logan ryan

The New York Giants are set to take on the Eagles in a regional rivalry game on Thursday Night Football, and this one will pit a lot of families against each other.

The Giants and the Eagles play within close proximity of each other compared to some other divisional rivalries and the state of New Jersey is largely split between the two when it comes to fandom. That means some extra bragging rights are at stake for the Giants players who come from the state.

One of those players is recent addition Logan Ryan. When Ryan was signed to the Giants, it was just about a perfect fit. Not just because the team needed another defensive back, but because Ryan himself is from New Jersey and finally received the chance to play for his hometown team.

But all of Ryan’s friends and family? Well, not all of them will be rooting for him on Thursday night.

“I didn’t grow up too far away. I definitely have some family members that grew up Eagles fans. I understand the rivalry in this division, I grew up in it,” Ryan said to reporters on Tuesday.

“I grew up watching all these Giants games, Eagles games. [I] Bleed blue right now, this is where I wake up early every day and put it on for them. My teammates support me, and the coaches support me. I’m bleeding blue all day for this one. I’m excited to upset a lot of family and friends who may be watching. If they’re not on my side, they’re on the wrong side.”

The Eagles started bringing fans back into the stadium with the last game, and fans will once again be allowed for the game against the Giants. It means Ryan might just have some familiar faces in the stands, and not just watching from at home.

That should serve as a motivating factor for Ryan, who has already proven to be a big player in the secondary so far. With 39 combined tackles so far and one forced fumble, Giants fans can hope the extra motivation pushes Ryan to improve his stats even further.

New York Giants’ quarterback Daniel Jones has been the talk of the town this season, primarily for his lack of touchdown passes and increase in turnovers.

While there’s plenty of blame to go around, Jones is undoubtedly part of the problem. He oftentimes gets stuck on his first read and is not moving on and creating with his other options. That has been a major hiccup in his game, but it is something we hadn’t seen in 2019 during his rookie campaign.

With new offensive coordinator Jason Garrett taking over playcalling duties, Jones’ mentality has changed significantly. He’s sticking to the book and not going off-script.

The one time we saw Jones go off-script, it was on an offsite play against the San Francisco 49ers when he threw a pass downfield to Darius Slayton on his back shoulder. It was a perfect play that resembled something along the lines of “success,” a word we haven’t been able to use with the offense through four weeks. He hasn’t scored a touchdown over two games and didn’t even take a red-zone snap and week three against San Francisco.

However, despite the lack of efficiency, Jones has tangible traits to become a quality starter in the NFL. A lot of the struggles have to do with lack of talent and a vanilla offensive scheme.

New safety Logan Ryan sees championship traits in Jones, who works just as hard as anyone to ensure he’s ready on game day.

“We talk a lot, he asks me questions about defense, I ask him a lot of questions about offense. I’m trying to make it hard on the quarterback, I’m trying to make it hard on him every day. He makes it hard on me,” Ryan said, per Dan Benton of the Giants Wire. “We do talk a lot. I was a high school quarterback, I couldn’t even play in college. I don’t dip my toe in it too much. Anything he needs, he knows I’m an open book. Like I said, he’s a hard worker. He’s in the building well before anybody else, me and him are.

“I believe in him, I have full faith in him. However it’s going right now, it’s four games. However many starts he has in his career, it’s a young career. He has to keep his confidence and keep growing. He has no problem being a leader, he has no problem working hard. He has no problem putting the time in, I think the Giants have the right guy when it comes to that.”

Remaining confident with such poor statistics to show must be difficult. Jones stated on Wednesday that he believes the offense is ready to break out, and it is the perfect time to do so against a historically bad Dallas Cowboys unit.

Averaging 36.5 points per game allowed, the Giants have a fantastic match-up to break out of their funk. The problem is, the Giants have been a confidence-building team for their opponents, and they must do everything in their power not to hurt themselves.

Winning the turnover battle and having more time of possession is essential, which means establishing the ground game and utilizing play-action. I think Garrett should give Jones more creativity and the ability to decide on the go, as his one read offense simply isn’t getting the job done with a methodical Jones under center.

The New York Giants open up their season soon, and they’ll have Logan Ryan in their starting lineup when they do so. Ryan and the Giants look like a match made in heaven.

While there was some apprehension from fans earlier on, the Giants needed another cornerback and Ryan needed a team. They lost DeAndre Baker to a legal case this offseason and the only other options at second cornerback were very under-qualified for the role. Ryan, on the other hand, just wanted to play after failing to find a team for most of free agency.

It looks so far like Ryan is working pretty hard to make sure his start with the team is a good one. On Monday, Ryan gave some insight on just what he’s been up to.

Logan Ryan studying hard in preparation for season

Ryan claims his prep for the 2020 season includes study. A lot of study. In fact, trying to get his hands on an iPad to study the playbook is one of the first things Ryan did after getting on the team.

“I begged for an iPad, they gave me one. I’ve been studying film about 20 hours a day, a variety of positions. I got to see my mom who lives an hour south obviously. She’s scared to death of the sun right now because of COVID. I got to see her for a half hour and then right back to the film,” Ryan told reporters on Monday. “My wife and kids are back home in Nashville where they’re at. I’m up here by myself. I have nothing to do but watch a ton of film and start preparing for the Steelers.”

Ryan also went into another valuable fact. Experience. Most of the Giants haven’t played under the current head coach or DC, but that’s not a problem for Ryan.

“Luckily, I have played for Pat Graham, I’ve played for Joe Judge before. It’s a system that I’m familiar with. I played in the system before in my career, so I think that helped me a little bit with the terminology and things of that nature.”

It’s important that Ryan adapts quickly, because there’s not much time between his signing with the team and the season opener. NFL playbooks are huge, after all, and a player is only effective if they can carry out the plays effectively.

We’ll see in less than a week if Ryan can be a productive player and run the team’s defensive playbook correctly after such a short time to study it.

The New York Giants secondary has taken some hits recently with an injury to Xavier McKinney and the absence of DeAndre Baker for now at the cornerback position. However, they took one big step forward by signing experienced corner Logan Ryan, who slots right into the starting lineup on the defense.

There’s some doubters, of course – there usually are with expensive signings, but the Giants didn’t have many options outside of doing this deal. However, based on what Logan Ryan’s offseason trainers told the New York Post, there’s good reason for fans to be on the optimistic side about the new addition.

That’s because Ryan has held nothing back in training so far, even when he was an unsigned free agent and it was questionable if he would play this season.

Logan Ryan working hard this offseason

Ryan dealt with not being on an NFL roster at the start of training camp by bringing in his own trainers, and if their claims are true, Giants fans have reason to be excited about the new signing.

“Logan came out there with his helmet and pads every day, so I had to have the EMTs on high alert. He made me feel like I was going to pass out sometimes,” said trainer Yo Murphy. That’s somewhat impressive because Murphy isn’t your average trainer – he had a football career himself, bouncing between the NFL and CFL and racking up 9 career receptions in the former.

He’s not the only one with that sentiment.

“I felt like there was a chip on his shoulder,” said one of Ryan’s other trainers, Jason Spray. “He’s always kind of trained that way, but this offseason he was determined to prove some people wrong. He understood from the get-go that someone was going to give him an opportunity, and he mentioned several times he was hoping to go back home.”

He says that Ryan wanted to run three miles every day. Sometimes, they had to compromise and Ryan did less – for the sake of his trainers, not himself.

Last season, Ryan had a big increase in tackles and achieved his career high. He had 113 compared to 76 the previous season, and hit the quarterback a career high 8 times for that matter. His passes defended also increased by 10, jumping from 8 to 18.

The Giants are getting an experienced veteran at a position they really needed help at with this signing. Furthermore, they’re getting a veteran that improved quite a bit last season, which is a pretty good reason to be confident the Giants made the right choice on this one.

After months of waiting, Logan Ryan has finally found a home with the New York Giants for the 2020 season:

Logan Ryan will be returning home to New Jersey as he has signed with the New York Giants. The seventh-year veteran cornerback recently signed a new agent who lowered his asking price making many teams interested in Ryan. One of these teams was Big Blue allowing for a New Jersey reunion for Ryan and his family.

The Rutgers product started all 16 games for the Titans last year, where he played phenomenally. Ryan recorded 113 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, four interceptions, and 18 pass breakups. The 29-year-old essentially did everything for Tennessee, and it showed on the stat sheet as he was in the top 15% of cornerbacks in all of these categories. Ryan’s 4.5 sacks, 113 tackles, and nine tackles for loss were all first among cornerbacks. The defensive back also started three playoff games where he recorded two pass deflections, two tackles for loss, 25 tackles, and one interception, which he returned for a touchdown, ending Tom Brady’s time in New England.

Ryan was a swiss army knife for the Titans as he rushed the quarterback at times while also being one of their best coverage men. This offered Tennessee something many teams did not have, a true tackler and capable pass rusher in the slot. Ryan’s ability to do it all in Nashville showed out in the run game as he helped the team allow a mere 104.5 rushing yards per game.

The two time Super Bowl champion will bring this versatility to New York as he will pursue a starting defensive back role in Big Blue’s new-look defense. It is to be determined if he will play in the slot, outside, or even safety, but it appears as the Giants signed Ryan to be a day one starter and potential mentor to the young secondary.

The secondary currently has several players age 25 or younger (Jabrill Peppers, Julian Love, Corey Ballentine, Darnay Holmes, Grant Haley, etc.). Ryan’s thorough experience as a successful defensive back should help mentor and develop these young talents, which the Giants will need to rely on in the future. However, for this year, Ryan should be the day one starter at some secondary position, and if it were up to him, it would be free safety.

Free agent Logan Ryan views himself as a safety, rather than the cornerback he’s generally listed as. To that end, his agent emailed all 32 GMs these top safety stats and asked them to compare his production. An interesting discussion to be sure as one of the top FAs looms. pic.twitter.com/NZni6BYmND

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 10, 2020

With Giants’ rookie safety Xavier McKinney suffering a foot injury, a transition to free safety seems logical for Logan Ryan. As shown by the graphic, Ryan’s numbers last year were at par with or better than the league’s best, and as a full-time free safety, he could look to do even better. At free safety, Ryan would likely continue to get work in the slot and be active in the run and pass rush game in which he excels.

The Giants’ current free safety is second-year Notre Dame alum, Julian Love. The 2019 fourth-round selection played solid for New York, recording 37 tackles, three pass deflections, and one interception in five starts at the end of last season. While the contrary may be believed, the signing of Ryan should actually help Love’s performance as he will now be able to play more in the slot and will receive a great mentor at free safety. Patrick Graham, New York’s new defensive coordinator, likes to use three safety schemes, so it will also not be uncommon to see both Love and Ryan on the field together.

This signing of Ryan also reunites him with former coach Joe Judge as they worked phenomenally together in New England. The two will attempt to bring their pass defense expertise learned from defensive expert Bill Belichick and help a Giants secondary that ranked in the bottom fourth of the league. Ryan will try to recreate some of this work that led to two super bowls under Judge and Belichick as a member of the New York Giants.