IN DEMAND EARLY
Defense has to step up as offense finds form
HOW ABOUT this? How about the Giants’ defense carrying the team until the offense gets going? You remember that side of the ball, right? There has not been any handwringing about the defense this summer, which is a good thing, especially compared with what seemed like a daily game of hide-and-seek, searching for the players imported to fix the scoring part of the team. The status of nearly every key player on defense was never an issue. No news was the best news.
Not so on offense. We tried to dissect every movement by Saquon Barkley to determine where his rehab from knee surgery was and what a sprint on the side here and a pass route on air there meant about his availability for the season opener. We said hello to Kenny Golladay, then said goodbye after he strained a hamstring. We barely caught a glimpse of first-round pick Kadarius Toney before the receiver was out of sight, but not out of mind. We heard how much progress tight end Kyle Rudolph was making “with the trainers,’’ meaning that his progress was largely being made behind closed doors.
The good news for the Giants is all these players are healed, or close to it, and all have a chance to get on the field Sept. 12 against the Broncos. The bad news is that expectations must be tempered until all this talent gets acclimated to each other and all those legs that were slowed in training camp get up to speed, which takes time. “When I look in the huddle and see all those guys, it’s very exciting,’’ Golladay said. “But people have been in and out of the lineup, so we’re going to be a little, probably, slow to get off.’’
Slow to get off sounds ominous, as the Giants simply cannot start out 0-2 again — it has practically been a birthright for this franchise for too long — then try to play catchup on the season. If Daniel Jones and company are slow out of the chute, so be it. The guys that get paid to prevent points have enough talent, moxie and smarts to turn these early games into slugfests, and if it has to be 23-20 or 20-17 or 17-14 for a short while, so be it. This version of the Giants’ defense should be up to the task.
Check that: They must be up to the task.
“I’ll tell you what, this defense will fly around for you,’’ safety Logan Ryan told The Post. “We have some energizer bunnies on defense in myself and Jabrill Peppers and Blake Martinez and Leo [Leonard Williams], we all feed off of them. We love playing and we love the great defenses that came before us.’’
The defenses that came before this group, the units that won Super Bowls after the 1986 and 1990 seasons and after the 2007 and 2011 seasons, carried their teams, less so in the Super Bowl XLVI run than the others. The defense the Giants put on the field this year should be a top-10 unit. Maybe top-five, if Lorenzo Carter or rookie Azeez Ojulari or Oshane Ximines develops into a potent edge-rusher.
The 2021 defensive backfield should be one of the most versatile and capable in franchise history. It has the potential to be that good, as long as Adoree’ Jackson holds up at cornerback opposite James Bradberry.
There are answers at all three levels. Williams up front. Martinez in the middle. Ryan, Bradberry and Peppers on the back end, with Xavier McKinney coming fast. There is a mastermind in Patrick Graham, who has shot up the coordinators-towatch chart, with the entire Giants front office and coach Joe Judge expecting Graham to be hired as a head coach elsewhere in 2022.
This defense is healthy, primed for a quick start. This is the second year in Graham’s system for nine of the 11 starters. It is not as if the immediate tasks are daunting: Teddy Bridgewater in the opener, Ryan Fitzpatrick four days later in Washington. If either of those quarterbacks shred this secondary, an investigation is in order.
It might not look good early on offense. There is not much expectation the chemistry of Golladay, Toney and Barkley with Jones will be there right away, considering how little time they all spent working together this summer.
“It’s definitely a little bump in the road,’’ Golladay said.
The defense is there to smooth over any bumps.
“We have a lot of confidence in the group,’’ Ryan said. “We’re working extremely hard. Joe’s not going to let us say it before we do it. We want to prove it.’’
They need to prove it often, and especially early.