Giants’ Deonte Banks Faces ‘Clean Slate’ and $12M Decision Amid Looming Roster Pressure

Head coach John Harbaugh and DC Dennard Wilson are offering a fresh start to the former first-round pick, but with a massive contract option due and new competition in the building, Deonte Banks’s time in New York is officially on the clock.

New York Giants cornerback Deonte Banks | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

New York Giants cornerback Deonte Banks’s NFL career has not met expectations.

Bankes, the team’s first-round pick in 2023, had a promising-looking rookie campaign playing in a Wink Martindale-led defense. That season, he appeared in 15 games, all starts, and recorded two interceptions, 11 pass breakups, and 64 tackles, all career highs.

But when Martindale left in a messy breakup with then head coach Brian Daboll, and Shane Bowen came in as the new defensive coordinator, Banks’s promising career suddenly hit the skids.

For one, Bowen ran a completely different system that focused more on zone coverage than Martindale’s press-man scheme.

With Banks struggling in Bowen’s system, his production not only declined, but he was also benched twice due to poor effort, even being called out for his poor effort by then-defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson after Banks played passively against the Dallas Cowboys on a particular coverage.

Things continued to spiral downhill for Banks last season, when he not only was unable to wrestle the starting job away from Cor’Dale Flott in training camp, but also blew his opportunity given to him to be part of a rotation with Flott.

All of that has many believing the Giants will not exercise Banks’s $12 million rookie-year option.

“We're going to talk about that early next week,” general manager Joe Schoen said.

The coaches appear to have early optimism regarding Banks

Giants defensive coordinator Dennar Wilson believes Banks has it in him to become a solid player.

“I remember evaluating him coming out. He's a Maryland Terp, and I'm a Maryland Terp. I had just a little bit of background with him,” Wilson told reporters earlier this month.

“He's a talented player. He's big. He can run. He brings an element of physicality, but he's had an up-and-down career thus far. For us, it’s coming in with a clean slate. That's everybody on this defense,” he said.

Wilson emphasized that everyone is getting a clean slate, and it doesn’t matter where they were drafted or how they were acquired.  

“We’re trying to evaluate the players, see what they do well, and we're trying to teach them our way of football,” he said.

“In terms of Banks, I think we have two great DB coaches in (defensive pass coordinator/secondary coach) Donald (D’Alesio) and (defensive backs coach) Addison (Lynch), who do an excellent job in teaching DB play, footwork, technique, and eyes.  

“Tae will have the opportunity to go out there and get better. We're going to put things on his plate, try to make things as simple as they can be in terms of conceptual teaching, and that's for everybody.”

Sep 14, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; New York Giants cornerback Deonte Banks (2) reacts after a play against the Dallas Cowboys during the third quarter at AT&T Stadium. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Head coach John Harbaugh, who earlier in his coaching career worked with defensive backs and now with the Giants will undoubtedly have a say in whether Banks’s option is picked up. He got his first opportunity to see the player on the field in person at this past week’s voluntary minicamp.

“There are guys in (the cornerback room) there with opportunities,” Harbaugh said.

“I'm looking at Tae (Banks). Tae, he hasn't played that great–he'll tell you that. But is he capable of playing a lot better? I think he is. That's on us and on him to get him to play better. So imagine if he takes this step, and what does that do for the room?”

The good news for Banks is that he appears to have made a favorable impression on Harbaugh, at least so far.

“I thought Tae looked really good last week. So that's the kind of thing I'm going on,” he said. “I don't really care what the perception was a year ago or two years ago. I'm looking at what I see.”

Although all appears to bode well for Banks, the addition of Colton Hood in the draft and Greg Newsome II in free agency puts the former Maryland cornerback on notice.

“You'd better be ready. You'd better be ready to compete,” Harbaugh said of the cornerbacks.

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