The New York Giants have plenty of holes to fill, but one unit will be top-notch moving forward.
Allocating draft picks toward the offensive line or defensive unit is a guarantee, especially with Isaiah Simmons and several quality tackles on the board for the Giants at No. 4. The offense is still being pieced together after GM Dave Gettleman drafted Daniel Jones with the 6th overall pick in 2019. Protecting him should be a priority, which indicates that selecting a tackle in the first two rounds is essential, despite the defense needing more quality at pass rusher and at free safety.
However, there’s one unit that the Giants are confident in, and it’s none other than special teams. Head coach Joe Judge brings plenty of knowledge and prowess in the area, having been the Patriots’ special teams coach for the past few seasons. The Giants also signed safety Nate Ebner, who’s a special team connoisseur and will bring familiarity with Judge to the team.
Judge is keen on utilizing Giants’ players in multiple ways, which abides by his special team’s standards and effectiveness. In a recent interview with new long snapper Casey Kreiter, he indicated that the Giants should feature one of the better units in the NFL, considering Riley Dixon was arguably the team’s best players and punter in 2019. Aldrick Rosas struggled a bit at times, but most of his issues were correlated to injuries to long-snapper, Zak DeOssie, who has since retired.
The Giants also retained quality gunner, Cody Core, who proved his worth on ST last season. The team doesn’t seem like they’re going to retain safety Michael Thomas, having been replaced by Ebner. I would have liked to see them bring back Thomas, who has been a consistent player for Big Blue and featured as a leader on the defense. He filled in valiantly when called upon for the Giants, especially when Jabrill Peppers went down with a hip injury.
FootballOutsiders.com ranked the Giants’ special teams unit 17th in the league last year, so about average. With the additions they’ve made in recent days, the hope is that they can climb that leaderboard significantly.