Few of the New York Giants fans would have expected a starting corner spot to be open as the 2020 season approaches, but the light of vacancies is pretty bright. DeAndre Baker’s situation seems to be swinging from day to day and the gnashing situation is uncertain, which leaves the Giants in dire straits with their second cornerback. The former first-round pick could end up on the commissioner’s exonerated list or possibly in jail, so the situation is difficult to grasp.
Luckily for New York, the team signed James Bradberry in the offseason, but who will start against former second-round pick Dave Gettleman? There are a few different options on the list, but none with significant starting experience. New York recently added an influx of players to their high school; players who range from college ranks, other NFL teams and even the XFL.
In a league that leans toward speed and passing offense, it’s no wonder the Giants have prioritized players who can cover. Former head coach Joe Judge’s team, the Patriots, have long prioritized defensive backs over passers. The 2020 Giants also appear to be moving in this direction. Since 2018, the Giants have drafted Sam Beal (additional choice of third round), DeAndre Baker, Julian Love, Corey Ballentine, Xavier McKinney, Darnay Holmes and Chris Williamson. They also added Jabrill Peppers via trade and Bradberry, Dravon Askew-Henry and Grant Haley in free agency (Haley as an undrafted free agent in 2018). Flooding side rooms is by design and should work to benefit Giants, but not all of these players have the outside corner start ability. Let’s dive into some of those players and see who might have the best chance to start opposite Bradberry.
Beal will be the favorite for this job by default. He has a higher draft pedigree, but it hasn’t worked out yet. Beal had a rough start to his injury-laden career; He landed on the reserve injured in his two seasons in the NFL while missing his entire rookie season, but he eventually won a few shots starting in Week 10 of the 2019 campaign.
Beal almost exclusively played the cornerback. He was targeted 20 times, dropping 14 receptions (70% completion rate). He wasn’t too sticky at the top of the roads, nor was he excellent with his reactionary quickness in cover, but he did pull off some impressive tackles on the field in the Miami game; one that resulted in security. Beal showed quick diagnostic and attacking skills while playing an aggressive game.
The big concern for Beal coming from West Michigan was his size. It’s a 6 foot 1 inch, 177 pound corner half with a thin frame. This has been a problem so far in his NFL career, but there was a reason many teams were high on Beal. He showed good man cover ability in college while also displaying good ball skills with 10 passes defended and 2 interceptions in his final season.
Many people thought that Beal’s selection was a wise move on Gettleman’s part, due to the Giants’ lack of high school talent at the time and the fact that Beal was supposed to be already rising in the tables. draft. The sample size is small, but Beal hasn’t shown much in terms of phasing. Hopefully, with a healthy year ahead of him, we can see the potential show itself, but he’ll have to beat the next player for the starting role, and that shouldn’t be too easy.
Potential candidate: Corey Ballentine
Beal will likely have the first chance at work, but if Ballentine outshines him, he should get the job no questions asked. The night he was selected by the Giants, Ballentine was shot near his campus and his best friend, Dwane Simmons, was killed. An incredibly unfortunate set of circumstances surrounded Ballentine as training camp opened and his start to the 2019 offseason was hampered. It took an incredible amount of determination on Ballentine’s part and he was able to make it to the Giants roster while seeing significant snaps throughout the season in the slot machine.
In Washburn, Ballentine almost always gambled to the limit, so giving her the job of playing the slot machine, in place of a vulnerable Grant Haley, was no easy task. Ballentine was trying to adjust to the NFL, with most of his training camp and preseason taken away as he recovered from a gunshot wound and mourned the death of his best friend.
Ballentine ended up playing 279 snaps in the slot machine and only 10 of them in 2019, according to Pro Football Focus. His decisive mind was not up to the receptor pauses and he became an easy target for receptors to create separation against. It was not a sporting problem, in my opinion it was much more mental. The elite explosiveness he tested on the combine was actually on display a lot during his rookie season, especially when it came to making aggressive tackles.
The youngster combined burst, speed and solid tackling fundamentals to record several quality tackles in his rookie season. In the lunge, Ballentine was targeted 43 times, returning 31 catches (72.1 percent). But it’s a lot harder to cover the receivers in the slot, with all that space, than it is to cover someone on the border.
Ballentine has a good length and is more used to playing outside on the border. He has the athletic ability to cover deep horizontal routes in men’s coverage, but he has to be a bit more decisive about sifting through the nuance of not biting on double moves and when to react to actual breaks. He has the athletic tools and a solid size so I think he can adjust with more practice and reps. The question of how many reps / reps he will receive in the COVID-19 era is still a reality, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Ballentine won the starting position against Beal.
Underdog: Darnay Holmes
The debate between Beal and Ballentine over where to start against Bradberry is the question of the day, but why isn’t anyone discussing Holmes in this way? He performed strictly on the Border Corner at UCLA and did so at a high level in 2018; He was reportedly the victim of a lower-body injury in 2019 which he sustained at training camp, which resulted in poor stats and the embarrassing Washington state game.
Holmes combines very good athleticism and covering skills, with solid mental processing for the job. Height bias is the obvious conclusion when it comes to Holmes, but the dire situation the Giants find themselves in, with an often injured Beal and inexperienced Ballentine as the only real competition, should at least propel Holmes into the discussion, right?
There have been several successful outside cornerbacks of similar stature to Holmes: Brent Grimes, Alterraun Verner, Malcolm Butler, Byron Murphy (still in discussion on the level of success), Antonie Winfield and Kareem Jackson all come to mind. Sure, some of those players were taken to safety, but at one point they were smaller in the outside corners, so why not Holmes.
I believe his name should be discussed in conversation, but my main reservation with Holmes on the outside is not just height, but length. Holmes has a reach of 29 ½ inches (smaller than all of the cornerbacks discussed above) with a dismal wingspan of 69 ¾ inches. For reference, Beal, who is significantly larger but much lighter than Holmes (177 to 195), has 31 inch arms with a 73 inch wingspan.
The length hurts him for sure, but I wouldn’t rule it out. He has experience in a Power-5 conference, is an incredible athlete, and he had 17 defensive passes and 8 interceptions in his three seasons with the Bruins. At the end of the day Holmes’ name should be cast in the competition, and it will be, but measurables will never be on his side, so I can’t imagine him beating Beal and Ballentine for the outside start. without an injury.
Final thoughts
Most Giants fans hadn’t envisioned cornerback second as a problem until 2020, but here we are! The location is set to be one of the hottest training camp battles of the season. Both Beal and Ballentine should have ample opportunity to part ways with each other, but I think Holmes could be a bad underdog in the race as well.
Baker’s remaining time with the Giants is unknown and the team have invested strengths in high school in recent seasons. Even securities like Dravon Askew-Henry and Julian Love can be considered for this role due to their past experiences, but it should mostly come down to Beal and Ballentine. This should be an entertaining aspect of training camp to watch; let’s just hope both players look good and the decision is made difficult that way, rather than the other way around.
