NFL New York Giants

New York Giants’ Biggest Need Is At Safety This Offseason

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By @Bigwoolf5

New York Giants, Landon Collins

Jim Brown-USA Today Sports

When you finish a season 6-10, having holes on your roster is inevitable. The New York Giants are in that situation this offseason, and they have plenty of holes to fill. Whether it be running back, offensive line, or defensive line, this is a big offseason for big blue. The biggest need this offseason, though, might just be at the safety position.

As of right now the Giants only have two safeties signed to contracts for next season. They are Cooper Taylor and Nat Berhe, the Giants’ fifth-round draft picks the last two years. Neither of these guys have enough experience to be a starter, and they are both, at best, injury fill-ins or rotational players.

The safeties who played the majority of this past season for the Giants were Antrel Rolle, Quintin Demps and Stevie Brown, all three of whom are now free agents. Rolle is someone the Giants like who has provided leadership and passion since coming to New York in 2010, but he is coming off a bad season and will be playing next season at the age of 32. The Giants might not feel that it is worth it to bring Rolle back given his regression this season and his advancing age.

Brown returned from a torn ACL this season and was not very good in the beginning. Towards the end he started to play better, but he may not be a starting caliber safety after that injury. The Giants may re-sign him to give them depth at safety.

Demps was signed to be the Giants’ kick returner, but he ended up not returning many kicks because he had to be the starting strong safety. The plan was for Demps to be a backup safety, provide depth and return kicks; he was never supposed to start. Demps wasn’t very good this year at the safety position, and if he is brought back it would likely be as a kick returner.

Even if the Giants sign one or two of their impending free agent safeties, odds are they will need at least one starter either through free agency or the draft. There are a couple of good free agent safeties on the market this offseason including Devin McCourty, Louis Delmas and Da’Norris Searcy.

If the Giants decide not to go the free agent route, they have the No. 9 overall pick in the draft, which is around where Alabama safety Landon Collins is expected to go. Collins had a great career at Bama and is expected to be a very good safety at the NFL level.

As I mentioned before, the Giants have a lot of holes to fill on their roster for next season. Luckily for them though, there are a lot of options available to fill their biggest need at safety. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Giants sign a free agent and draft Collins, but no matter what they do they must address the position this offseason.

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