HE COULD BE Titans’ CB Logan is perfect fit for Blue
The Giants need a veteran corner who can set an example but still play at a high level. So certainly the Cowboys’ Byron Jones and the Panthers’ James Bradberry are attractive names atop the free agent market who promise to draw several bidders come March 16.
The Tennessee Titans’ Logan Ryan, however, seems like the perfect fit for the kind of Giants team Joe Judge wants to build, given their familiarity and his pedigree, ability and character.
Just ask his former college coach, who believes any NFL team would be landing a game-changer.
“Having been a coach in that league and having coached him and knowing him well, I think he’d be a great addition to any team,” Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano told the Daily News on the phone Friday. “And when you’re looking to build culture, as well, he’s a guy that will be an exponential growth guy.”
Ryan wouldn’t be as expensive as Jones, who sources believe is the apple of the Eagles’ eyes. And he isn’t generating as much recent buzz as Bradberry, who could reunite with Ron Rivera in Washington.
But Ryan is near the top of a strong free agent corner market. He’s one of only two free agent corners who played 99% of his team’s snaps last season, along with Denver’s Chris Harris Jr., 30.
A slot corner with versatility to play the outside and in the box at safety, he led the Titans in 2019 in tackles (113) and forced fumbles (four), and finished second in interceptions (four) and first in postseason tackles (25). And he’s always been a terrific representative of himself and his team.
Schiano, 53, who’s back for his second Rutgers stint to try and resurrect the Scarlet Knights, recruited Ryan back in 2009 out of Eastern High
School in (Voorhees).
“Logan is a great football player, intense competitor,” Schiano said. “He works at his craft. And is one of the elite players in my opinion. What makes him super special is the man that he is, the things he does. Since the day I met him he’s been a guy that cares about other people. And he cares a lot about dogs, too. You can see the things he does for animals. He’s got a big heart, loves football, very smart football player.”
Indeed, Ryan runs the Ryan Animal Rescue Foundation and recently partnered with the Nashville Humane Society to provide relief and shelter for animals affected by the recent tornadoes that devastated parts of the area.
Football-wise, though, it’s extremely relevant to the Giants’ likely interest that Judge knows Ryan well as a player, too. Judge coached special teams in New England for the first four years of Ryan’s career in 2013-16, which included four AFC Championship Game appearances and two Patriots Super Bowl wins.
Ryan has won a playoff game in six of his seven years in the league and has been to the AFC Championship Game five times, including this past season with the Titans. Ryan only left New England to sign in free agency with the Titans, led by GM Jon Robinson, a former Patriots scouting director who knew the corner’s value. So sticking with a coach who knows the Patriot Way makes sense.
“He’s shown he’s a productive player, he’s still in that wheelhouse age-wise where he can continue to be productive, and as far as prep and work ethic, I think he’s elite level,” said Schiano, who is back at Rutgers to recruit this exact type of high-level local player again.
Ryan played the majority of his 2019 Titans snaps in the slot south
Jersey (854 of 1,346, per Pro Football Focus), but the Giants need reliable players at every corner position to supplement their developing youth. And he still played 243 snaps at outside corner and 181 in the box.
Judge values that kind of versatility within the scheme and this kind of player and person as he tries to build something in East Rutherford. Ryan will have other suitors, but for these Giants, he simply makes too much sense.
WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR BLUE?
Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown will be drafted higher than most people think, and it’s no coincidence that Judge and Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham were spotted at the Tigers’ Pro Day in Mobile, Ala., on Friday.
Many NFL execs consider Brown one of the best players in this entire draft. Some think he’s the most reliable top-10 pick in the field. So bottom line: He’s in play for the Giants at No. 4 overall.
One evaluator from another team was given this hypothetical at the NFL Combine: What if the Giants trade back a few spots and draft Brown?
“Why would they have to trade back to draft him?” the person said, meaning Brown at four wouldn’t be a reach and there’s no guarantee he’d still be on the board a few picks later.
It was a near-consensus opinion in Indianapolis that the Giants were zeroing in on offensive tackles with their firstround pick. But from the Daily News’ perspective, Brown was the lone exception to that noise as a possible target, with Clemson LB Isaiah Simmons the wild-card, perhaps in a trade back.
There is a misconception that the Giants don’t have a need on the defensive line after rookie tackle Dexter Lawrence showed some promise. But Gettleman’s primary motivation in trading for Leonard Williams last fall wasn’t to audition a