5 Reasons NY Giants will have a strong defense in 2021, despite youth

Man Coverage

In 2020, the biggest weakness that the Giants’ defense had was their inability to play man coverage.

After continually being burned by ineffective play with the coverage deployed, Graham switched to a scheme that was primarily zone coverage. By the end of the season, the Giants were playing man coverage just 23 percent of the time – ranking 26th in the league.

They simply didn’t have the personnel to run Graham’s preferred scheme.

Now, with the additions of players who excel in man coverage, like Jackson and Robinson – Graham will certainly deploy it more often. He tried not to sound too giddy while speaking on the possibility – but reading the tea leaves show you his excitement.

"“I know we didn’t play a ton of man last year but we picked spots to play man. Again, like those guys last year, they did a good job of what we asked them to do. Like we mixed up more zone and then we had man in the pass. But again, I don’t know what the recipe is going to be for this year yet,” Graham said. “But I don’t want to be disrespectful of the guys that were here last year that aren’t here. I mean, Adoree’ [Jackson] brings another element, Aaron Robinson, Darnay [Holmes], they bring another element to it. Will we probably be in more man? Possibly."

The ability to play more man coverage will be music to Graham’s ears – and sound like nails on a chalkboard for opposing offensive coordinators.