Giants Defensive Back Dane Belton Shines in NFL Debut

New York Giants rookie Dane Belton saw significant playing time in Sunday's 19-16 win over the Carolina Panthers and looked right at home in the defense.

At some point, a rookie has to play if he's ever to get that coveted NFL game experience. And when a rookie does play, chances are he's going to have an equal amount of good mixed in with the bad.

That was the case for rookie safety Dane Belton, the second of the team's two fourth-round picks, who made his NFL debut after missing last week while recovering from a broken collarbone suffered in training camp.

"It was good to have him out there," head coach Brian Daboll said of Belton. "I thought he played fast."

Belton made his presence felt right from the start when on his first NFL play (the opening kickoff), he quickly jumped on Panthers kickoff returner Chuba Hubbard's fumble forced by Carter Coughlin.

From there, Belton's mostly positive day continued. Tasked primarily with the deep coverage assignments, Belton, at no point, looked overmatched or overwhelmed. Targeted just once in coverage (and not allowing the target to be completed), Belton's deep coverage helped benefit the coverage in front of him.

The third cog in that three-safety package, Belton's patrolling of the deep area allowed Julian Love and Xavier McKinney to patrol the short zones and roles. That three-safety package kept Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey from wrecking the game as a receiver.

And let's talk about that three-safety look for a moment. Putting another guy on the field capable of delivering speed allowed defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to run more exotic blitzes.

At the start of the game, the Giants went to a dime package with one linebacker and six defensive backs (three corners and three safeties). This look balanced power up front with speed in the Back 7 and was a package Martindale called for several times in the win.

Want another reason to like the package? By frequently using that speed and coverage ability to show blitz in the pre-snap phase, it confused Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield during his post-snap reads.

In run support, Belton did a fine job coming up to fill holes on runs. He finished with four tackles (per the NFL game stats) and just one miss (per PFF), but considering this was his first NFL game--he missed the entire preseason while recovering from his injury--that was to be expected.

"He’s been a guy, as a young player, that’s been right in the back hip of those guys when he was injured," Daboll said. "You can tell his preparation paid off. Just like a lot of the guys, there are certain things he can improve on, like all of us. I thought he played fast. It was good to have him out there in terms of the defensive packages.

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