Cover 3: What we learned in first week of OTAs

Dan Salomone: The new-look defense has been top of mind for me. We’ve gotten bits and pieces of what Shane Bowen wants to put together since he took over in February. At the NFL Scouting Combine, general manager Joe Schoen said the new coordinator’s philosophy “is going to be a little bit more, let’s get after the passer – like we’ll stop the run on the way to the passer and going to look for more edge guys and ability to rush the passer versus stopping the run. Stopping the run is still going to be important, it’s always going to be important, but in terms of how you’re prioritizing those, you may flip those in the new scheme.”

And what did the Giants do when free agency opened a few weeks after those comments? They acquired edge rusher Brian Burns, who teamed up with fellow two-time Pro Bowler Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeaux to give Bowen his coveted front.

“Ultimately you’re talking about how you want to delegate resources, right,” Bowen said. “Are you delegating them for the rush, or are you trying to delegate them for the back end? And some of that comes into play how good you are in the back end with less or how good you are rushing the quarterback with a little bit less. That will evolve as we go, but my history has been, if we’ve got four guys that can rush, we are going to let them go rush.”

Fast-forwarding to OTAs, we’re seeing the puzzle come to life. Admittedly, we won’t get the full picture until the pads come on in the summer, but the structure is in place. We learned recently that defensive line coach Andre Patterson is also working with the edge rushers.

“He’s a good coach,” Daboll said. “I think him and [outside linebackers coach] Chuck [Bullen] do a good job, they work together. There’s four-man rush patterns, games, things like that – they do a good job of working together, him and Chuck and BCox (Brian Cox, the assistant line coach) and Ben [Burress, the defensive assistant].”

We also learned that the Burns and Lawrence duo is going to be just as important as Burns and Thibodeaux.

“It is exciting, especially when you got four guys that can [rush the passer],” Burns said. “Allowing those guys to work is exciting, but it’s earned. We have to show that we can get to the quarterback at a consistent rate by ourselves. That’s going to take chemistry. It’s going to take a form of a brotherhood. If I got Dex with me, just know if I got Dex with me, I got a plan. … From a football standpoint, his IQ is second to none as far as the D-linemen I’ve played with. I think he definitely knows ball, knows how to rush, knows how to get to the quarterback, and knows how to work together. There are certain things he told me I definitely wasn’t in tune. Yeah, he’s helping me, as well.”

At the same time, any front four is only as good as the back four.

With veteran Adoree’ Jackson still a free agent, the Giants put a lot of stock in Deonte Banks and Cor’Dale Flott on the outside. The Giants also drafted safety Tyler Nubin and Dru Phillips, who said he not only embraces the nickel corner role but “embodies” it. It will be interesting to see how all the new pieces come together with returning play-makers like Dane Belton, Jason Pinnock, and Nick McCloud.