Young NY Giants CB continues to prove he can't guard opposing team's WR1

With the No. 24 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the New York Giants selected Deonte Banks out of Maryland with the hopes that he'd emerge as their lockdown CB1. This meant that Banks would be covering a team's best receiver and hopefully ensuring that they didn't have a big day.

Well, unfortunately, it's becoming clear that Banks isn't that guy right now. In Week 1 against the Vikings, Banks gave up a touchdown to Justin Jefferson. This past Sunday, he got absolutely cooked by Amari Cooper, which is saying something considering how poorly Deshaun Watson has played. Banks let him and Cooper connect on several big plays, including two touchdowns.

The recent "oof" moment for Banks was on Thursday night when he gave up a touchdown to CeeDee Lamb that helped put the Cowboys up 14-6. Banks simply isn't good enough to cover these guys, at least not by himself.

Deonte Banks continues to get cooked by top receivers

Another unfortunate reality is that the Giants don't have much help around Banks. They opted not to do much at the cornerback position in free agency, instead settling on re-signing Adoree' Jackson, but he missed Thursday's game with a calf injury. That only made things worse for the Big Blue secondary, which lacks veteran experience.

This should call for some major defensive adjustments from Shane Bowen, who was hired to be the Giants defensive coordinator this offseason. If Banks continues to be left on these top threats without any help, teams are going to continue to shred the Giants week after week.

Perhaps there's still hope for Banks to become a better player, but he's not the kind of playmaker the Giants need him to be right now and that's not going to change without any kind of adjustments. Hopefully the Giants can still get some sort of positive play from Banks down the road, but for now, it's painfully obvious that he's not ready to fill the CB1 role for New York.