Big Blue needs to make a big move to grab useful DB
THERE never was — and still is not — an urgency for the Giants to do anything. They can be patient and let their pups on defense grow during a season when no one expects them to be in any kind of playoff chase.
But should they decide to sign veteran Logan Ryan for their inexperienced, depleted secondary, it could tell us something about the organization’s mindset about this team and this pandemic season.
Because it is the kind of move that would-be contenders, rather than rebuilding pretenders with a rookie head coach and secondyear quarterback, normally make.
The Vikings, for example, traded for pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue on Sunday because they see a clear path to the NFC North title.
If the Giants believe internally that the NFC East is there for the taking, then they would be the only ones that do.
Logan Ryan isn’t the missing piece of any playoff puzzle.
But that doesn’t mean you pass on a player such as Ryan, one of those prototypical versatile and savvy football players Joe Judge craves, if the right price is right.
Ryan is a classy Jersey Guy who needs the Giants, and the Giants need him, because he makes them better, on the field and in the socially distanced culture of their locker room.
The regular season begins on Sept. 14. Against Ben Roethlisberger.
Memo to Dave Gettleman: Go get him.
The Giants are believed to view Ryan as more of a safety than cornerback, and with rookie Xavier McKinney sidelined until Thanksgiving or so, he would give defensive coordinator Patrick Graham the flexibility of that invaluable three-safety package, and fill in as a slot corner. At 29, he is not viewed by the Giants as a boundary corner, but given the options left following the DeAndre Baker disaster and the Sam Beal optout, necessity could always be the mother of invention in an emergency.
Corner James Bradberry, the old man of the secondary at 27, remebers Ryan as a Titan.
“He’s a very good corner,” Bradberry told The Post.
Asked if Ryan could transition to safety, Bradberry said: “My personal opinion, I know it’s harder to go from safety to corner than it is corner to safety. If he puts work in, he’d be able to do it.”
Bradberry played in the same Panthers secondary with safety
Eric Reid, and so he can vouch for what an experienced safety can provide.
“He was very talented and he was also very smart,” Bradberry said. “Coming from the San Fran defense, they had a great defense, he was able to help us out a lot in our defense when he came over to Carolina.”
Graham lusts for a defense whose toughness jumps off the film, and he needs it to it start with Dexter Lawrence, Leonard Williams and Dalvin Tomlinson, with Markus Golden and Lorenzo Carter and Jabrill Peppers behind them.
Ryan would add to the smarts alongside Bradberry and Julian
Love. He and Love could possibly be interchangeable.
Bradberry knew nothing about the Ryan speculation. In the meantime, he is a mentor in the secondary.
“My past four years I was the young one of the group, now people look to me for wisdom and they ask me questions,” Bradberry said. “If I’m able to answer those questions that are asked, I enjoy that.”
Asked about the current state of the secondary, Bradberry said: “I think we’re in a good spot.”
They would be in a better spot with Logan Ryan.
“Better days are ahead,” Gettleman told NBC’s Bruce Beck during halftime of the Blue-White scrimmage.
There is optimism that Judge and this coaching staff will squeeze everything there is to squeeze out of the talent Gettleman has imported.
“He’s very strict on the details,” Bradberry said. “He’s preparing us a lot for many different situations that will happen throughout the game.”
More likely than not, the Giants are a year away.
That isn’t, of course, the way Joe Judge thinks.
The future is now for him, every single day.
And if the Giants sign Logan Ryan, it could be a revealing window into what the brain trust believes behind the Big Blue doors.