ROUGH AROUND 'D' EDGE
Giants pass rushers failing to apply pressure on opposing QBs
If the Giants pressuring the opposing quarterback off the edge feels like a 1-in-100 proposition, there’s a good reason for it.
Lorenzo Carter, Oshane Ximines and Azeez Ojulari — three draft picks groomed to be the top three edge rushers — combined to generate one pressure on 100 pass-rushing snaps over the last two games. In that span, Ximines is one of 105 NFL edge rushers to reach the pocket at least once, while Carter and Ojulari are the two in the league who played the most snaps without recording a pressure, according to Pro Football Focus.
Players and coaches often get defensive when a pass rush is boiled down to sacks. But pressures is the baseline minimum for measuring disruption — not requiring a loss of yardage or a quarterback hit — so those numbers are difficult to spin when this low. Still worth a try?
“Honestly, if that’s how you rate football players or edge groups, then that’s one thing,” Carter said recently. “But we do more than rush the quarterback. We affect the game in multiple ways. We try to set the edge, play the run, we drop [in coverage].”
Except that Ximines, Ojulari and Carter grade out as the No. 58, No. 83 and No. 137 edges in rush defense, respectively. Quarterbacks are 4-for-4 for 21 yards when targeting those three with passes. And, yes, the Giants still rank fourth-to-last (Lions, Texans and Falcons) in quarterback pressures per game.
The state of the Giants’ edge rusher was brought to the forefront Sunday when the Giants honored their 2011 Super Bowl championship team, led by Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Mathias Kiwanuka and Jason PierrePaul. It’s hard to imagine that anyone who was a part of those teams would devalue defensive ends or outside linebackers and yet …
While general manager Dave Gettleman, a former Giants scout, has swung big on the offensive line — signing Nate Solder to a top-of-themarket deal, trading for Kevin Zeitler and using the No. 4 pick in the 2020 draft on Andrew Thomas — he has taken the opposite approach on the edge.
Gettleman’s big pass-rush investment was interior defensive lineman Leonard Williams, who cost two draft picks in a much-criticized midseason trade plus $44.1 million from November 2019 through this season. He leads the Giants with 109 pressures and 15 sacks in 30 games since arriving. The Giants owe $37 million to Williams over the next two seasons — and probably owe him better help, too.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Gettleman said of the pass rush on the night he passed over edge Montez Sweat (19 sacks in 38 games for Washington) to select run-stuffing tackle Dexter Lawrence in April 2019.
No, Rome wasn’t. But the Giants built a home stadium in 948 days — and it’s been 907 days since those comments with no real progress on the edge.
Carter (third round, 2018), Ximines (third round, 2019), Ojulari (second round, 2021) and Elerson Smith — a fourth-round rookie who has yet to play a snap because of injury — are the only four edge rushers among Gettleman’s 32 picks in four drafts. Cam Brown (sixth round, 2020) and Carter Coughlin (seventh round, 2020) converted to inside linebacker.
The Giants have diverted spending elsewhere in free agency, leaving Kareem Martin, Connor Barwin, Josh Mauro, Kerry Wynn, Markus Golden, Kyler Fackrell and Jabaal Sheard as the big signings from 2018-20. That group provided 22 sacks in 106 combined games played for $25.3 million, and Golden was responsible for more than half of that production at $5.5 million.
Attempts to upgrade this offseason led to free agents Ifeadi Odenigbo and Ryan Anderson, neither of whom made the roster out of training camp.
Meanwhile, here is the production of a group of edges who left the Giants during Gettleman’s tenure: Devon Kennard 17 sacks in 49 games, Olivier Vernon 12.5 sacks in 24 games, Romeo Okwara 20 sacks in 49 games and Pierre-Paul 31 sacks in 46 games. Pierre-Paul — traded in March 2018 — would have been honored Sunday alongside the other Super Bowl XLVI champions if he wasn’t busy still terrorizing quarterbacks.
“We’ve got the guys,” Carter said, “and we know what we can do.”
All evidence to the contrary.