Brooklyn edge rusher could be Giant target
INDIANAPOLIS — Growing up in Brooklyn, Adisa Isaac said he was “not necessarily a Giants fan.’’ Not that he had any bad feelings against that hometown team.
“I supported the Giants, but I wasn’t like a rooter,’’ Isaac said this week at the NFL Scouting Combine. “I didn’t have a set team.’’
Before long, Isaac will have a set team. He is an edge rusher, and that is always a hot commodity in any NFL draft. The product of Canarsie High School spent five years at Penn State, and after an impressive showing last month at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., he could hear his name called on the second day of the draft.
Isaac met Tuesday night with the Giants and said he had a nice exchange with Shane Bowen, the new defensive coordinator.
“Just bonding with the coaches that I met, bouncing ideas off of him, what I need to work on, on the field,’’ Isaac said. “It was a great conversation. I’d be an outside linebacker, just the skill set I already have, taking that to another level and working on little fine details in my game that I didn’t excel at.’’
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Isaac had 14.5 career sacks at Penn State. He missed the 2021 season with an Achilles injury. His return in 2023 turned out to be a smart move — he was voted in as a team captain, led the Nittany Lions with 7.5 sacks and 15 tackles for loss, and was named All-Big Ten as a senior. Isaac was part of a strong tag-team duo along with Chop Robinson, a highly touted defensive end in this draft.
At the Senior Bowl, Isaac’s work in practice with the National team attracted notice. Shea Tierney, the Giants’ quarterbacks coach and offensive passing game coordinator, served as the offensive coordinator for the National team, and thus was on the field to witness Isaac’s motor and skill set.
Analyst Louis Riddick on the ESPN broadcast during Senior Bowl week gushed about Isaac, saying NFL teams need to be trying to plot a way to get him.
“How do I get in a position to draft him?” Riddick said. “You’re just trying to figure out a way. What price do I have to pay? I’d be trying to figure it out.”
Adding an edge rusher is a priority for the Giants. They have Kayvon Thibodeaux then a bunch of questions, with oft-injured Azeez Ojulari returning as well. Given the cost to acquire players at that spot in free agency, finding them in the draft is more cost-effective. Perhaps Isaac and the Giants are a fit.
“It would be nice, you know?’’ he said. “Just being in my home with my hometown team, it would be kind of a full-circle, surreal moment in a sense. I’m open to it all.’’