Injuries? Performance? Talent? What Gives with the New York Giants Defense?

It gets increasingly hard to properly evaluate the New York Giants with every week that’s gone by.

While the Giants might have considered a world in which Daniel Jones wasn’t their quarterback in Week 15, there’s no world in which they’re planning to be without Daniel Jones, Andrew Thomas, Jon Runyan Jr, Greg Van Roten, Theo Johnson, Dexter Lawrence, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Deonte Banks, Cor’Dale Flott, Dru Phillips, Bobby Okereke, and Tyler Nubin.

As a result, meaningful games are being played, but the Giants are in a place where those games are effectively an advance on the 2025 preseason. They’re getting a look at their depth – the absolute bottom of their depth chart, at some positions – in situations they simply can’t replicate in practice.

The Giants’ ownership and front office are also getting a look at the coaching staff and deciding on whether who – if any – should go or be retained following the season,

They got a stark comparison this week as the Giants were matched up against one of the best teams in the NFL: the Baltimore Ravens. The result – a 35-14 blowout – was entirely predictable, but how did the Giants match up? How well did the coaches put the players in position against a superior opponent?

Considering the Giants were forced to make yet another change at the quarterback position and had to turn to Tim Boyle after Tommy DeVito suffered a concussion, we’ll concentrate on the defensive side of the ball. We can turn our attention to the offense next week when the Giants will (hopefully) have a quarterback who wasn’t signed to the active roster the day before.

This year, the Giants’ defense has been a “Jekyll and Hyde” unit. They opened the year by leading the NFL in sacks, with a Win Rate in the top 10. However, they have also struggled to consistently generate pressure or slow opposing offenses down throughout games. They have consistently played hard but have also struggled with missed tackles or coverage breakdowns.

The easiest (and most trite) way to describe the Giants’ defense is “good until they aren’t.”

But how much of that has been a problem with the Giants’ personnel and has been a poor fit in Shane Bowen’s defense?

The Giants have a very young defense. Mistakes, miscues, and miscommunications are expected when Rakeem Nunez-Roches is the most veteran starter on that side of the ball. On the flip side, young players like Thibodeaux, Banks, Flott, Phillips, and Nubin will also develop and grow—which we’ve seen over the course of the season.

However, whether Bowen is putting all those young players in the best positions remains.

Bowen was hired because his previous defenses were stout in the red zone and could stop the run. Unlike Wink Martindale, who runs an aggressive blitz-heavy scheme built on exotic pressures and man coverage, Bowen’s defense in Tennessee was based on four-man pressures under quarters (zone) coverage.

Much of the Giants’ defense was acquired specifically for Martindale’s scheme. That scheme is something of an oddity in the modern NFL, which has widely adopted the Cover 4 concepts used by Vic Fangio and many college defenses.

The fit was obviously awkward early in the year. Not only were the Giants consistently gashed in run defense on the ground, but they also struggled to hold up in coverage. That directly led to the Vikings stunning the Giants in week one and the team being unable to slow the Washington Commanders when they needed to do so in Week two.

Bowen has adapted his scheme a bit. Rather than the Cover 4 upon which his scheme is built, the Giants run Cover 3 at a very high rate. That’s likely as much to help the run defense as to provide a better fit for the personnel. 

However, the Giants’ man coverage corners are ill-suited for zone defense. That’s led to far too many easy completions and extended drives. 

Likewise, the Giants’ run defense has suffered from poor angles, bad run fits, and missed tackles. Those are all likely related to defenders being out of position and not communicating as well as they had in Martindale’s defense.

Highlighting the awkward fit, Bowen has played more aggressive defense as injuries have ravaged the Giants defense. The unit, at least what remains of it, has responded well. Last week, look at players like Elijah Chatman and Elijah Garcia, who have stood out as full-time players for the Giants. Linebacker Micah McFadden has taken a leap over the last month and is a side-line-to-sideline whirlwind.

Likewise, third-year safety Dame Belton has improved now that he’s playing downhill. Belton was one of the best blitzing safeties in college football when he was drafted. It makes sense that he would make splash plays when he can use his full skill set.

The more aggressive play calls helped the defensive front as well.

The increased use of pressure packages has helped the Giants apply more – and more unexpected – pressure on opposing quarterbacks. That’s allowed for some easy one-on-one matchups for the edge defenders, such as Brian Burns’ quick sack of Lamar Jackson. Likewise, opposing offenses haven’t been able to assign obvious double teams and have occasionally left blockers accounting for nobody.

The downhill, attacking style has also helped the run defense. There’s little accounting for Lamar Jackson, who is a unique talent at the quarterback position. However, neither Derrick Henry nor Justice Hill could find much running room in the first half. 

The trio of Elijah Chatman, Jordon Riley, and Elijah Garcia aggressively attacked gaps while the second-level players were able to swarm to the ball. The run defense broke down in the second half as fatigue and attrition set in, but it was still promising in the first half.

The question remains, however: would this be the scheme if the Giants hadn’t been devastated by injury? And would the more aggressive scheming remain if Bowen sticks around for 2025?

The optimistic view is that Bowen has shown enough flexibility to alter his scheme and try to mold it around the players. To a certain extent, he did that earlier in the season with an aggressive defense against the Seattle Seahawks and the shift to Cover 3. However, the question remains: why didn’t he commit to it earlier or more fully?

We’ve seen defensive coordinators adapt in the past. Famously, Perry Fewell switched to a very aggressive defense for the Giants’ run to the Super Bowl in 2011. 

However, in 2012, he reverted to his favored “bend but don’t break” approach and the defense floundered. Can the Giants trust Bowen to learn the lessons from this year and apply them to 2025?

Even with another offseason of remodeling the roster, most of the Giants’ existing defensive personnel are young and should be expected to be here for the foreseeable future. 

Staying with a less aggressive zone scheme could delay or derail those players’ development. While cutting or trading players like Banks, Flott, Belton, or McFadden while cutting or trading them would only serve to create more holes in the roster.

The Giants’ injuries have played a massive role in their 2-12 season.

However, the decision to hire Shane Bowen and completely reverse course on the previous defensive scheme has also played an important role in the defense’s struggles to start the year. He was a good coach for the Tennessee Titans, but his defensive philosophy poorly fit the Giants’ personnel.

It seems likely that the Giants will add defenders over the coming offseason. They should have roughly $60 million to spend in free agency, and the upcoming draft has deep defensive line and cornerback classes. 

The biggest question facing the Giants on that side of the ball is whether they’ll try to continue to mold the defense in Bowen’s image or if he’ll continue to adapt his philosophy to the roster.