Dru Phillips Wants to Help Fill NY Giants Turnover Chest

Dru Phillips was an instrumental piece in the Giants defense last season, but there is one area of his role in which he strives to be more productive.

Aug 4, 2025; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) catches the ball as cornerback Dru Phillips (22) defends during training camp at Quest Diagnostics Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Do not try to tell New York Giants cornerback Dru Phillips that his role as the team's primary nickel defender doesn't bear any significance to the success they'll see on the field this season.

In fact, the second-year player's presence in the Giants' defense was anything but meaningless in his rookie year. Despite his young age and room for accruing experience, Phillips was one of the most impactful pieces in the first year of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen's defense that had its fair share of flaws elsewhere.

Fortunately, the guy manning the slot wasn't one of them, as Phillips, the Giants' 2024 third-round pick from Kentucky, stepped into a role that he quickly discovered was huge at the NFL level.

While he was tested by some of the best slot receivers in the game, he would fight the fire with his self-grown physical talents, learning with time what he needed to do differently to make the jump from his college days.

"I didn’t realize the importance of it when I got in," Phillips said when asked about what makes playing the nickel position in the NFL unique.

"In college, I played nickel, but it’s still college, and then I came here, and you have to be so vocal and communicative, and you have to run parts of the defense, and it’s a lot more than what people think. I’m in the run-pass, as well as setting up the defense, so it’s a lot more complicated, but it’s a good job to have. It’s fun."

As part of embracing the immense job he was asked to perform as a novice, the 23-year-old Phillips has looked no further than studying the habits of a few of the elite competitors in his same spot.

Two of the names that stand out on his list are Kenny Moore II of the Indianapolis Colts and Trent McDuffie of the Kansas City Chiefs, two established veterans in the league whose efforts he closely matched last season.

"Those are a few guys that I looked at when I was coming in," Phillips said. "There’s not really the big-time ones. It’s kind of like a – I wouldn’t say newer, but there’s not as many dominant ones throughout time, so the newer guys, I kind of look up to them."

Following in the footsteps of his elders clearly bore some fruit for Phillips, who would finish as the 18th highest-graded cornerback in the game in 2024 and the fourth-best among his fellow rookies. He would play in 14 total games for the Giants, notching 71 tackles, one sack, forcing three turnovers, and making constant plays as an underneath defender against the run with 10 stops to his name.

Even with all that impact in his first NFL rodeo, there are still areas where Phillips knows he has some distance left to make up if he wants to exist in the same breath as his positional idols as he sets his sights towards year two as a pro in the Giants' defensive system.

Dru Phillips Aims to Be a "Pirate" in Giants Secondary

New York Giants slot cornerback Dru Phillips wants to be more of a turnover artist in his second season. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

As someone who highly values the physical play style he brings to the field every Sunday, Phillips feels he is still lacking in two key elements when it comes to becoming a top-tier producer of the Giants' secondary in 2025.

He wants to remain that vocal leader on the defensive side of the ball for his teammates, but he also wants to start showing that he can play with some speed and a sharper sense of what's happening in front of him mentally.

At times, Phillips' youth arguably got the best of him, and it was evident in some of his coverage stats that left a little more to be desired. 

Despite his commendable 77.0 coverage grade, he didn't always uncover the opponent's looks before the snap, leading to him allowing a catch on 82.0% of the targets against him for 373 yards, an average of 9.1 yards per catch.

But with the reps came the experience one can't replace by watching film alone, and Phillips credits those reps as something he can use to his advantage as he barrels through the end of training camp and onto the gridiron in Week 1.

"Last year, it was just really fast," Phillips said about adjusting to the mental side of his role. "I was young, but I feel like I’ve really learned the game, and it’s slowed down for me a lot, so I can make adjustments and calls on the field that I wouldn’t have made last year.

"Things I would’ve missed out on, seeing things that the offenses are doing, so it’s a lot of growth, especially just mentally. I bring a lot of what I do on the field, but that mental part is what I’ve grown in."

The latter half of his sophomore aspirations involves getting after the football into his hands and taking it back the other direction, a feat he hasn't achieved very often, only producing one in both his collegiate and NFL tenures combined.

At the same time, the Giants' entire defense went through a turnover famine in 2024, only managing to tally five interceptions throughout all of last season, leaving a major weakness to fix this summer if they want to be taken seriously in the deep field by explosive offenses.

Luckily for Phillips and his fellow cornerbacks, Bowen and the Giants' defensive staff have made it one of their focal points this year, even going as far as to craft a fun and creative approach to motivating the players to go out there with a turnover mindset and play with a nose for the football.

They've called it the “turnover chest,” an element that's made some appearances during camp and once during the preseason when cornerback T.J. Moore took one back to the house for an interception touchdown in the Giants' 42-10 win over the New England Patriots.

"You get a turnover; you can go slam it in the chest and it’s a cool little thing,” Phillips said. “Coach (defensive coordinator) Shane (Bowen), he talks about being a pirate, so it kind of adds a little something to it, kind of an identity."

If there is anyone who expects and needs to establish that pirate identity, it is Phillips, but he doesn't seem to need a metaphorical chest to entice him to want to steal the pigskin more often. He knows it's simply a major part of his position within the Giants' defense and is eager to get his share of the prize by any means possible.

"Just try to get as many turnovers as possible, get in the chest. It’s kind of a fun thing we have, but we like to bring a mindset to it. You want to be able to go out there and take the ball back, not just let them come to you."

"There are different things like punching at balls, or jumping routes, so you just have to go get the ball back. It kind of makes it more fun."

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