New York Giants Safety Landon Collins On JPP Injury: We’re Not Done
Jason Pierre-Paul will miss the rest of the 2016 NFL regular season. New York Giants safety Landon Collins is no less confident in his team than he was before.
The New York Giants received news of a devastating loss on Thursday, December 7. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reported that star defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul would miss six weeks following surgery for what’s being called a core muscle injury.
The Giants could easily hang their heads and call it a season, but the young leader of the defense doesn’t plan on letting that happen.
Pierre-Paul finishes the 2016 NFL regular season with 53 tackles, 7.0 sacks, three forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, and a blocked kick. He had 5.5 sacks and two fumbles forced over the past three games alone.
Though losing Pierre-Paul will inevitably hurt New York, star safety Landon Collins made something perfectly clear to Art Stapleton of The Record: the Giants aren’t done.
Landon Collins to me on perception #Giants will not recover from loss of Jason Pierre-Paul to make playoffs: "We're not done. Trust me."
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) December 7, 2016
There’s a reason Collins is already a fan favorite and this is it.
Collins, whom many have pegged as a frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year, is a driving force behind New York’s defensive success. He won’t make up for Pierre-Paul’s absence along the defensive line, but Collins is already becoming a leader in his second season.
Fortunately for the Giants, it wasn’t just Pierre-Paul who was performing well in recent weeks.
Olivier Vernon has seven sacks over the past five games and Damon Harrison has flirted with dominance. The harsh reality is that Pierre-Paul had played more snaps than any defensive lineman in the NFL entering last week’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Vernon was second on that list, which is a clear sign that New York didn’t have much of a rotation at defensive end.
Romeo Okwara, Owa Odighizuwa, and Kerry Wynn are the most likely players to step in and see signifcant snaps at defensive end. The X-Factor will be Devon Kennard, who played both defensive end and outside linebacker at USC.
The question is: can Collins and the Giants continue to be the resilient forces they’ve been in 2016?
Must Read: Injury to Jason Pierre-Paul tests the Giants' depth and resolve
It won’t be easy to replace Jason Pierre-Paul’s value and production, but the New York Giants aren’t done.