GIANT POWER PLAY
Eye veteran Card to add depth to cornerback crew
MORE THAN $150 million later, the Giants still aren’t done revamping their moribund defense. On Thursday, the process will continue. That’s when free agent corner Jerraud Powers will visit the Giants practice facility, according to a source, and the former Arizona Cardinals just might wind up being the missing piece in a rebuilt secondary. T he Giants seem set at their outside corner spots with veteran Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and ballyhooed free agent acquisition Janoris Jenkins, but there is little reliable depth. The thin corps helped sabotage the Giants’ defensive backfield last season when Prince Amukamara, who’s now with the Jaguars, suffered a pectoral injury. The club then turned to career backups Trumaine McBride, Jayron Hosley and Trevin Wade to replace him.
Powers, 28, would help solve that issue. The veteran is entering his eighth year in the NFL, and he’s started 82 of the 87 games in which he’s appeared. A former third-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts, he’s a solid playmaker (11 career interceptions), and he would instantly add another veteran to a defense that’s been restocked throughout this offseason.
If the Giants can sign Powers, he would likely serve as the club’s slot corner, with the f lexibility to play outside if Rodgers-Cromartie or Jenkins needed a breather. GM Jerry Reese has struggled to find a consistent slot corner in recent seasons, but he’s shown an in
terest in plugging that hole; in 2014, the Giants signed Walter Thurmond specifically to man the slot, only to watch him land on injured reserve after an early-season pectoral injury.