New York Giants Bret Bielema's Plan to Optimize the Outside Linebackers

Giants outside linebackers coach Bret Bielema has been taking a personal, hands-on and individual approach with each of the team's outside linebackers in the hopes of helping them reach their full potential.

Giants outside linebackers coach Bret Bielema has been gifted with a variety of different pass rushers representing all shapes, sizes, and experience levels in his first season with the Giants.

In trying to get the position group on pace to be productive, Bielema customizes his approach according to each player's level of experience and skills.

"We have giant toolbox sitting there, and everybody's toolbox is different," Bielema said. "The more tools we can add for them, the more things we can do. Maybe it's how they do a certain look, how they place their hands, a counter move. For most natural pass rushers, it's not their first move it's their second move."

• RELATED: What is OLBDNA and How Can It Help the Giants Pass Rush?

Bielema's task of adjusting to his player's unique abilities is accompanied by having to prepare each of them for the season to impact their circumstances as well.

Entering the new season, the outside linebackers group is headlined by 29-year-old Markus Golden.

Golden is returning as the team's leading sack artist last year, but was not present for the team's virtual OTAs in June, since he had not yet signed his UFA tender.

However, Bielema said that getting Golden caught up with the new playbook has gone smoothly and that Golden's presence in the room is a great asset.

"I think because nobody was allowed on the field, it wasn't even that far of a catch-up factor," Bielema said of Golden. "He's been asking for individualized meetings as well, so he's been a real pleasure to be around.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, rookie Cam Brown is one of Bielema's projects in 2020.

The Giants drafted Brown in the sixth round out of Penn State as a raw hybrid linebacker. Brown was praised for elite length and physicality but didn't necessarily have a defined positional fit.

Brown is a player that Bielema has already had to show some tough love. Last week, Bielema made his displeasure with Brown loud and well known in front of reporters during practice, as the rookie was assigned to run two penalty laps.

Despite the penalty laps, Bielema sympathizes a bit with the rookie.

"[Brown] is doing some things here he's never really had to do before," Bielema said. "He played a little bit more in space off the line of scrimmage [in college] and here at the New York Giants we put him on the line of scrimmage and he's been awesome."

Bielema said he's been pleased with how Brown applied his lessons to the team's first training camp scrimmage last week.

Since this year's entire slate of preseason games was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bielema believes that creating harsh situations for the rookies during practice is crucial for their development.

"When you have the preseason you're able to adjust and adapt and teach them what it's like and because we don't have that same opportunity with these rookies in particular, you have to put as much stress on them as we physically can, emotionally and physically."

Brown is accompanied by seventh-round pick Carter Coughlin out of Minnesota as one of Bielema's rookie projects.

Meanwhile, Bielema's most crucial task as the Giants' outside linebackers coach might be the continued grooming of young veterans Oshane Ximines and Lorenzo Carter.

The two former third-round picks are going into their second and third seasons, respectively, and their development is widely regarded as key if the Giants pass rush is to improve.

Ximines and Carter have certainly flashed potential since coming into the league, tying for second on the team in sacks last year with 4.5. However, neither has reached their full potential, and Bielema's job with them is to help them take the next step and become the team's primary edge-rushing duo.

"They've bought into everything we've talked about since Day 1. As a positional coach we go in there and talk about a lot of specific things that pertain to outside backer play," Bielema said.

"It's easy to see that both of them have a lot of talent and a lot of physical raw skills that they've been able to hone."

Ximines has helped instill Bielema's coaching philosophy in his room and his routine. "OLBDNA"--outside linebacker DNA, is the mentality that Bielema has been stressing with his position group this year and Ximines believes it applies both on and off the field.

"Coach Bret came in, and basically that's one the first things he told us when he came in the room," Ximines said.

"All the guys have bought into it. It's something that we stress in our room and it's something we always want to have in our mind when we're on the field playing and when we're evaluating ourselves on film."

The Giants pass rush has ranked at or near the bottom of the league for far too long. The outside linebackers accounted for just 19.5 of the team's 36 sacks in 2019, 22nd in the NFL.

If Bielema can get the unit to be more productive, that would go a long way in helping the Giants defense, which often found itself on the field for prolonged periods last year, getting off the field quicker.

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