Julian Love Named PFF's Most Underrated Giant

But is he really underrated? Pat Ragazzo breaks it down.

The Giants need for every single member of their team to step up and deliver a strong showing this coming season if the team is to get back on track. While some will point to the "big names" as being among those that need to deliver a strong showing, some underrated players are just as important.

According to Pro Football Focus, defensive back Julian Love is probably the most underrated player on the Giants' projected 2020 roster, the justification for the selection as follows:

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.

What We Think

It is hard to envision Love moving to the outside unless Baker is not on the Giants roster in 2020, which is still a possible scenario.

With that said, Love has shown that he's versatile enough to fill any number of positions, and that versatility alone can undoubtedly qualify him for "most underrated" status.

Last year per PFF, Love took defensive snaps on the defensive line, in the box, in the slot, as a wide corner, and of course at free safety.

He finished with an NFL coverage grade of 84.5, the third-best coverage rating on the team among those Giants defenders who were targeted at least 30 times in the passing game.

Although we've yet to get confirmation from Giants defensive coordinator Patrick GRaham, the assumption is that second-round draft pick Xavier McKinney will pair with Jabrill Peppers as the starting safeties int he base defense. But that doesn't mean that Love won't get a healthy dose of snaps.

The Giants now have the personnel to bring back a three-high safety package if they so choose. And the 5”11", 195-pound Love, who isn't the biggest or fastest guy on the defense, would almost certainly be a big part of that package as he's shown a high mental processing ability and the ability to diagnose plays before they have a chance of happening.

Love didn't get a lot of love from eh previous coaching staff, who, for reasons known only to them, didn't play the former Notre Dame star on defense until Peppers suffered a season-ending injury.

But went hey did, Love rewarded them by stepping up and making plays as a rookie, emerging as one of the Giants' most consistent players on defense and in particular in that young defensive backfield which otherwise struggled so much.