Revealing PFF's Ranking of the Giants Linebackers--Is It Fair?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. And for the Giants linebackers, despite the additions made in the off-season, the unit is still languishing at the bottom of PFF's unit rankings.

The Giants linebacker unit hasn't been a team strength in, well, a long, long time. And based on Pro Football Focus' latest rankings for all 32 NFL off-ball linebacker groups ahead of the 2020 season, nothing has changed.

The popular analytics site has ranked the Giants linebackers 23rd-best in the league, a ranking primarily based on a 54.5 grade given to New Yorks linebacking core at the end of last season, which was also 23rd in the NFL.

And no, the addition of Blake Martinex from the Packers, expected to be the unit's signal-caller this year, didn't budge the ranking, as author Steve Palazzolo explained:

Martinez has had a quirky career, both at Stanford and in the NFL, as he has a top-10 season against the run (2016) and in coverage (2018), though he has just one year with an overall grade above 70.0 (74.0 overall in 2018). Martinez is a solid player—though the tackle stats are misleading—and he’s yet to put together a high-end season in all facets.

It's a challenge to forecast a grade for a unit that has yet to take the field and which is about to play in a defensive scheme that no one really knows what to expect just, however.

But we have some clues. In March, after being announced as having signed with the Giants, Martinez said his use in the Packers defense last year was more of a "cleanup role" rather than a role he was attacking.

In a cleanup role, Martinez not only had to chase down those ball carriers who made it to the second level (hence the "misleading" comment made by Palazzolo about Martinez's tackle total), but he rarely got a chance to attack the gaps.

Judging a linebacker on tackle totals is indeed misleading as typically, the closer the tackles are made to the line of scrimmage, the more effective the linebacker's production. But if the tackles are happening ten or more yards from the line of scrimmage, obviously that's not a good stat.

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In reuniting with Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, his linebackers coach in Green Bay in 2018 season when Martinez had his best career season statistically, that should at least offer a glimmer of hope that maybe things will be better this year.

As for the rest of the off-ball unit, veteran journeyman David Mayo is the Giants' only returning linebacker with significant snaps from last season.

Mayo only had four starts to his name since coming into the league in 2015, but emerged as a 13-game starter for the Giants and ranked second in the league with a 90.1 grade against the run.

Mayo will likely compete with second-year linebacker Ryan Connelly, a fifth-round pick in 2019 who is looking to make his return from a torn ACL suffered in Week 4 of his rookie season.

Connelly graded at 57.1 across 187 snaps as a rookie and even recorded two meaningful interceptions in the Giants two wins early in the season.

Connelly's ball skills and tackling ability would be a strong complement to Martinez's leadership and experience in Graham's defense.

If Conelly can live up to the potential he displayed in his short time as a rookie, that would undoubtedly be a welcome development for the Giants' off-ball linebackers.

Rounding out the group are some young faces, specifically Cam Brown out of Penn State, who can also play on the edge; TJ Brunson out of South Carolina and Tae Crowder out of Georgia.

All three bring speed to a linebacker unit that sorely lacked in that department for years, but the likelihood of all three making the roster seems a longshot.

One final candidate worth mentioning is Josiah Tauaefa, signed as an undrafted free agent last year. Tauaefa only took part in 22 defensive snaps, most of those in runs defense, but three out of his four total tackles went for zero or negative yards while the two pass targets (out of two) he allowed completed went for minus-1 yard.

Tauaefa, who was more of a contributor on special teams, probably has an uphill battle to hang around this year, but in a minimal sample size last year, he showed some intrigue.