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The New York Giants value their special teams to the point where they will trade draft picks to procure solid ‘teams’ players.
That is what they did this summer when the shipped a 2023 sixth-round selection to the Houston Texans for cornerback Keion Crossen.
Crossen, a former seventh round pick out of Western Carolina by the New England Patriots back in 2018, had played for current Giants’ head coach Joe Judge when Judge was the special teams coordinator for the Pats. They won the Super Bowl together that year.
One attribute that has followed Crossen around is his exceptional foot speed. Crossen did not attend the NFL Combine coming out of college so there is no record of his 40 time. He did run the 100 meters in 10.53 seconds back in college.
Never mind the numbers, says Crossen. He believes he is the fastest man in the NFL right now.
“I’d arguably say I’m the fastest guy in this league when we’re talking about acceleration,” Crossen told the New York Post. “I’ve taken a lot of pride in figuring out how to implement track speed into the game. You can only go so fast on the field because you have to play within the scheme, whether you are defense, offense or special teams. But speed is personal for me. That’s what I do best.”
It sure is. Crossen has been blowing by both opponents and his teammates out on the playing field. More from The Post:
Crossen has run 20 mph on 60 plays this season, which was at least 12 more than every other player in the league entering Sunday’s action, according to NFL NextGenStats. He led in that category last year and has reached 20 mph on 234 plays since 2019 (25 more than the next-fastest man).
The Giants — like the Patriots and Texans before them — primarily deploy Crossen’s speed as a gunner on punts rather than as a defensive back. A gunner topped 22 mph 11 times over the first nine weeks of this season. The tally reads: Crossen 4, Rest of NFL combined 7.
The Giants knew what they were doing when they made the deal for Crossen, a player they hope will get better with age. Right now, he’s just 25 and his career is in front of him.
Although Crossen has played some defensive snaps this year, he has been used primarily on special teams, playing a team-high 172 snaps.