The New York Giants have a ton of young talent along their defensive line, highlighted by future superstar Dexter Lawrence, dominant run-stuffer Dalvin Tomlinson, do-it-all man B.J. Hill and the controversial but impactful Leonard Williams.
What they don’t have is one stand-out elite pass rusher who can take over games in the way Michael Strahan, Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora and Jason Pierre-Paul have for the team in the past.
Just how detrimental is that to the unit as a whole? If you were to ask those at Pro Football Focus, they’d tell you is damning.
PFF recently ranked all 32 NFL defensive lines and did not treat the Giants with kid gloves. In fact, they ranked Big Blue’s line among the NFL’s very worst.
26. NEW YORK GIANTS
The policy in New York under general manager Dave Gettleman has been getting bigger, tougher and meaner against the run on the defensive line.
Dexter Lawrence was their first-round pick a year ago, and Leonard Williams was acquired to add serious weight inside. Add Dalvin Tomlinson and B.J. Hill to the mix, and this team is awash with powerful run-stoppers. All four players earned a PFF run-defense grade above 70.0 last season, but none was a difference-maker as a pass-rusher.
That’s the positive. Now for the negative.
The Giants are short on interior players who can truly pressure the passer and instead will rely on just squeezing the pocket. And that strategy that could work if they had plus play on the edge — the problem is that they don’t have that proven commodity yet.
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The Giants have a group of solid options but don’t have much in the way of proven players who can get after the quarterback in a league that has never been more pass-happy.
The Giants are expected to have linebacker Markus Golden back in 2020, which would help the pass rush from the second level, but that did little to sway PFF’s evaluations.
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