Nate Ebner, S, New York Giants
“We’re talking about special teams?”
Yes, we are talking about special teams.
It is fascinating to watch branches of the Bill Belichick coaching tree strike out on their own. Two branches off that solid oak, the Matt Patricia and the Bill O’Brien branches, made some…questionable moves this free agency period. Two others seem to be going in a different direction, building their rosters out in a mold of their creation. One is Brian Flores down in South Beach, who is assembling a pressure style defense with acquisitions like Kyle Van Noy, Shaq Lawson and Byron Jones.
Then there is Joe Judge. The former special teams coach with the New England Patriots certainly understands the value of all three phases of the game, something Belichick himself likes to stress anytime he gets a microphone in front of him. That is way it should not have been a surprise when Judge added Nate Ebner, the safety and core special teams player, via free agency.
For the past few seasons, Ebner has been one of two mainstays in the third phase of the game in New England, along with wide receiver Matthew Slater. While Slater is known for his work as a gunner, Ebner has been a rock on the interior, as the personal protector on the punt team, as a core member of the kickoff coverage team, as an interior player on the punt block team, and on the kickoff return team as well. Ebner can be to New York what Slater has been to the Patriots for years: That special teams’ captain who serves as a coach on the field for those units.
In a league based upon parity, where special teams plays often mean the difference between winning and losing, there is no price you can put on that kind of player.
Bulaga | Sanders | Clinton-Dix | Ebron | Butler | Littleton | Joseph | Agholor | Ebner | Harris | Hargrave