Where Giants Stand Ahead of Draft At Cornerback

Can the Giants cornerbacks spearhead the defense in 2020? The potential is there.

The Giants' cornerback group presents as much potential as any other position on the roster heading into 2020. General manager Dave Gettleman has invested extensive draft and salary cap resources into the group, but now it's time for the unit to start putting it all together.

On The Roster

James Bradberry (UFA-Carolina), DeAndre Baker, Julian Love (safety hybrid), Sam Beal, Corey Ballentine, Grant Haley

Off The Roster

Antonio Hamilton (Kansas City)

The Breakdown

Pass coverage was a point of weakness for the Giants in 2019, as seen by their 28th league ranking. But to be fair, the unit started the season with an aging Janoris Jenkins as the team's top corner and a supporting cast of unseasoned rookies.

Things got worse when Jenkins was released halfway through the year. But now the role of top corner has been earmarked to James Bradberry.

On a three-year $45 million deal, Bradberry is Gettleman's biggest signing of the offseason, and a player Gettleman has already drafted while at Carolina in 2016.

Unlike Jenkins, Bradberry is in his prime at 26 years of age and even came on a more team-friendly contract than the one former Giants general manager Jerry Reese dealt Jenkins in 2016. The signing of Bradberry also brings a corner with a history of helping lead and develop young players at the position.

"In my third year, when Donte Jackson came ... I was trying to help him learn how to break down film and watch film and make sure I stayed on top of him about watching tape because that’s how you anticipate routes within film coverage," Bradberry said in an introductory conference call on March 27.

Bradberry's mentorship could prove to pair well with the cast of young corners Gettleman has brought to the organization over the past two years. It might also help that none of those young corners are rookies anymore.

Unlike last year, every corner on the Giants roster now boasts at least one year of NFL experience, whereas entering 2019, Sam Beal, Deandre Baker, Julian Love, and Corey Ballentine hadn't touched an NFL field.

Love proved to be the best of the young group as a rookie. With a 70.5 PFF grade and an interception in 2019, Love gave Gettleman a valuable return as a fourth-round pick out of Notre Dame.

Whether Love even ends up playing corner in 2020 is a different question. While Love is listed as a cornerback on the roster, he could end up fitting in more as a safety in Patrick Graham's defense.

That would seem to leave Baker and Beal, both players who struggled in 2019, competing to fill the spot opposite Bradberry.

Baker finished the 2019 season strong, albeit, as a more-limited part of the defense than he was to begin the season. As a first-round draft pick, Baker was dealt a heavy workload early in 2019 as a starter and struggled, as one of the team's most significant liabilities in pass coverage.

After a week-11 bye, Baker's role saw a notable decrease in snaps played, but with a boost in coverage performance. In the last six games of the season, Baker's 48.5 completion percentage allowed was on-par with some of the league’s elite corners.

Meanwhile, Beal was supposed to go into 2019 with a year of experience as a pick in the 2018 compensatory draft, but a shoulder injury cost him his entire first NFL season. Then a hamstring injury cost Beal an additional ten games to start the 2019 season.

Beal ultimately struggled after coming off both injuries, while also having to adjust to his first NFL action after finally being activated in Week 10. Beal then started the last three games of the season and finished the year have given up 16 completions on 21 attempts for 171 yards, and one touchdown before yet another injury (shoulder) shut him down a week early.

Whether Baker and Beal can improve off their rookie seasons and develop under the right coaching remains to be seen. If Love does make the transition to full-time safety, either Baker or Beal will have to step up and be the number-two cornerback, and one will probably have to fill in at slot.

Ballentine and Haley both present depth for a position group in which depth is essential, but neither one really offers a convincing body of work even as a backup, at least not yet.

The good news is that in Jerome Henderson, hired by Joe Judge to be the defensive backs coach, the youngsters will have a coach who played in the NFL and who likely has a few more tips in his bag of tricks.

The Upside

The returning players boast an uncertain and mediocre sample size of work, but it can only get better from there. The potential of this position group comes in youth combined with leadership change.

Under the guidance of Graham, Henderson and even Bradberry, the young core of the cornerback group has a new cast of teachers to learn from in 2020.

The veteran of the group last year in Jenkins was a player who came to the Giants under much older conditions, and his fit in the locker room may have proved to be a detriment to the group's chemistry.

Just two years ago when Gettleman took over, the Giants cornerback situation was an exact opposite, yet equally underperforming unit as it is now.

With two high-priced free agent signings in Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie headlining the position after a disastrous 2017 season, the Giants didn't have the privilege of baking on improvement, as both were in the declining phases of their career.

But now the youth movement in the secondary could save the Giants' defense in 2020 if the young corners can refine their play.