5 New York Giants making the most of their preseason snaps

No. 2 – Ray-Ray Armstrong

Ray-Ray Armstrong may be the biggest surprise of the preseason for the New York Giants. Big Blue’s second-string inside linebacker has recorded Pro Football Focus’ third-highest grade for a linebacker (80.9) with at least 50 snaps this preseason.

Through two outings, Armstrong has recorded five tackles, one interception, and one pass defended.

New York’s linebackers have struggled in pass coverage in recent years, and Armstrong provides the Giants a veteran option that can start if needed. He is starting to get first-team snaps on Big Blue’s nickel defense and drew some praise from Shurmur on Sunday, via New York’s team website.

"“As a linebacker, he’s long and he can cover. He’s what linebackers should look like and he’s made progress. We feel like he’s done some really good things as we work through training camp, so it was good to see him have some success. We felt like he had a winning performance in the game the other night, and every once in a while everybody has a bad play, but in total we felt like it was a winning performance and that was a game-changing play. We were able to intercept the ball, get it close and then offensively, we then punched it in, so it was good.”"

It’s not as though Armstrong doesn’t have starting experience. He logged five starts for the San Francisco 49ers last season before the Giants claimed him off waivers in late November.