Harbaugh Says Giants Aren't Necessarily Done Fixing Their Defensive Line After C.J. Okoye Trade

With New York's run defense ranked 27th in yards allowed before contact, the head coach made clear the Okoye deal was just a start.

Defensive tackle CJ Okoye | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh clearly wasn’t crazy about the showing put forth by the defensive linemen who played this summer in preseason games, especially when it came to stopping the run.

Nor should he have been.

While the Giants' run defense wasn’t as bad as it was last year when it ranked at or near the bottom of the league, it allowed opponents an average of 1.57 yards per rush before contact (27th league-wide), meaning that too many rushing attempts were getting to the second level and beyond.  

Enter 6-foot-6, 370-pound defensive lineman C.J. Okoye, whom the Giants acquired for a 2028 seventh-round draft pick via the Baltimore Ravens. Okoye, who was with Harbaugh last season in Baltimore, apparently left an impression on the veteran head coach.

“He's a guy that we got to know recently, last year,” Harbaugh said of the one-time Chargers defender who came to the NFL via the International Pathway Program.

“He’s a guy who had been a developmental-type guy, learning the game and tremendous physical skills, a hard worker. Really dedicated himself over the last few years to learning the game, really, because he didn't do it growing up. And made great strides, made great strides with Dennis Johnson, our defensive line coach, last year.”

Okoye, according to Harbaugh, is someone that the team can plug into the A- and B-gaps as a run-stopper and a pocket pusher. “Just a real big, physical player,” he said. “So, the kind of guy we've been looking for, and we're really excited to get him up here.”

Okoye likely takes the place of Leki Fotu, who was among the first roster cuts made by the Giants. But it sounds like Big Blue is far from finished with addressing its defensive line.

“Yeah, we're still looking, but I don't want to rule out anything else either,” Harbaugh said. “It's not like we aren't looking everywhere. It's not like we're scouring the waiver wire for players. We're really happy with our roster," he said.

“I feel like we've got all the players in place that we need. At the same time, if there's an opportunity to improve ourselves somewhere along the way, we will. We know all the names. We'll be looking real closely at that list.”

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