The NY Giants’ roster largely lacks young talent, but several players made significant leaps during the 2021 NFL season
By and large, the NY Giants’ roster is high-priced, bereft of talent, and the fact that not a single player was voted into the Pro Bowl shows how far away this organization is from truly meaningfully competing.
So it goes, for a franchise that has recorded double-digit losses for the fifth consecutive season and has spent the last week restructuring the contracts of players who will likely be cap casualties, anyway, next season.
But, despite entering Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at 4-10, there are a few young players that showed this season they are capable of being building blocks by making significant leaps in 2021.
Here are the young NY Giants players who ‘made the leap’ during the 2021 season:
DB Xavier McKinney
McKinney was widely viewed as one of the steals of the 2020 NFL Draft, and in his second season began to show exactly why.
Prior to the second half of the season getting underway, an NFC coach named McKinney one of the players “primed to define the second half of the season,” and to a degree he lived up to those expectations. At least for the NY Giants’ defense.
McKinney, chosen in the second-round of the 2020 draft, enters Sunday with 69 total tackles, five interceptions, and according to Pro Football Focus, is holding opponents to a 77.9 passer rating when targeting him.
This season, McKinney more than proved worthy of a starting job in New York’s secondary, and is one of the few foundational building blocks on the defensive side of the ball.