Giants Top Ranked Defensive Performers Have One Surprise

The New York Giants defense had its share of adventures in 2024, finishing 24th overall in defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s first season at the helm. The new ranking is only a three-spot improvement from the previous year’s ranking under Wink Martindale.

Meanwhile, the run defense improved two spots, from 29th to 27th, and the pass defense from 27th to 8th, despite the Giants allowing 49 big pass plays (20+ yards), tired for 10th most–six more than the 43 the unit gave up in 2023.

As for the Giants’ top three graded defenders per Pro Football Focus, many of the names won’t surprise.

Well, one might, which is why we will include an extra player in this analysis. Read on.

RELATED: Giants Top Three Offensive Performers in 2024 Reveals a Pair of Surprises

IDL Dexter Lawrence II (89.9)

Lawrence was on his way to an All-Pro season in which he set a new personal season high of 9.0 sacks despite facing a ridiculous amount of double-team blocks we haven’t seen since the days of Michael Strahan.

Despite missing five games due to a season-ending elbow injury, Lawrence still finished seventh (out of 47 interior defenders with a minimum of 312 pass-rush snaps) in PFF’s pass-rush productivity rating (7.4).

And what about playing the run, you ask? Again, in an injury-shortened season, Lawrence was still a force week in and week out, finishing second among interior defensive players who played at least 200 snaps against the run.

Jan 5, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; New York Giants linebacker Brian Burns (0) takes the field for action against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

OLB Brian Burns (79.2)

No, Burns didn’t lead the league in sacks–that honor went to Try Hendrickson of the Bengals (17.5)--but as many defensive coordinators will tell you, it’s not all about the sacks as much as it is about getting enough pressure to move a quarterback off his mark.

That’s where Burns really stepped up in his first season as a Giant. Despite playing most of the 2024 campaign with assorted lower body injuries, Burns finished with a 23% pass-rush win rate, which put him fourth among outside linebackers/edge rushers.

Burns, per NFL Pro, logged at least a 10% PRWR in all but five of his games played this season. He finished with 66 quarterback pressures, one shy of his career-high set in 2022 (66 fewer pass-rush snaps).

Burns also set a new career best in stops (49) and continued his streak of recording at least 7.5 sacks in a season.

Dec 8, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants cornerback Tre Hawkins III (37) intercepts a pass intended for New Orleans Saints wide receiver Kevin Austin Jr. (81) during the second half at MetLife Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

CB Tre Hawkins III (79.0)

We need to put an asterisk here for Hawkins, the young cornerback who ranked third among the Giants defenders, for the simple reason that his sample size isn’t as large as that of the others on defense who finished in the top part of the rankings.

That said, kudos to Hawkins, who was pretty much a non-factor last year and who was often inactive in this, his second season. Cashing in on an opportunity to start when injuries cut into the cornerback depth, Hawkins showed very encouraging improvement from a year ago when the game proved to be too fast for him.

He recorded his first career interception, was aggressive to the ball in both coverage and edge run force (six tackles), and finally looked like a promising NFL cornerback.

Unfortunately, a season-ending back injury cut short any chance of him building on that progress, but considering he plays a position where the Giants need a lot more depth moving forward, Hawkins’s growth was one of the more positive and encouraging developments of a lost season.

CB Dru Phillips (77.5)

The Giants’ 2024 draft class was, by far, one of the best the franchise has had since 2007. Every single member of the six-man class contributed quality.

Leading the way on defense was third-round pick Dru Phillips, who settled in nicely at the slot cornerback spot. Phillips finished with a 95.6 coverage rating, 15th out of 27 slot cornerbacks, with at least 200 coverage snaps in the slot.

And speaking of coverage rating, despite playing the most coverage snaps in the slot, Phillips still finished with the best coverage rating of all the Giants cornerbacks who had at least 20 slot coverage assignments.

It will be interesting to see if the Giants look to move Phillips to the perimeter, opposite Deonte Banks, come next season. Phillips played most of his college snaps on the perimeter, finishing with an 87.9 rating during his time at Kentucky.

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IDL Dexter Lawrence II (89.9)

OLB Brian Burns (79.2)

CB Tre Hawkins III (79.0)

CB Dru Phillips (77.5)

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