For secondary, it’s a thinking man’s game
By Tom Rock
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Defensive backs are notoriously competitive. About everything. So whether they are debating who can run the fastest or lift the most or even dress or dance the best, there is sure to be some fiery talk amongst them to determine who resides atop the hierarchy.
For the Giants, that competitiveness has spread to a category that isn’t usually discussed in a locker room and isn’t always valued by football teams. Throughout this training camp they have been sizing each other up to determine who among them is the smartest.
Who wants that title? “I think all of us,” safety Julian Love said. “I think we challenge each other so much.”
Love joked that his teammates have an expectation of his brains based on where he went to college (Notre Dame), but admitted that there are plenty of others who could challenge him for the cerebral crown. Logan Ryan, Jabrill Peppers, James Bradberry, Adoree’ Jackson, even second-year safety Xavier McKinney, they all bring a skill that is essential to not only surviving but mastering the complexities of coordinator Patrick Graham’s defense.
“It’s hard to kind of judge who’s the smartest when you’re in a room like that,” said Bradberry, who went to a Pro Bowl in his first season with the Giants last year. “But you can just kind of tell how guys go about their business, especially when they’re on the field.
Like when they know what spots they’re supposed to be in, and they know what routes are going to come. You know that guy knows what he’s doing, and he’s pretty smart.”
It’s not that they’re nerds. There are no trivia contests or spelling bees. But when it comes to football, Graham said he needs players who have the mental capacity to not only understand their assignments but process changes on the field and change plans on the fly.
“I could care less if they know exactly what E=mc2 means or whatever,” Graham said. “I might not know. But I like to be able to talk to them about football. I like for them to be able to learn from their past mistakes and from experiences. That equates to intelligence and that’s what we’re looking for.”
The reason Graham said he wants that quality in players is because he essentially wants to make himself obsolete. In his mind, in a perfect defense, he wouldn’t have to do a thing during a game.
“I’m a coach,” he said. “What happens between those white lines is really their defense, if that makes sense. Right now, I’m holding the keys to a certain extent and I’m guiding a ship, but at some point, after you get the message across and you understand exactly what you’re looking for and are able to convey that to them the right way, I give them the keys.”
Not chaos, mind you, but critical thinking.
“We don’t have any operating outside the defense,” Graham said, “but between those white lines, what they see is what they see. They get paid a lot of money to make those split-second decisions, decipher those plays and all those scenarios that come up.”
Since most of them are returning for a second season with Graham and the Giants, that latitude will likely be even more than it was in 2020.
“You have so many tools, so many weapons that you can be creative,” said Love, who has no formal position as a safety or cornerback but is used throughout the secondary. “You’re not going to overcomplicate things, for sure, but what [Graham] wants us to do is just get our boots on the ground and play fast. We want to be doing multiple things and more things, so we got to get our easy stuff down quick and just really play aggressive and play fast.”
And, of course, play smart.