Prince Amukamara had his ups and downs during his first stint with the NY Giants, but right now, resigning him seems to be a perfect match for both sides.
For a variety of reasons, it never felt like former NY Giants cornerback and first-round draft pick, Prince Amukamara, got a fair shake during his rookie stint with Big Blue.
Now, a major reason for that was that he was very injury prone and ended up only playing in 55 of a possible 80 games with the NY Giants. However, when he was on the field he was a very dependable #2 cornerback that rarely allowed big plays.
Can the same really confidently be said about 2019 sixth-round pick, Corey Ballentine, who appears to have the lead on the #2 CB job at the moment?
I’m all for trotting out Ballentine and seeing what he’s got in a rebuilding year rather than breaking the bank on a veteran, but that shouldn’t be the case with Prince.
During his nine-year NFL career, ‘The Prince’ has accumulated a Pro Football Focus grade of 65 or higher (what is considered to be the beginning of above-average grades) seven times. While he’s always held his own in pass coverage, where Prince really shines is in the run game as he is one of the surest tacklers in the entire NFL.
Over the past two seasons with Chicago, Amukamara missed just 7 out of 118 tackles, good for an elite 5.9% missed tackle percentage. It’s almost unheard of for a cornerback to keep up a mate of 19 out of 20 made tackles over the course of a season, let alone two — Prince has been doing that his entire career.
That type of solid tackling is something you can be sure will be very attractive to head coach Joe Judge and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, as they have both stated effort-related errors or mental mistakes will not be tolerated — you don’t have to worry about those things with Amukamara.
At 6’0” and 200 pounds, the former Nebraska Huskers star has the size to play the boundary corner and has done so with success in the past.
Does it make sense to bring in Prince Amukamara to the 2020 NY Giants?
In short, yes. After Amukamara’s numbers fell off a bit with the Bears in 2019 after a stellar 2018, his market value took a hit and he ended up signing with the Las Vegas Raiders for a well-below market value rate of 1 year/$1.1M.
As Art Stapleton points out on Twitter, there’s no reason to think the NY Giants can’t swoop in and get him for the same amount.
Amukamara signed a 1-year, $1.187 million deal with Vegas, so money is not an issue. Shouldn't be any delusions of grandeur on Prince's part to break the bank at this juncture. #NYGiants
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) August 31, 2020
If that’s the case, Dave Gettleman needs to be working the phones like a madman to get this to happen right away. After a deal fell through with veteran Ross Cockrell earlier in the month, the team should absolutely consider bringing in a veteran boundary corner for the right price — Prince Amukamara for under $2M surely qualifies.
Many NY Giants fans – and members of the media – have been clammoring for the team to look at the higher-end guys (like Logan Ryan) on the market, but for my money, Prince is in the same ballpark as many of them and he surely is much more attractive at $1M than the top-end guys are at $5M-$10M.
Make it happen Dave.