Countdown To Camp: Five Young Playmakers on Defense to Watch

Without many proven veterans, the Giants' defense will depend on contributions from its young core of players under the age of 24 in 2020. Here is a look at the top five youngsters the Giants whose contributions could help the Giants defense rise to the top half of the league in every major statistical category.

The Giants' defensive roster doesn't have a proven elite playmaker going into the 2020 season. What it does have is a core of young and hungry players who are still on their respective rookie contracts and who are just waiting to have the kind of breakout season that usually translates into a big-money second contract.  

New head coach Joe Judge and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham have seen how a successful defense can operate with these circumstances from their time with the New England Patriots. Over that time, the Patriots' defense didn't always boast elite talent at every position, but it consistently got the best out of the players it started. 

Judge and Graham will be looking to bring that consistency to the Giants' defense this year and get some major contributions out of a young core. Here are just five of those young players on whom the Giants will be counting to take that quantum leap.  

LB Ryan Connelly: Second Year, 24 years old

Connelly's rookie season came to a premature end after he suffered a torn ACL in Week 4 last year, but his short time on the field offered a glimpse at a complete linebacker toolset and an instinct for big plays. 

Connelly snagged an interception in back-to-back weeks for the Giants against Tampa Bay and Washington, exceeding the coverage and ball skills that many scouts assumed of him very quickly. 

If Connelly makes a strong recovery from the ACL tear, he could emerge as a top option to start again in 2020 alongside veteran Blake Martinez at inside linebacker.

Connelly's awareness and mental processing ability to diagnose a play pre-snap is one of his greatest strengths as a linebacker and could make him a central cerebral figure in Patrick Graham's defense.

EDGE Oshane Ximines: Second Year, 23 years old

With a thin pass rush unit heading into 2020, the Giants could lean heavily on Ximines, whom NFL.com's Adam Rank predicts will be the Giants breakout star this year.

Ximines put that potential star power on display last year in Philadelphia on Monday Night Football in Week 14 when he posted a career-high two sacks against the Eagles. 

While it looks as though veteran edge rusher Markus Golden, the Giants team sack leader last year, will be returning for another rodeo, that doesn't mean that Ximines will take a back seat. 

The Giants might be better off giving more playing time to Ximines to help build long-term chemistry in the defensive front rather than looking for short-term results and bottlenecking Ximines' development by starting Golden ahead of him. 

DL Dexter Lawrence: Second Year, 22 years old

The 6'4 and 343-pound Lawrence has insisted from Day 1 that he's a complete player capable of stopping the run and rushing the passer, and his production lat year backed up his assertion.  

Last year, Lawerence generated 30 total pressures in 412 pass-rush snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Against the run, he was even better. His 88.0 run-defense grade from PFF was ranked sixth among all defensive tackles in 2019, and he led the Giants interior defenders with 26 run-stops for zero or negative yards.

Although Lawrnce's exact role in Graham's defense remains to be seen, Graham and new Giants defensive line coach Sean Spencer will be tasked with helping Lawrence take the next step and bringing out his Pro-Bowl potential to anchor the Giants defense in 2020 and beyond. 

S Xavier McKinney: Rookie, 21 years old

McKinney was drafted at the top of the second round out of Alabama in this year's draft, but many scouts had him graded as a first-round talent and the draft's best safety prospect.

McKinney's versatility flashed his senior year on several levels of the field. Playing at the intermediate level helped McKinney amass 95 total tackles and also allowed forced four fumbles for the Crimson Tide. 

In the secondary, he was able to break up five passes and intercept three including one he returned for a touchdown

Along with McKinney's versatility, his football IQ, physicality, and overall coverage and ball skills are NFL caliber and it will make him a candidate to be a Week 1 starter in both the base defense with Jabrill Peppers and in a potential three-safety set that includes Peppers and Julian Love.

CB Darnay Holmes: Rookie, 22 years old

Like the Giants edge rushers, their cornerback group is also relatively unproven at the NFL level, though it's loaded with youth and potential. 

Holmes might be the most talented of the group as a fourth-round pick out of UCLA, but one that could have gone much higher based on the production he tallied prior to his junior year. 

After suffering a preseason ankle injury in 2019, Holmes returned to hold down UCLA's top corner spot, racking up 34 total tackles and two interceptions, the fewest picks he'd had in a single season at UCLA but still overall solid production at the college level.

Holmes posses possibly the best ball skills and playmaking ability of any defensive back on the Giants' roster. He has eight career interceptions in three seasons at UCLA and returned three for touchdowns.

His tackling efficiency, recovery speed, and footwork at the line of scrimmage are among his best traits and with some technical improvement, he could be a starter for the Giants either in the nickel or on the perimeter.