Grant Haley: The Good, The Great, and the Ugly
Expectations for undrafted free agents are typically low, but defensive back Grant Haley was given a unique opportunity with the New York Giants after he went undrafted out of Penn State in 2018.
Haley was able to make the team and ended up starting in Week 8 against Washington. He exceeded expectations in his rookie season and set a baseline for the type play he’d have to uphold.
Being an undrafted free agent doesn’t afford you any luxuries, and Haley learned that in 2019. He was the initial nickel back, but due to inconsistencies in his play, which we'll cover in this analysis, he was relegated to the bench for most of the second half of the season.
Rookies like Corey Ballentine and Julian Love, both who were drafted, were put into the nickel position to see if they could have more success. Meanwhile, Haley’s knee also became an issue down the stretch, and it didn’t help him in seeing snaps on Sunday.
The struggles of Haley do not define him as a player. Haley offers a lot of good things to the Giants, and most of them are unexpected when looking at the 5’9", 190-pound cornerback.
The Good: Haley is an excellent open-field tackler
Grant Haley is pound for pound, the strongest player on the Giants. He may be diminutive in size, but he knows how to leverage his strength when it comes to open field tackling.
His mechanics as a tackler are usually very good; he breaks down, comes to balance, squares up, and wraps/rolls offensive players to the ground.
(Note that Grant Haley is No. 34).
In the above clip, We see him come off of his bunch coverage to drive downhill on a quick route over the middle. Alec Ogletree missed the tackle, but Haley was there to wrap the ball carrier up and drive him to the ground.
Despite his diminutive size, Haley is able to hit the receiver with power as he tries to turn around.
He did the same thing on a screen against the Patriots; he shows his ability to key and diagnose plays in front of him while attacking downhill with a ferocious nature to deliver a punishing blow to Julian Edelman.
Haley has a nose for avoiding blocking attempts and blowing plays up in the backfield; it’s the main reason why he’s on the field since he struggles in other important aspects of playing cornerback.
Watch how Haley knows the bubble screen's path and how he takes the wide-angle away from the block to meet Edelman as he tries to go upfield.
Haley hits low, hard, and wraps him up until the whistle. Haley doesn’t have to avoid blocks to defeat them. He also does a good job of fighting through contact, working outside, and forcing running backs towards his teammates.
Here we see a simple pin-pull concept to the field. Haley does a great job pressing the outside shoulder of the outermost blocker (pres-snap) to help force the running back wide.
Then Haley works himself into the pulling tackle, which hinders his ability to pick up other Giants. Haley does a good job near the line of scrimmage. He knows how to defeat or avoid blocks, and he’s an incredibly tough player at the point of attack as well as a player that uses sound tackling fundamentals.
The Great: Haley is excellent in run support
I know--this sounds the same as "The Good," but it’s not. Run support is a different aspect than open-field tackling, albeit the latter video does fall under run support.
The same toughness you saw above from Haley is the same toughness you see from crashing inside rushing lanes, which is no easy feat for a guy of Haley’s stature.
Here we see Haley against the No. 2 receiver. Haley sees the play action and reads his run key well. I’m thinking it could be Tyron Smith, No. 77, who executes a hinge opening strong-arm toss of the end man on the line of scrimmage (EMLOS).
Haley reads and reacts decisively to fill the gigantic B-gap left in between the 1-technique and the EMOLOS to the weak-side. Haley aggressively attacks the hole and fills it to hit Pollard for a minimal gain.
Haley is just to the right of the screen and comes in with ferocity to make a strong tackle in the tackle box.
Haley is quick to decipher the run, he’s very instinctive with his keys, and you can see how he’s able to press the inside of his block, eventually winning and filling the open hole and making the tackle in the box.
Here’s an excellent rep against the Vikings outside of the box on Dalvin Cook. It's a fake backside jet sweep out of an initial bunch formation, with a pulling tackle in space post-snap, and the tackle is rumbling right towards Haley, who does an excellent job swatting Adam Thielen’s hand away to disengage from the wide receiver.
Reiff is the tackle who is tasked to kick out the outermost player; since DeAndre Baker is further outside, Reiff runs at Haley to hold him in place, but then goes after his assignment, which is Baker.
Haley shows patience and waits for his opening to attack Cook. Once Reiff officially crosses his face, Haley attacks the inside leg of Cook, forcing the tackle.
This is another very promising play from a young corner who excels in the run support aspect of playing defense.
The Ugly: Vertical Coverage
Usually, young corners are reticent to tackle or put themselves into severe harm's way, but that's not Haley.
However, Haley stumbles in man coverage, especially when the coverage is to the intermediate-deep portions of the field.
Offensive coordinators took notice of this and tried to attack Haley in the slot. We saw Jay Gruden and Washington come out and attack Haley with their first offensive play, and then later on in the game.
Luckily for Haley, Case Keenum was wildly inaccurate with both of these throws.
The first one was the initial play of the game, with Washington in 21-personnel, play-action pass, against a Cover-1 defense. Haley gives the inside release to the No. 2 receiver Trey Quinn, which is fine.
Quinn fakes a stem outside, but Haley just expands and opens his hips inside. Haley turns at the 30-yard line and still has leverage on Quinn, but this is where it gets concerning. Haley lacks the deep speed to keep up with quicker receivers out of the slot.
Quinn easily accelerates past Haley, and he does the same thing later in the game too. This time Quinn runs a similar route with a slightly longer delay at his outside stem.
Haley just can’t handle the break and stumbles as he tries to run with Quinn.
The vertical speed on Haley is a significant concern and proved to be a big liability to the Giants 2019 defense.
Haley lacks the desired awareness in man coverage, and this could be due to him questioning his ability to stick with receivers downfield. He shows incredibly good instincts and awareness when playing against the run, but it doesn’t always translate to coverage.
We see how Haley is on the No. 2 receiver in the 3x2 set, and the No. 1 goes inside to create traffic and rub Haley away from the No. 2, who is released outside to space.
Haley gets himself into a solid position but doesn’t account, nor is he aware of the back-shoulder throw away from him. It’s a tough play to defend, but Haley whips his head the wrong direction, and it ends up being a big gain for the Patriots.
This one’s a tough coverage for Haley, but he gives O.J. Howard about three yards of space.
The Bucs run a play-action towards Haley, which is technically the weak side because two tight ends are to the other side of the 13-personnel package.
Howard is running a drag/wheel to replace the go route from the lone receiver, so Haley does a good job of picking Howard up and not allowing him to run unabated through a cleared out zone.
Haley just can’t stay with Howard up the redline; if the throw were any better, it would have gone for six.
Grant Haley is incredibly tough; he’s one of the most reliable tacklers on the team, and that says a lot due to his size and frame. He has to fix his deep coverage liabilities to earn significant snaps on the Giants’ 2020 defense.
The team added Darnay Holmes and Dravon Askew-Henry, along with Xavier McKinney, who will man the slot in certain situations. Haley’s run defense will always give him a look, but he must improve in deep pass coverage.
(All clips via NFL Game Pass.)
