Giants Cornerbacks Among the Most Tested in Coverage Last Season

On the one hand, the New York Giants are excited and encouraged by the youth they have at certain positions, such as cornerback, where players such as second-year man Deonte Banks, third-year man Cor’Dale Flott, and rookie Andru Phillips are all expected to play significant roles in the coming season.

However, with youth comes inexperience, and with that inexperience comes opposing teams that tend to target the youth in coverage a little more than they might do against a more established veteran.

Such was the case for Banks and Flott last season. According to Pro Football Focus's list of the top ten most targeted cornerbacks in coverage (based on 171 coverage snaps), Flott and Banks ranked eighth and tenth, respectively, as the most targeted cornerbacks on all routes.

Flott, who played in 321 coverage snaps, was targeted 62 times (19.31 percent). He allowed 40 completions (64.52 percent). Banks, meanwhile, was in 477 coverage snaps, allowing just 53 of 92 pass targets to be complete for a 57.61 percent rate.

Banks, the Giants’ first-round pick last year, is firmly entrenched as one of the starting cornerbacks. Flott, who was primarily the slot cornerback last year (and PFF’s fourth-most targeted slot cornerback with a 20.07 percent target rate), is projected to be the starter opposite of Banks on the outside.

Defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson is tasked with helping Banks and Flott take the next step in their respective developments.

From Henderson's perspective, so far, so good.

“I think overall, it was a solid rookie year for him,” he said of Banks. “He had a lot of pressure a lot of times-- a couple of games we matched him up on, on their best guy--and I think he did, did a solid job.”

According to Henderson, the next step for Banks is for him to reach a point where he can go against an opponent’s No. 1 cornerback and not require any help in coverage.

“There are some receivers in this league that, against anybody, you are going to want to give a corner some help sometimes,” Henderson said. “You hope that against those guys, he plays a game where you're like, ‘Okay, that's even, that's an even matchup for the Giants. You hope he develops into that.”

As for Flott, the team’s third-round pick in 2022, his path to the NFL can be best described as versatile. At LSU, he played the majority of his snaps (797) in the slot versus 394 on the outside, finishing with a career 105.2 rating.

After landing with the Giants, he played 272 snaps at outside corner as a rookie and 432 snaps in the slot last season, a combination designed to optimize his experience.

“He's been tremendous this off-season studying and working, and he's been really good about pulling (Banks) with him as he does stuff,” Henderson said of Flott. “That's the type of relationship that I love to see—those two pushing each other and helping each other and being with each other through a lot of the things they're going through.”

Henderson noted that Flott’s injury issues in his first two years may have gotten in the way of him fully developing to the point where he should have been by now. But he added that he is confident that Flott will be able to give them quality snaps this season.

“I expect Flott to have a productive year for us,” Henderson said. “I expect him to be a guy that you look at. His problem, he had his first year, was staying healthy, so we got through that a little bit last year, and he had a couple of little dings, but not like he did his rookie year.

“So, you hope he takes a big jump for us this year. And he's doing everything to take that jump.”