The New York Giants don’t need to reinvent the wheel this year, especially when the Ravens and Seahawks have already shown them exactly what works. And with the mastermind behind both plans now coaching in Giants blue, it’s a lot easier to see how it could actually come together.
New head coach John Harbaugh leaned into the three-safety look after drafting Kyle Hamilton out of Notre Dame with the 14th pick in 2022. The following year, Hamilton, Marcus Williams, and Geno Stone helped lead the Ravens to a 13-4 record while allowing a league-low 280 points.
Big Blue defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson was the defensive backs coach on that staff under Mike Macdonald. Macdonald just allowed the fewest points in the league last year (292) and won the Super Bowl as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, using a similar three-safety setup with Coby Bryant, Julian Love, and Nick Emmanwori.
Well, what if I told you the G-Men are a Caleb Downs draft pick away from emulating that same formula with Jevón Holland and Tyler Nubin? Don’t just take my word for it -- Pro Football Focus’ Ryan Smith sees the vision too, and it’s one Giants fans can actually get behind.
Caleb Downs could turn the Giants' secondary into a cheat code
The secondary has been Big Blue’s Achilles heel for the better part of the last decade. They drafted Tyler Nubin in the second round in 2024 to help and signed Jevón Holland to a three-year, $45 million deal in the 2025 offseason, but Nubin regressed in Year 2, and Holland struggled to make an impact in his first year in New York.
Maybe all they need is a player like Downs to form their own version of the three-safety look. You’ve heard of the Bermuda Triangle, now meet the Tri-State Triangle, where deep passes go to disappear. It might sound a little ambitious, but the blueprint is already there. As Smith put it:
"Dennard Wilson is the new defensive coordinator in New York and worked alongside Mike Macdonald and John Harbaugh with Baltimore in 2023. As we saw in the Super Bowl, Macdonald put on a coaching clinic on how to maximize three-safety looks. Downs would allow Harbaugh to replicate that defensive look with the Giants, similar to what the Ravens did when they selected Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft."
No one’s saying the Giants’ defense is suddenly going to forget that 33-point fourth quarter nightmare against the Broncos, but this is at least a way to finally follow the same path that worked with Hamilton in Baltimore and Emmanwori in Seattle. Caleb Downs is widely regarded as the best football player in the class, and if he ends up in New York, that’s about as good a place as any to start.