New York Giants 6 Training Camp Battles To Watch

Middle Linebacker

Linebacker has seemingly been a trouble spot for the Giants each and every season. Since Antonio Pierce retired from manning the middle, it has not been a position that the front office puts much stock into. Gone are the glory days of Lawrence Taylor, Carl Banks, and Harry Carson, as the Giants have elected to put resources into the defensive backfield and defensive line.

But, the Giants need someone to man the middle of their defense, and right now the competition looks pretty open. Jasper Brinkley found his way into the lineup as Jon Beason was never fully healthy. Uani Unga proved to be incapable of handling the starting linebacker spot either, so Brinkley was the Giants man.

While he handled himself well, the Giants brought in plenty of competition for him this season, as they signed Kelvin Sheppard and Keenan Robinson as free agents and drafted B.J. Goodson. The Giants are hoping one of them emerge as a leader at the second level.

Brinkley looks to have the first shot at claiming the job, as he was running with the starters during the first practices of training camp alongside Jonathan Casillas and Devon Kennard. This could turn into a situation in which the Giants mix and match, as none of the four looks to be three-down players right now, but that could change as camp goes on.

If the Giants cannot find one player to handle all three downs, mixing and matching is not a bad alternative as long as they are being used to their strengths and not being forced on the field because of injuries like in years past.

Next: Who Starts Opposite Of OBJ?