New York Giants 2025 Training Camp Preview: Inside Linebackers

The New York Giants haven’t invested many resources in their off-ball linebacker room, a trend similar to how the rest of the NFL has built its rosters.

While linebacker isn’t a highly valued position, the Giants have made a significant investment in Bobby Okereke - the rest of the room is built around late picks, undrafted free agents, and inexpensive veterans.

Despite not investing much in linebackers, the Giants have built a quality room from top to bottom behind Okereke.

Micah McFadden and Darius Muasau played the second and third-most snaps at off-ball linebacker, and both should be able to repeat that in 2025.

The back of the room is open for competition, and special teams is going to help the Giants figure out who makes the cut.

Rostered Players

Chris Board: Board is a career special-teams ace who was brought in to help elevate the third phase of the game for the Giants.

Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles: Flannigan-Fowles is another special teamer, but because of Board’s presence, likely has an uphill battle for a roster spot.

Dyontae Johnson: Johnson has shown promise each of the last two years in the summer, but has yet to be able to show results on the field.

Micah McFadden: McFadden is entering the last year of his rookie contract and is an early candidate for LB2.

Darius Muasau: Entering year two, Muasau should be able to understand the defense and pick up NFL speed further.

Bobby Okereke: Okereke is still one of the most underappreciated defenders in the NFL and should help elevate this defense further in year two of the system.

Ty Summers: Summers is another special teamer who’s going to compete but faces an uphill battle.

Biggest Unanswered Question

Will linebacker usage open up this season?

The Giants' linebacker usage was fairly vanilla in 2024 as defensive coordinator Shane Bowen settled in and tried to install his system, which was starkly different from Wink Martindale’s.

That install time holds back what a defense can do early on, and year two is usually thought of as the time when a defensive coordinator has their whole playbook at their disposal.

In 2023, under Martindale, we saw Okereke and McFadden have strong seasons as off-ball blitzers, with Okereke blitzing on 20.5% of his pass-defense snaps and McFadden blitzing on 23.9%.

Those numbers fell off a cliff in 2024, as Okereke blitzed 8.3% and McFadden blitzed 11.1%.

While the drop-off in pass-rush usage was expected, I don’t think that much of a drop-off was expected.

Okereke thrived in 2023 as a blitzer, but wasn’t able to build on it in 2024.

In year two, the Giants' defense will hopefully have an expanded pass-rush plan that includes the linebackers more.

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Training Camp Battle to Watch

Micah McFadden vs. Darius Muasau for LB2

Both McFadden and Muasau had their fair share of strong games last season, although Muasau did struggle to consistently find significant snaps.

I would expect Muasau to take that next step in his second season, not just as a pro but also in the defensive system.

McFadden is entering the final year of his rookie contract with the Giants and has been a big contributor on early downs, but still needs to take steps in coverage.

While Muasau has more coverage upside, he needs to become more reliable at identifying offenses and fitting in better against the run.

This is a good problem to have with two young linebackers that showed promise and aren’t bad in any area, but do need to become more well-rounded.

Camp Position Grade: B+

The Giants didn't really add any potential depth players to this group outside of what they added for special teams. They have depth in case of an injury to the starters, but is it enough in case of an emergency?

Early 53-man Roster Projections

Starters: Bobby Okereke, Micah McFadden
Backups: Darius Muasau, Chris Board
Practice Squad: Dyontae Johnson
Cuts: Ty Summers, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles

Okereke is the unquestioned starter, and in the battle above, between McFadden and Muasau, I would give the nod to the more veteran of the two in McFadden.

While McFadden is less than a year older than Muasau, he’s got two more seasons of NFL experience, and that will likely play a factor in the coaching staff trusting McFadden more.

Muasau and Board could slot in immediately as depth pieces here, contributing both defensively and on special teams, where Board will play a significant role in 2025.

I strongly considered keeping Johnson on the early projection, but considering he’s entering year three and has yet to even play significant snaps, he’s someone I think could be snuck onto the practice squad.

Summers and Flannigan-Fowles are both guys that I would be fine keeping from a talent perspective, but in terms of roster-building, youth and versatility should take precedence.