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Despite playing safety for the first time this year with the New York Giants, Logan Ryan is currently having one of the best seasons of his career.
The Rutgers graduate and New Jersey native already has 68 tackles, eight passes defended, three forced fumbles, one interception and one sack. This play also has him looking at a Pro Bowl nomination — Ryan currently leads all free safeties in NFC Pro Bowl votes.
The reason for this is because, at safety, Ryan gets to utilize his savvy and football IQ more than he would have been able to use at cornerback. As the quarterback of the defensive backfield, Ryan gets to call out different stunts, blitzes, and smoke screens to toy with the opposing quarterback.
In the most recent game, a statement win over the Seahawks, Ryan put his ability to outsmart the quarterback to work on several key plays.
“I don’t even know if I was on the screen last game. I was so deep and doing so many different things to make [Seahawks QB Russell Wilson] hold the ball an extra second, to make him confused on what we were doing, give our pass rush extra time, give our coverage a little extra time,” Ryan told reporters on Wednesday.
Ryan had “a lot of fun disguising” his intentions and the plans of the defense so that he could benefit his teammates. A specific example of this is when he helped his partner in crime at safety, Jabrill Peppers, get his second sack of the season.
“I know, for instance, on Peppers’ sack last game, I told him, ‘You do so much fake blitzing and bluffing, just line up in the blitz. They’re not going to believe if you just line up that you’re actually coming because who would do that?’ And he lined up and he went and he destroyed everybody in the backfield and it worked out. And he was like, ‘Man, you’re a genius,'” Ryan said.
This role of disguising and playing mind games may increase for Ryan in Week 14 should Blake Martinez miss the game due to his back injury. However, this is not a challenge that Ryan is afraid to take on.
“I’m the backup quarterback, I get the green dot when Blake goes down, so I’m always excited a little bit. I hope he’s well, but anytime I get the green dot, get to call the huddle a little bit, it takes you back to my quarterback days, so it’s fun,” Ryan said.
While Martinez is an invaluable asset for Big Blue, Ryan and the team feel comfortable with the linebacker getting fully healthy and having Ryan expand his intellectual role and call the defense for a week.
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