The New York Giants started beefing up the linebacker position by signing Blake Martinez early in free agency, and they may not be done yet when it comes to adding players in that area of the defense. According to Mike Garafolo, the team is potentially interested in a former top ten draft pick – linebacker Leonard Floyd, formerly of the Bears and a recently released free agent.
Former #Bears LB Leonard Floyd has a number of teams in play for him already. Among them: The #Giants, whom Chicago leaped over a few years ago to draft Floyd.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 17, 2020
Floyd would be an addition to the outside linebacker spot and an alternative to the Giants drafting Isaiah Simmons with the fourth overall pick – something that might not happen due to a trade down, or because of the team’s desire to find a new starter at one of the offensive tackle positions.
There’s something peculiar about Floyd, however, and that’s the fact that he’s very much in the same mold as a player the Giants already have. Both players came from Georgia and they’re known to have a similar playing style, and both players are also regarded as being somewhat underwhelming compared to their expectations.
While Floyd was the ninth overall pick, after all, the end result of his time in Chicago is being released. He only had three sacks last season, and hasn’t repeated his rookie total of seven. In the past two seasons before that, he had four and four and a half, which are also the same numbers that Lorenzo Carter put up in the past two seasons.
Carter is, of course, the less developed player between the two of them… But in this case, that works out in his favor. An argument can be made that the Giants should stick with what they have when it comes to deciding on which of Carter and Floyd should be prioritized. Carter only has two years in the league and has put up the same numbers over the past couple of years that Floyd has put up with double the experience.
Furthermore, Carter even has slightly more tackles than Floyd in the span of the past two seasons despite playing on a worse overall defense – Floyd couldn’t capitalize, after all, on playing with Khalil Mack.
So with those numbers, why should the Giants pay attention to Floyd becoming a free agent? Carter isn’t the highest performing player on the defense, but sticking with him and targeting a different player to help with the pass rush may just be the better option than going for a player with a similar play style, and more experience, but numbers that are about the same and even slightly less despite that advantage in experience.