Giants’ defensive line: Dexter Lawrence, and who else?

Dexter Lawrence is an All-World nose tackle, acknowledged as one of three best interior defensive linemen in the NFL today. That’s a pretty good start for the New York Giants defensive line. What else, though, do they have?

Edge defenders Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux, along with inside linebacker Bobby Okereke, give the Giants the makings of an outstanding defensive front seven.

Questions, though, revolve around the players who line up with their hands in the ground on either side of the Giants’ All-Pro nose tackle.

Leonard Williams, Lawrence’s running mate on the defensive line for several seasons, was traded to the Seattle Seahawks at the 2023 NFL trade deadline. A’Shawn Robinson, an unspectacular but solid run defender who played well for the Giants in 2023, signed with the Carolina Panthers in free agency.

The Giants only “big” move to upgrade the line, if it can be called that, was to sign 10-year veteran Jordan Phillips. The 31-year-old has not looked like a major addition thus far, running almost exclusively with the second and third units during training camp.

The Giants have veteran Rakeem Nunez-Roches manning one spot next to Lawrence, and then a collection of late-round draft picks and undrafted free agents vying for playing time and roster spots.

Nunez-Roches, a 31-year-old with an infectiously upbeat personality, doesn’t care about expectations — good or bad.

“I ain’t never really read the media tabloids, to be honest with you. The only thing I worry about is the production and how we look on Sunday,” Nunez-Roches said. “Are we winning? Are we getting off the field? How does our third-down ratio look? How does our first, second down run look?

“We win those things, I know how we’re driving as a defense. I don’t really care what they put us at first, fifth, or last. But when it’s all said and done, what are we doing?”

Unproven commodities

Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, in his first year with the Giants, has been pleased by the group.

“That D-line competition is as strong as any competition on our team right now,” he said. “I feel like we’ve got really good depth. And right now, as it stands, there’s going to be some good football players that don’t make this team in that room, and they’re battling. So, it’ll be interesting to see how that shakes out.”

Bowen might be right that the Giants end up having good depth. He might just be giving us the normal coach-speak. What we know for certain is that many of the players competing for roles on the defensive line are unproven.

Among those unproven players are Ryder Anderson, Jordon Riley, D.J. Davidson and undrafted rookies Elijah Chatman and Casey Rogers.

Anderson, a third-year player who is a former undrafted free agent and spent last season on the practice squad, appears to have the inside track at a starting role on the team’s three-man front.

Anderson told Big Blue View recently that he sees “a chance for me to go out there and prove that I can be a part of the defense.”

Nunez-Roches said Anderson has grown in understanding his strengths as a player.

“The biggest thing I’ve seen from him is his maturity. He’s understanding that, dang, I am 6’6”. I am longer than other people. I can use my length and my leverage and my strength and get off people,” Nunez-Roches said. “I don’t have to rush like I’m 6’2”. I don’t have to try to rush like I’m Dex. That’s not me. So, understanding who he is as a player and putting it all together, it’s just come together for him well.”

Baby Bison

Chatman, nicknamed ‘Baby Bison’ has been one of the surprises of training camp thus far. Chatman, an extremely under-sized defensive tackle at 5-foot-11 and 280 pounds, made the 90-man roster after an impressive rookie minicamp tryout.

Chatman, who played for SMU, said Friday he was thankful for a defensive line coach in Andre Patterson “that didn’t care about size.”

“It’s not many coaches in the NFL that take an undersized defensive tackle three technique,” Chatman said. “And he just so happened to be one of them.”

Chatman understood he was unlikely to be drafted.

“No coach in the NFL looks at a 5’11, 280-pound defensive tackle three technique and is like, oh, wow, I want him,” Chatman said. “So I kind of figured that it would happen.”

The Giants are obviously curious about Chatman, who uses his “built in leverage” and exceptional power to circumvent his lack of length. Chatman had consistently gotten first-team reps in recent practices, and had a “sack” of quarterback Daniel Jones in Friday’s practice.

“I was able to get a pick from one of my other players and I was able to come around clean,” Chatman said of the sack. “And DJ was right there and I was a little bit of a twist, just flew right through him.”

Chatman has been told he was too small ever since he started playing.

“As long as I’ve been since Little League,” he said. “It’s been a plethora of times that I was told that I would never play defensive tackle on any other level. I was told that in college. I was told that in the NFL. But thanks to God, I made it. I made it.”

Leverage and power are Chatman’s calling cards. Those are the gifts he possesses.

“I use it because, I mean, that’s what God blessed me with. So I use it, Chatman said. “I mean, every opportunity I have to use that, I just get under their [offensive linemen’s] pads and I’m stout in there so I can control them in any way I want.

“I see an opportunity in every rep that they give me. Every opportunity that I have is another opportunity to impress the coaches. So I feel like I take that and I just go 100 percent with every rep.”

The ‘Baby Bison’ nickname was given to Chatman in college, and it’s no accident.

“His power is ridiculous. It’s funny, I love him so much, even warming up with him in the weight room,” said Nunez-Roches. “I’m a strong guy. Everybody knows I lift. That’s my thing. ‘Chat’ comes in, his warm-up is 315. I’m like, yo, I’ve gotta get a couple of warm-ups in if I’m gonna get there, big dog.

“it’s just amazing to see a guy like that just so focused on what he’s doing and able to transfer what he’s doing in the weight room onto the field, because sometimes that doesn’t happen.”

Nunez-Roches thinks Chatman has a chance.

“I see a guy that can turn heads in the league. I see a guy that deserves to be here,” he said. “If you take away just the eye test and his height, when you see him play, he plays like he’s as big as us, if not bigger.”

The big project

The Giants drafted Riley in the seventh round a year ago. After a vagabond college career, the Giants might have been the only team in the NFL that saw the 6-foot-5, 315-pound Riley as a draftable player.

“He’s got some gifts that you can’t give him as a coach. You know, he’s six-five, he’s 325 pounds. He is a big strong man,” Patterson said in the spring on Riley’s rookie season. “The gifts he has, a coach can’t give you that.”

Patterson, one of the best defensive line coaches in the league, has made a career out of helping players reach their maximum potential. The Giants handed him Riley last year as yet another project for the venerable coach.

Riley paid few dividends in 2023. He played in only two of the first 11 games, and finished the year playing just 136 snaps over eight games. He compiled eight tackles.

The NFL is hard. Every player is gifted. To truly succeed, players — especially late-round picks in whom teams don’t have a huge financial investment — have to work at the game in ways they might not have had to in high school or college.

Some players never figure that out, or just don’t have the “want to” to make that commitment.

Nunez-Roches said he has seen signs of it in Riley this season.

“The biggest thing is him understanding that he’s a big man. He can do the same thing that Dex is doing, but it’s a mindset to do it, play in and play out, and a dedication to it,” Nunez-Roches said. “You got to dedicate certain things to the craft. In order to do it for longevity, you have to be in shape. So he’s starting to understand that, and he’s starting to push himself harder than I’ve seen him push himself his first year.”

Final thoughts

Maybe the Giants, and the rest of the NFL, will discover that they have more talent alongside Lawrence than many currently give them credit for. Maybe they will determine by the end of training camp that players like Anderson, Chatman, Riley and the veteran Phillips are not the answer, and will look to add new faces.

Certainly, though, there are possibilities. It will be fascinating to watch it unfold.