Rookie secondary improving

Despite being their biggest Achilles heel this season, it is beginning to look like the Giants young secondary is starting to develop. The Giants are currently starting four rookies in their secondary including Sam Beal (essentially a rookie), DeAndre Baker, Julian Love, and Corey Ballentine. All four have had their growing pains and ups-and-downs as to be expected in any young defensive back, but all four have also taken major strides recently.

Although Beal was selected in the 2018 supplemental draft, he sat out his entire rookie season with a torn labrum. After missing the first half of this year with various injuries, Beal has improved each week and had his best game against the Dolphins on Sunday recording a tackle for a loss in the end zone for a safety and a pass deflection.

First-round draft choice DeAndre Baker has also shown vast improvement since the bye week as he has been playing more to his strength in press coverage closer to the line of scrimmage. In this time, he has only allowed five completions on 19 targets and has five pass deflections in the previous two weeks.

Julian Love has been one of the Giants’ best defenders in the backfield since receiving a dramatic increase in snaps dating back to Week 12 against the Chicago Bears. Love has an interception and two pass deflections in this span. He also recorded three tackles for a loss in his last two games including a big 4th-and-1 run stop on Sunday.

Ballentine continues to have his ups-and-downs in the slot but has shown some progress in a solid game against Miami last week. The sixth-round pick played in 87% of snaps and recorded a pass breakup in this matchup, as well.