New York Giants: Secondary Ranked As Top Unit By Pro Football Focus

The New York Giants secondary ended the season as one of the highest graded units in the NFL according to Pro Football Focus.

The New York Giants took some major steps forward in 2016. They ended their playoff drought of four seasons, winning 11 games in the regular season. While there are still some things to fix on the roster, their secondary was a pleasure to watch all season.

The Giants spent big money to upgrade their defense as a whole last offseason. Jerry Reese opened up his wallet and one of the players he paid lavishly was Janoris Jenkins. Jenkins gave the Giants a great one-two punch on the perimeter along with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Adding in first round pick Eli Apple and the Giants had some serious talent in their cornerback corps.

But, the biggest upgrade came from within. Second-year safety Landon Collins elevated his game to a whole different level in 2016. After struggling through most of his rookie season and playing out of position, Collins looked like a totally different player his sophomore season. He is a legitimate defensive MVP candidate after having a monster regular season.

More from New York Giants

The play of the secondary was a big reason the Giants found so much success this season. With the offense unable to get going most of the season a lot of pressure fell on the defense to perform. That is exactly what they did week in and week out.

Pro Football Focus recognized just how strong the Giants secondary played. The Giants secondary finished the season ranked second by Pro Football Focus, trailing only the Dallas Cowboys. Pro Football Focus graded Collins as the top overall grade with a 91.7. Rodgers-Cromartie received the highest coverage grade at 90.3, while Collins had the best run defense grade with a 95.8.

Here is what Pro Football Focus had to say about the Giants secondary.

"The Giants’ ranking may feel high after their performance against the Packers in the Wild Card game on Sunday, but they were also without their top-graded cornerback, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who we recently named as PFF’s second-team All-Pro defensive back. Rodgers-Cromartie finished the year as the sixth-ranked corner in the league, but he wasn’t the only Giants DB to play well. In his first year with the team after a big free-agent deal, Janoris Jenkins had by far the best season of his career and also finished among the top 10 cornerbacks in the league. Safety Landon Collins was a revelation in his second year after greatly improving in coverage and establishing himself as one of the best run defenders in the league, which led to his PFF first-team All-Pro selection. The Giants do have some weakness further down the depth chart, though, as we saw against Green Bay when Trevin Wade and rookie Eli Apple were forced into bigger roles."

If you base the Giants secondary off just the Wild Card game you are selling the unit short. There was a lot that went into the struggles this past Sunday, such as the offense’s inability to stay on the field. Before the tide turned near the end of the first half, the Giants secondary, and defense as a whole were playing an excellent game against Aaron Rodgers and company.

We also saw one of the flaws that the defense has; depth. Unlike the Cowboys, who had eight players play at least 100 snaps and receive average to above-average grades, the Giants were rather top heavy.

After Collins, Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins there was a big drop off. Andrew Adams is another player that Pro Football Focus thinks highly of, but the Giants less talented players were certainly exposed by Rodgers and the Packers once Rodgers-Cromartie was forced out of the game defensively.

Next: New York Giants Wild Card Grades vs Green Bay Packers

This is a group that should only get better. They will probably look to upgrade on Trevin Wade and Leon Hall this offseason, but Apple will improve in his second season. Fellow rookie Darian Thompson should also be healed by the time offseason workouts roll around. The Giants secondary has the look of a dominant group that will only get better with more experience gained.

Home/New York Giants