The first wave of NFL free agency has officially come and gone, and with that now in the rear-view mirror, the race is on to hand out as many immediate grades as possible.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell was among the first to begin handing out grades and to say he was unimpressed with the Giants’ top additions would be an understatement.
First up was linebacker Blake Martinez, who drew a “C-” grade from Barnwell.
Middle/inside linebacker has been a problem for the Giants going back seemingly to Antonio Pierce’s retirement in 2009. I don’t believe the Giants have had a player start more than eight games at the position in consecutive seasons over the past decade, with young players such as B.J. Goodson and Jonathan Goff and veterans such as Jon Beason and Jasper Brinkley failing to make the position their own for multiple campaigns. With Martinez getting $19 million guaranteed and $22.5 million in the first two years of his new deal, it’s clear that the Giants intend on Martinez breaking that trend.
One thing’s clear with Martinez: He’ll pile up a lot of tackles. The only players with more solo tackles the past four seasons are Bobby Wagner and Tahir Whitehead. Those tackles might come 5 or 6 yards past the line of scrimmage, though, and Martinez has been a liability in pass coverage. The Stanford product has allowed a passer rating north of 100 in coverage each of the past two seasons. He should lock down a problem position for the Giants, but I’m not sure he makes their defense all that much better.
This is a somewhat fair assessment as only seven of Martinez’s tackles were for a loss, so there is some legitimate concern to be had there. As far as his struggles in coverage… Ho-hum. That’s par for the course in East Rutherford.
Next (and last) up was veteran cornerback James Bradberry, who also wasn’t viewed in a positive light by Barnwell, earning a “C+” grade.
Although the Panthers were a mess on defense in 2019, Bradberry was their best player. Quarterbacks targeting him didn’t have much fun, as he allowed a passer rating of just 73.1 on 89 targets as the closest defender in coverage. The only cornerback who was targeted more frequently than Bradberry while posting a stingier passer rating was Defensive Player of the Year Stephon Gilmore, and stars such as Marlon Humphrey and Darius Slay were in a similar ballpark.
Heavy target rates are nothing new for Bradberry. From 2016 to 2019, Bradberry was targeted 380 times as the nearest defender in coverage, more than anybody else in football. You could interpret this as a sign that opposing quarterbacks weren’t afraid to target him, but the other guys just below Bradberry are considered to be among the best corners in football, including Jalen Ramsey (370 targets), Slay (342), Logan Ryan (340) and Gilmore (327).
The early takes on Bradberry have been interesting because there seems to be a consensus that he’s a quality player, but he’s knocked for not being flashy enough. He’s also not considered to be in the same league as other top cornerbacks despite matching their numbers.
Ultimately, both Martinez and Bradberry give the Giants something they were lacking, but neither are top-end game changers.
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