Former first-round pick Adoree’ Jackson is currently a free agent after playing out his three-year, $39MM contract with the Giants, and at this point, it’s almost guaranteed that he won’t be returning to New York. According to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, the team’s decision to let Jackson walk without a new contract is a result of their trust in Deonte Banks to step up as a “true No. 1” cornerback.
Jackson had been an extremely successful signing over his first two seasons with the Giants but saw his quality of play decline drastically in 2023. After grading Jackson out as the 15th and 31st best cornerback in the NFL over first two years with the team, Pro Football Focus (subscription required) ranked Jackson at 117th out of 127 graded players last year.
Banks, a first-round rookie in 2023, didn’t grade out much better last season, with PFF marking him as the 110th best cornerback in the NFL. Still, Banks was productive as a rookie, nabbing two interceptions and leading the team with 11 passes defensed last year. He’s extremely physically gifted for the position, and many in the building believe he surpassed Jackson on the depth chart last year.
He’ll have his work cut out for him as the team’s top corner in 2024. The Giants open their season against Justin Jefferson and the Vikings. Other receivers he’ll be expected to shadow on the schedule are Terry McLaurin (twice), CeeDee Lamb (twice), A.J. Brown (twice), Amari Cooper, D.K. Metcalf, and Ja’Marr Chase. The Giants have faith that Banks will develop into the CB1 they’ll need in order to succeed in 2024.
Here are a few other rumors coming out of New York:
- We’ve heard plenty of rumors already that Giants head coach Brian Daboll will take over play-calling duties for the offense in 2024 over offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. While it’s only organized team activities, Dan Duggan of The Athletic may have confirmed that notion, reporting that Daboll has been calling plays in OTAs. Daboll was spotted in the offensive huddle in between each play wile Kafka was lurking 10 to 15 yards back and to the left of the offense.
- Giants defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson just missed out on getting promoted to replace Wink Martindale as the defensive coordinator in 2024, losing out to former Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Despite the exodus of defensive staff that would usually follow such a move, Daboll made it clear that he wanted almost all of the assistant coaches on the defensive side of the ball to stay, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. Bowen was given a chance to make desired changes, but following the lead of Daboll, who personally let go any defensive staffers he didn’t want to hold on to, Bowen opted to retain much of the same staff as the previous campaign.
Just a thought? Do real football people put any weight into PFF grading system? I find it confusing that a bunch of people without real inside knowledge on the inner workings of the team and their systems and playbooks, can say ‘grade’ a players mistakes or blown chances immediately after the game. They don’t know if the WR who cut outside when the ball was thrown inside made the mistake or of it was the QB who threw to the wrong spot? Or the guard who let the guy over him come through for a sack, or tackle for a loss. Maybe he followed the play correctly and pulled and the tackle was responsible for blocking that DL? Only the players and the coaches know for sure, not the intern looking at tape of the game and grading all 22 players on each play.
Just saying.
My favorite is when a play completely breaks down but results in a TD. In the post game interview the coach is sure to say “yeah we worked on executing it like that all week”. Everyone gets a top grade on the play…lol.
I think the logic is that the vast majority of plays are run correctly. If a guy gets thrown out at 2nd on a hit and run, when the batter whiffed, it is still a CS.
There are a lot more moving parts in football. Lamar Houston blows across the line of scrimmage and sacks the opposing QB for a big loss…then he proceeds to blow out his knee with a victory celebration. What grade does he deserve on the play?
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