Back when he was an NFL head coach who won a Super Bowl with one of the best defensive units in league history, Jon Gruden was surrounded by elite talent. So when he sees a team loaded with good players and takes the time to rave about it, people tend to pay attention.
Gruden, who was the Super Bowl-winning head coach for the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and now does analysis work for Barstool Sports, posted a video of him receiving a box of merchandise and paraphernalia from the New York Giants and their head coach Brian Daboll. During the video, Daboll not only rattled off the history of the team, but he had several praising points to make. The first was about the Giants’ 2025 NFL Draft class.
“The New York Football Giants… boy, did they have a great draft or what? How about getting Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart in the same draft? And they got my guy, Cam Skattebo, coming out of the backfield. They got some players,” Gruden said.
Jon Gruden sees the New York Giants pass rush as a nightmare to deal with
Gruden was always very high on Dart going back to the pre-draft process and felt the Giants were getting one of the toughest players in the draft when they got Dart with the No. 25 overall pick. Gruden, though, was also extremely high on the Giants’ pass rush as well, which includes the other first-round pick from that class in Abdul Carter, too.
Back when Gruden was a Super Bowl-winning head coach, many considered his 2002 Buccaneers defense one of the best in recent memory and in league history. That defense also had several Hall of Fame players on it: Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, John Lynch, and Ronde Barber, the twin brother to Giants legend Tiki Barber.
If the current Giants defense can be anywhere near the one Gruden coached over 20 years ago, the fan base will absolutely sign up for that. Some see Big Blue as a potential sleeper team in 2025 with the defense being the reason why. Others even think New York’s defense has the potential to be a top 10 unit, anchored by the pass rush Gruden was raving about.
Of course, the Giants still have to actually go out and produce with their defense and give a very unknown offense a chance to win games in 2025. But if the pass rush is as good as others around the league believe, there could be a lot to be hopeful for this upcoming season.