Thibodeaux in the first round of the 2022 draft.
Ojuari, the 50th overall pick in 2021, had a great rookie season and looked like a force in the coming years. 8.5 sacks as a rookie and looked to be a promising prospect. However, he's had trouble staying healthy with the Giants.
Thibodeaux, the fifth overall pick in 2022, had a solid rookie year, totaling four sacks and 13 quarterback hits on 18 pressures. He exploded in 2023, recording 11.5 sacks and 16 quarterback hits on 35 pressures. However, the Giants edge rushers struggled to generate pressure consistently.
Without blitzing, the Giants defense generated just 28.2% of pressure, ranking 28th in the league. They had just 34 sacks as a team, tied for 29th in the league. Sacks aren’t everything when looking at pressure, but getting home to move a quarterback off his mark is important, and the Giants couldn't do that consistently.
While the coaches will continue to work with Ojulari and Thibodeaux, Pro Football Focus thinks New York should consider adding some outside talent and has recommended two pending free-agent pass rushers as potentially good fits for the Giants.
The first is Bryce Huff of the Jets, of whom PFF wrote, “Huff adds an immediate impact on money downs for any team willing to pay a bit extra to acquire a premium designated pass rusher, a skill set both of these NFC East teams need desperately.”
Huff burst onto the scene in 2023 with ten sacks in limited snaps, appearing in just 480 plays for the Jets. With the Jets having a lot of edge rushers who need to be paid, the feeling is Huff might end up being the odd man out.
Another player listed as a potential fit for the Giants is Leonard Floyd, who is currently with the Bills. Floyd’s a name that should sound familiar to Giants fans, as the team was initially linked to him when he was drafted by the Chicago Bears (2016) as the ninth overall pick.
The Giants have tried to sign him, but Floyd has always followed the money, going to the Rams from 2020 to 2022 and the Bills last year. Floyd will be 32 by Week 1. However, he’s had consistent sack numbers.
In the last four years, he's had 10.5 sacks in 2020, 9.5 and 9 in 2021 and 2022, and 10.5 again this past year with the Bills. Another intriguing draw to signing Floyd would be his availability, as he hasn’t missed a single game over the last six seasons.
A third player PFF believes would be a good fit for the Giants is one with ties to Bowen from their time together in Tennessee: Denico Autry. Autry bounced around on a few teams since entering the league in 2014 but finally found his footing in 2018 with the Colts.
He signed with the Titans in 2021, the same year Bowen was named as the team's defensive coordinator. In three years with the Titans, Autry recorded 108 tackles, 28.5 sacks, and 54 quarterback hits.
Like Floyd, Autry’s on the older side, as he’ll turn 34 in just a few weeks, but if the Giants need an experienced veteran familiar with Bowen's scheme who can also still generate pressure, Autry would be a perfect fit.
The final player listed by PFF is Yannick Ngakoue, who is currently with the Chicago Bears. Ngakoue was connected to the Giants during the 2020 offseason but ultimately was traded by the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Minnesota Vikings.
Since then, he’s been with the Ravens, Raiders, Colts, and Bears. Last season, Ngakoue had a down year with the Bears, appearing in 13 games and registering four sacks with seven quarterback hits. He’s still a productive player after recording ten sacks with the Raiders in 2021 and 9.5 with the Colts in 2022. He’ll be 29 in a few weeks and would add a solid veteran presence to the Giants' still-young edge-rushing group.
The Giants could potentially draft at this position, but they're expected to prioritize receiver, quarterback, interior defensive line, and offensive line among the positions they'd be looking to draft for. If they trade up to get a quarterback, that would likely wipe out both second-round picks.
Regardless of how they decide to go about it, the Giants need production and can’t rely on only a rookie to help boost their low-pressure rate. Adding one of these four names to the roster would be just what the doctor ordered.
