So, now that the New York Giants have found their tandem at safety after selecting Xavier McKinney in the second round of the NFL Draft on Friday night, what becomes of Julian Love?
Love, a fourth-round pick out of Notre Dame last year, finished up the season as one of the Giants’ starters at safety next to veteran Antoine Bethea, who was released last month.
Love filled in admirable for Jabrill Peppers, who missed the final month of the season with a fractured bone in his back. Peppers is healthy again and ready to take his rightful place in the starting lineup. That was supposed to be next to Love, whose role is now in limbo after the addition of McKinney.
Head coach Joe Judge indicated on Friday night that there is room for everyone on his new defense.
“Julian has a great skill set. He can play corner, he can play in the slot and he can play back deep as a safety. We are going to use him as we need by each game plan,” Judge told reporters during a conference call. “He may be an every-down safety, he may be an-every down corner.
“We are too far away right now to give that an answer. We are excited about all the guys we have back there. We believe we added some talent to the back end for guys to compete and we are going to see where it shakes out. Nothing has been decided in terms of positions that will go into a depth chart at this point and nothing has been decided in how we are going to use guys by game plan. That will change week to week. We believe we have enough skillsets that it will give us flexibility within our packages.”
The Giants have a young and exciting secondary buoyed by Peppers, McKinney, Love and cornerbacks James Bradberry, DeAndre Baker, Sam Beal, Corey Ballantine and Grant Haley. In a passing league they should have enough talent to keep up with the high-flying offenses in the NFL.
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