New York Giants: Player projections for the interior defensive line

New York Giants, Dexter Lawrence

The New York Giants‘ defense has struggled to stop the run in recent years. To sum it up, running the ball on the Giants is their kryptonite. It has been the same painful and sad story for the past couple of seasons. In 2019, the Giants defense allowed 1812 rushing yards. It will be up to the Giants’ interior defensive line to make a change.

The New York Giants defense in 2019 was ranked 30th out of 32 teams. It was truly painful to watch as a fan.

Dalvin Tomlinson’s 2019 stats & 2020 projections

Dalvin Tomlinson has never missed a game in his career. Since entering the league in 2017, Tomlinson has started in every game (48). In 2019, Tomlinson recorded three and a half sacks. This was a career-high season for Tomlinson. To go along with his career sack season, Tomlison had seven tackles for loss and nine quarterback hits. The Giants are lucky to have a guy like Tomlinson who stays on the field year after year. In 2020, I’m projecting Tomlison to have five sacks, ten quarterback hits, and 15 tackles for loss.

Dexter Lawrence’s 2019 stats & 2020 projections

Dexter Lawrence is a big piece of the Giants’ interior defense. He has filled Damon Harrison’s shoes as a run-stuffer for the Giants. The job of the nose guard is to stuff any run opportunities through the A-gap. As a rookie, Lawrence forced one fumble and tallied up 24 solo tackles. Notably, Dexter Lawrence did not miss one game in 2019. In summary, Dexter Lawrence is due for a big season. In 2020, I’m projecting Lawrence to have four sacks, 30 solo tackles, and five tackles for loss.

Leonard Williams 2019 stats & 2020 projections

Leonard Williams is entering his first full season with the Giants. As of recent, Williams agreed to the franchise tag, paying about $16 million for 2020. This is a make or break year as we all know. If the Giants don’t see improvement from Williams in 2020 he will not get a contract extension. In 2019, Williams was apart of a trade that sent him from one MetLife locker room to another. The Jets gained a third-round pick (68) from the Giants. After the trade, Leonard played in eight games, and only started in five of them. One stat that stands out was the number of quarterback hits he recorded (11). The upcoming seasons needs to be Leonard Williams’ best if he wants to secure his bag. I think he will record four sacks and have over 15 quarterback hits in 2020. Only time will tell for Leonard, every game counts for him especially as a franchised tagged player.

 

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