Tyler Nubin Enters Pivotal Year 3 With Simplified Role Under New Giants Defense

The New York Giants' safety room underperformed expectations in 2025, with Jevon Holland being brought in as a big-name free agent signing that couldn’t exactly find his footing in year one.

Second-year safety Tyler Nubin was expected to take a significant leap in year two, but instead, seemed to struggle to string together consistent performances.

The Giants have built quality depth at safety with Raheem Layne and Beau Brade returning from last year’s squad as depth pieces that still have room to grow.

In free agency this spring, the Giants added veterans to the room in Ar’Darius Washington and Jason Pinnock.

Both players have some familiarity with the franchise in 2026, as Pinnock, of course, played for the Giants from 2022-2024, and Washington has spent his entire career under John Harbaugh.

As a unit, the room is more reliable depth-wise in 2026 than it was in 2025, but will be replacing Dane Belton as their third safety, who also spent plenty of time in the box and at nickel.

The room is unlikely to be one of the top units on the team, but the improved play of the safeties themselves, as well as an improved defensive game plan, should lead to significant improvement.

Tyler Nubin, S

Height: 6-2
Weight: 210
EXP: 3 Years
School: Minnesota
How Acquired: D2-’24

2025 in Review

It’s clear that 2025 was still a learning experience for Nubin, who took on a much larger role on defense, both in terms of total snaps played and in a more versatile role.

As Nubin took on that more versatile role, it seemed like he struggled to handle the new workload that asked him to contribute more as an all-around option as a sophomore.

Nubin finished the season with 78 total tackles, 7 TFLs, two passes defended, one fumble recovery, and one fumble recovery touchdown.

Missed tackles were an issue for Nubin throughout the season, with 15 missed tackles and a 16.9% missed tackle rate.

The missed tackles would often come in stretches, going multi-game stretches without any, but also having five over the course of two games.

On special teams, Nubin was a consistent contributor on kick coverage and field goal block, playing 131 special teams snaps on the year.

Contract/Cap Info

When the Giants drafted Nubin in the second round of the 2024 NFL Draft, they signed him to a standard four-year contract worth $8,176,718 total with $5,935,968 fully guaranteed at signing.

Unfortunately for Nubin, the 2025 draft was when mid-second-round picks started getting significantly more in guarantees: the 47th pick in 2025 got 85.5% of his contract guaranteed, and this year’s 47th pick got a fully guaranteed deal, as opposed to Nubin’s 72.6%.

Based on his contract alone, before even considering talent and potential, Nubin should be viewed as a virtual lock to make the Giants roster in 2026.

If the Giants were to cut Nubin, they would create $330,743 in cap space but would also incur a dead cap penalty of $1,899,271.

That’s a trade-off that many teams would not be willing to make for a third-year player with potential - there isn’t enough financial incentive to warrant that kind of move.

It’s also worth noting that Holland and Nubin are the only safeties under contract past 2026, so eating Nubin’s dead cap penalty immediately while also destabilizing the room long-term is just another reason that parting ways with Nubin doesn’t make much sense, if any.

2026 Preview

The expectation is still going to be for Nubin to be one of the starting safeties with Holland on the back end.

With a new defensive scheme, there’s no better time than now for Nubin to start playing a new, simplified role that can help him find his footing once again.

If Nubin is put into more situations that let him operate in the box, especially with the snaps that are now available from Belton’s departure, then he should see more success in 2026.

Coverage is still an area that needs notable improvement to put him in a position to make plays on the ball, as he has no interceptions through the first two years of his career.

With a new coaching staff in East Rutherford, this is a fresh slate for Nubin to make an impression, but he also has to remember that this is not the coaching staff that drafted him; it’s all new.

It’s possible that special teams contributions become a more important part of the equation for Nubin’s role under Harbaugh, so he could see more time there.

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