RAISING ARIZONA
Coming from Cardinals with new DC, Martin says defense will play with aggression, swag
THOSE were imposters playing defense for the New York Football Giants in 2017, disgracing the uniform the way they did at every turn.
“Lackadaisical,” Landon Collins said Monday. “Last year everybody knew who’s gonna be playing.” And now? “Anybody can make a play and we all can play fast,” Collins said.
Jason Pierre-Paul and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie are gone, and the Big Blue defense is an afterthought with everyone gushing about Saquon Barkley and what he and a healthy Odell Beckham Jr. and a rebuilt offensive line will mean for Eli Manning.
Kareem Martin wasn’t here for The Fall of Big Blue — with the 31st-ranked defense — but he is here now for the restoration of pride and hunger under new defensive coordinator James Bettcher and ... well let him explain 2018 New York Giants defense:
“It’s gonna be aggressive, and I think it’s gonna have a little bit of swag to it. It’s kind of a younger defense, we’re all in those middle years, 3-to-6, 3-to-7 for the most part. And it’s a lot of energy especially coming from the back end.
“We’re gonna be relentless, like it’s gonna be nine, 10 guys to the ball every play. You don’t see that all the time. I think when you’re gonna turn our tape on this fall, you’ll see most of our guys in the final picture, maybe outside of the backside corner or something.
“When they turn that tape on, guys are gonna be like ‘ wow, these guys, they finish like a pack of wolves.’ ”
That would be music to Lawrence Taylor’s ears. Bettcher’s schemes are not complex and Martin knows them, having played for him in Arizona.
“I see the guys we have here, and I’ve seen the guys that we’ve had back in Arizona when I played in it and we got similar body types, similar guys, similar type playmakers. And I don’t see why we can’t be a top-five, top-10 defense,” Martin said.
“After what happened last year these guys want to be great.”
Asked where the pass rush will come from, Martin said: “We’re gonna have a lot of exotic schemes, a lot of guys coming, mixing up the fronts, just so guys won’t get a bead on where we’re coming from and it’s gonna, I think, cause for a lot of havoc in the backfield.”
The Post asked Martin, a hulking outside linebacker, for several early individual observations. On Bettcher: “I know his kids, met his wife and all that type of stuff. It’s more than football with him. I can tell that he cares more than about No. 96, but he cares about Kareem Martin. He’s building relationships with the other guys as well.”
MLB Alec Ogletree: “He’s picked up this defense relatively quickly. He’s out there running it like he’s run it for a while now. He’s a leader on the field and that’s what you need out of a Mike linebacker or a middle linebacker. He’s taken on that ownership and guys listen to him when he’s making the calls.”
OLB Olivier Vernon: “Real smooth football player. He’s just a natural, just really fluid player. He does some things I haven’t seen guys do before, one of the strongest linebackers I’ve played with, and just to see him be able to do some of the things and contort his body has just been amazing.”
DE Dalvin Tomlinson: “Dynamic. He can do a little bit of everything. Really quick. He’ll really live in the backfield in this defense.”
Bettcher coordinated the league’s sixthbest defense in 2017.
“No one guy wants to let the other down,” Martin said. “He instilled that in us every day. We have accountability sheets and things like that to keep each other responsible. Pretty much like the report of a last practice, basically, just seeing how practice went for everyone.”
The Giants fan base expects its defense to be accountable to it. Martin — 6-foot-6, 265 pounds — resembles one of those old-school Bill Parcells linebackers.
“Everywhere you go in this building you see ... you got LT, Carl Banks, Jessie [Armstead], you look at the Super Bowl teams and all through the building, that was heavy linebacker culture. I’ve heard about it since I signed here, and I want to continue the tradition to live up to that standard,” Martin said.
Sounds like 10 other Angry Men do, too.