How Giants Defensive Player Roles Might Change in Patrick Graham's System

The Giants defense needs a major overhaul to optimize its talent and produce different results. Here's our look at how new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham could accomplish those objectives and how certain players who are returning could see their roles change in Graham's system.

Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via USA TODAY NETWORK

New Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham is inheriting a roster not all that different from the one he worked with in Miami last year.

Miami's defense was one of the youngest in the NFL in 2019, with eight starters under the age of 26. Now Graham takes over a Giants defense that, before free agency and the draft, could already see even more than eight starters under the age of 26 in 2020.

A collection of young cornerbacks and defensive linemen make up the defensive capital of Dave Gettleman's last two drafts. How will Graham utilize that talent? Let's take a look at some specific players.

Edge Lorenzo Carter

Under former head coach James Bettcher, Lorenzo Carter was used primarily as a defensive utility player. Bettcher put Carter in a range of roles, as Carter saw snaps at outside linebacker, inside linebacker, defensive end, and defensive tackle.

He was used to drop into coverage, cover backs out the backfield, and carry tight ends vertically. As a result, Carter showed a decline in his second season, despite more playing time.

RELATED: How Lorenzo Carter Has Been Misused in the Giants Defense

But under Graham, Carter could get the opportunity to flourish in an area where he's shown to be most effective: pass rushing.

Graham often deployed a package that put two defensive linemen in 2-techniques (head-up vs. the guards) and two stand-up linebackers in 9-techniques outside the offensive tackles.

If Carter were to play in that 9-technique spot on Graham's defense predominantly, he has the athleticism necessary to bend the edge and consistently get to the quarterback.

S Jabrill Peppers

Jabrill Peppers might see the most significant shift in his role of any Giants defensive players from last season.

In Miami, Graham implemented single-high coverages on roughly three-quarters of the defensive snaps, versus the two-thirds of single-high coverage that Bettcher ran with the Giants in 2019.

With Graham now with the Giants, the Giants will almost always have a safety in the box, and Peppers brings a skill set that might fit that exact role. Coming out of Michigan in 2017, Peppers was seen as a utility safety that played better the closer he was to the line according to a breakdown by Charles McDonald of the New York Daily News.

His diverse skill set has made him an option to fill in at linebacker and nickel cornerback as well, but he is inconsistent in off coverage. He operates from a side shuffle and is late to drive on in-breaking routes, allowing too much separation.

Graham's scheme should prioritize playing Peppers close to the line, which could be possible considering Graham's schemes in Miami.

RELATED: What the Giants Offense Might Look Like Under Jason Garrett

Defensive Linemen Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence II

All signs point to Leonard Williams receiving a tag as the two sides are reportedly nowhere near a new contract agreement.

Williams was only good for half a sack and 26 tackles with the Giants in 2019, where he played predominantly as an end in Bettcher's 3-4 system. Williams and fellow "hog molly" Dexter Lawrence II would likely find spots in the interior as defensive tackles in Graham's system.

Graham said he plans to implement a multiple-front system. "People ask if it’ll be 4-3 or 3-4, and I say yes. 2-4? Yes. 3-3-5? Yes. However, you want to rearrange the front 7 or all 11, yes,” he said in a Giants.com interview not long after his hire.

While Graham's had one of the league's most inconsistent front combinations, it consistently used bigger defensive lineman to draw double teams on the interior.

Graham's defense looks to get most of its pressure on the outside through a combination of blitzes and motions by linebackers and defensive backs.

At times, Graham would only line up one down lineman, with three or four linebackers, that would either drop into coverage or blitz, while the down lineman was predominantly used to eat up blocks from the guards and centers.

Corners DeAndre Baker and Sam Beal

Graham's specialty as a defensive coordinator is his creativity with defensive back blitzes and projected starting cornerbacks DeAndre Baker and Sam Beal will be a big part of that specialty in 2020.

Last year Graham sent defensive back blitzes on 35% of his snaps, the 7th highest frequency in the NFL. That blitz rate jumped to 41% on third down, the third-highest in the league.

When they aren't blitzing, Baker and Beal will mostly be assigned to lock down a specific receiver in man coverage. Baker and Beal's man-to-man play will be critical to the success of the defense, as it was the primary coverage Graham used in Miami.

This importance will be emphasized even more if Graham continues to run cover zero, which is man-to-man coverage across the board with no safety deep, which Graham ran 28 times in Miami last season.

Baker and Beal were both drafted due in part to their success in man coverage. If Graham can get the man coverage that Baker and Beal were able to display in college, it could be the difference in achieving the defensive results he couldn't get with Miami's cornerbacks.