There’s been a lot of bad press about DeAndre Baker recently, with the most recent story being that Baker was called out in front of the team for putting in an unacceptable effort on one specific play, but things aren’t all bad – it looks like Baker isn’t going to lose his job too soon, because the staff are still willing to work with him rather than sending him to the bench for his poor coverage for most of this season.
Defensive coordinator James Bettcher notably believes that Baker hasn’t given him a reason to worry yet, which seems to contradict the impression that someone might get after hearing about Baker’s recent calling out.
“I want some snaps back for him and he wants them back, too. The thing that Bake has shown me is that he is willing to come to work. I would worry if we were sitting in the meeting room and he didn’t own a mistake, that’s when I would worry… I don’t worry because he owns whatever the correction needs to be,” said Bettcher.
Baker has had a hard time making corrections when actually on the field, however, as shown in games such as the nationally televised loss to Dallas where he found himself one of the most frequent targets for Dak Prescott.
Sam Beal appeared in 15% of the Giants’ defensive snaps against the New York Jets, which is the only game that he’s played in up to this point – Baker, on the other hand, appeared in every snap. It’s clear that right now the Giants are keeping Baker firmly in the top part of the rotation, but if his play doesn’t pick up against the Bears, who knows how long that will last?
James Bettcher is showing confidence in DeAndre Baker now, but the Giants were also adamant before the season that Eli Manning would be the starter, and that there were no plans to start Daniel Jones. That changed after two games and two losses. If Baker’s Dallas performance is repeated against the Bears, don’t be surprised if he doesn’t necessarily play on every snap and more playing time instead goes to other rivals.