Giants rookie Tyler Nubin making strong impression in battle for starting job

Tyler Nubin already has noticed two big differences between college football and the NFL. 

For starters, the professional rules allow him to get off the ground with the ball in his hands if he is not touched down, so a diving interception like the one that the rookie safety made in the end zone for the Giants during Monday’s practice is not the end of the play.

Nubin can be a dangerous returner, too. 

“I fell down on the ground too many times in college,” joked Nubin, who set Minnesota’s program record with 13 career interceptions. “But you can get up now, so I’m good. That’s going to be my goal — to make sure I can get in that end zone this time.” 

Justin Jefferson, the Vikings’ No. 1 receiver and a looming Week 1 matchup for the Giants, lives in the end zone.

And that brings Nubin to his second point. 

“It’s definitely more of a matchup-based league than college,” Nubin said. “Formations will tell you a lot, but if you’ve got Justin Jefferson over there at the ‘X’ [receiver], the formation is not telling you s–t. The ball is going over there.” 

The Giants drafted Nubin in the second round with the expectation that he would “come in and start,” as general manager Joe Schoen put it to defensive coordinator Shane Bowen just before making the selection, as seen on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.” 

But the combination of a calf injury that sidelined Nubin for most of the first week of practice and the strong play of Dane Belton — a former fourth-round pick with a rate of high ball production in a limited role over his first two seasons — left the rookie with ground to make up. 

Plays like the one Nubin made in preseason action against the Lions — planting 295-pound offensive lineman Michael Niese on his butt to blow up a third-and-2 run — are a good start. 

“Big-boy ball,” defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson said of the play. “He’s really competitive, really confident. You just watch the [college] tape — and even here — his intensity, his energy and his focus just jumps off the tape at you.” 

Nubin relishes the chance to be physical.

He often is described as a ballhawk because, well, he is one. 

Look no further than the way he undercut tight end Lawrence Cager to intercept Daniel Jones’ pass from the two-yard line during his first real opportunity of camp to play with the starting defense.

Nubin could’ve added a second interception jumping on the back line but the ball slipped through his hands in a two-minute drill, which prompted him to self-impose a push-ups penalty. 

But there’s more to Nubin’s game.

He was in charge of communicating the play call from the sideline to the back-seven in college. 

“I think something a lot of people don’t know about me is I’m always ready to stick my nose in there and get dirty with the big guys,” Nubin said. “That’s something I’ve never been afraid of. That’s something that was preached at Minnesota. That’s where I start my game — getting physical, and then I’m feeling good so now I can go look for the ball.” 

The Giants could use Jason Pinnock, Belton and Nubin together in three-safety looks as they have in the past when the position was a roster strength (Logan Ryan, Xavier McKinney, Jabrill Peppers, Julian Love).

But the versatile Nick McCloud, third-round rookie cornerback Dru Phillips and converted linebacker Isaiah Simmons already are vying for time in the slot. 

That’s why Nubin’s quick return to the field is important. 

“On the field anywhere is where I belong,” Nubin said. “Wherever you can put me and do a job, I want to do it.” 

If the second round of the draft broke slightly differently, the Giants would have drafted a cornerback instead of Nubin.

When Kamari Lassiter and Kool-Aid McKinstry were off the board, however, the information gathered from sending safeties coach Mike Treier to a private workout with Nubin at Minnesota was handy. 

The consensus internal opinion was he is a quick study. 

“I made sure that I didn’t have to play catch-up by my preparation,” Nubin said of his approach during missed practices. “Obviously, physically, I had to get back into football shape, so I’m still catching up in that aspect, but making sure I was never having to catch up mentally is what makes it easy to come back in.”