New York Giants Draft: 5 more middle-round targets, including Derick Hall

DB Smoke Monday, Auburn:

With the New York Giants currently having a tough cap situation, alongside Logan Ryan being set to make a little over $9M in 2023, New York may need to release or trade Ryan in order to free up cap space.

If they decide to do this,  a good replacement would be Smoke Monday out of Auburn.

At 6-foot-3 and 199 pounds, Monday had himself a great senior season at Auburn, tallying 65 combined tackles, two sacks, one interception, and three pass deflections, while allowing a 68.8 completion percentage, a career-low for him while playing a full season.

Monday plays best against the run, being a great open-field tackler and having the IQ to know which holes to hit and when to go through them if he needs to rush, a good example of this occurs during this clip here: 

Monday (No. 21) reads the snap perfectly and runs right through the gap between the guard and tackle the moment the ball is snapped, helping bring the running back down for a 4 yard gain.

However, an area in which Monday can struggle in sometimes is against the pass as he can sometimes get lost in his zone, he also struggles against speedy receivers sometimes, lacking good hip rotation to keep up with his men.

Despite these struggles in pass coverage, Monday has had moments where he has shined in that aspect, such as his game against Mississippi State, where he only allowed two completions on four attempts for 20 yards, breaking up two passes during the game as well.

Lining up at free safety or in the slot for the majority of the season, Smoke Monday plays a similar role to Logan Ryan, and has similar traits to Ryan as well.

With the New York Giants having a rough run defense this season, ranking No. 8 in rushing yards allowed, Monday could provide some valuable snaps as a rookie if they were to draft him, while he has some issues in the pass defense, you take the good with the bad, and with the NY Giants desperately needing a better run defense, Monday could help out big time.