Countdown to Camp: Predicting the Giants' Defensive Line Rotation and Play Percentages

How will new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham deploy the 2020 New York Giants' defensive line personnel? Based on what we've been able to gather from past film of Graham's defense, we try to answer that question.

The Giants’ defensive line room is the deepest position group on the team. The acquisition of Leonard Williams bolstered the unit, albeit the trade was rather myopic. Nevertheless, the subsequent hopeful signing of a long term deal may be in the works after Williams plays 2020 out on the franchise tag.

The defensive line consists of Williams, the sixth overall pick in 2015, Dexter Lawrence, the 17th overall selection in 2019, Dalvin Tomlinson, a second-round pick in 2017, and B.J. Hill, a third-round pick in 2018.

The room is loaded with pedigree. It also consists of former Titans second-round pick Austin Johnson, fifth-rounder (2018) R.J. McIntosh, undrafted rookie Niko Lalos out of Dartmouth and 2019 seventh-rounder Chris Slayton.

The top of the depth chart is loaded with Williams, Lawrence, Tomlinson, and Hill, yet their skill-sets vary. Williams is a long, incredibly athletic, technically sound, and versatile player who can impact an interior pass rusher while also being excellent against the run. Lawrence is gigantic (6’4, 342 pounds), and is more of a nose or one shade, but showed impressive traits that were somewhat precocious.

Tomlinson may have advanced more than any other player from 2018 till last season; he’s more of a 0- and 1-technique as well, but both he and Lawrence can have success as 3-techniques (especially in a BEAR front). 

A BEAR front with Lawrence as the nose and Tomlinson/ Hill as the 3-techniques could pose problems for interior rushing offenses. 

The main problem with running a defense that way is the susceptibility outside. Tomlinson and Hill, for that matter, can also be the 4i-techniques in an EAGLE front or even 5-techniques in an OKIE front with three down lineman.

On early/running downs, I expect to see a combination of a four-down front that is varied from Patrick Graham. In an Under front, Williams as an end man on the line of scrimmage (EMOLOS), with Lorenzo Carter on the field side EMOLOS; Tomlinson would be the shaded 1-technique with Lawrence as the 3-technique, but that’s somewhat interchangeable and based on the match-up. Hill will be the primary defensive lineman to spell on the inside.

Graham is not going to establish trends, and he may only utilize Williams and Lawrence on a lot of snaps, with more versatile pieces like Carter, Oshane Ximines, and Kyler Fackrell rushing the passer and executing their run assignments. 

Austin Johnson is another player who figures to be in the mixture for snaps on early downs. He can step in and play 3-technique on rushing downs. James Bettcher used a lot of substitutions for the Giants, especially before the Williams trade.

Since coming over to the Giants, Williams, in a difficult system, played 63% of the snaps along the defensive line. He rushed the passer 231 times and played the run 130 times according to Pro Football Focus.

Here’s what the rest of the Giants looked like according to snap percentage:

• Dexter Lawrence: 63%
• Dalvin Tomlinson: 53%
• B.J. Hill: 44% (it was 32% after the Williams trade and 56% before the trade)
• Olsen Pierre: 16%
• R.J. McIntosh: 11%

Johnson, who came over from a relatively stout Titans defensive line, played 29% of the snaps, third behind Jurrell Casey and DaQune Jones, but which would have been fourth if Jeffery Simmons was healthy the entire year.

What does all this mean going forward with a different defensive coordinator in a truncated offseason?

It seems like Graham will devise a defense that can maximize these players but not at the expense of losing speed. 

Early downs should have a combination of three of the top five players on the field, but pass-rushing situations, especially 3rd and long, may only have Willams and possibly one other pass rusher on the field.

Graham’s personnel was a lot different in Miami last season; Christian Wilkins was by far and away the best player in the defensive line group, with Davon Godchaux as a solid piece of the puzzle. 

John Jenkins was a good veteran presence but was replacement-level at best. Wilkins ended up playing 66% of the snaps, Godchaux 64%, and Jenkins 43%.

Graham didn’t have anyone like Leonard Williams on the roster, and he also had a lot more second-level EDGE defenders to work with: Charles Harris, Avery Moss, Taco Charlton, Jonathan Ledbetter, Vince Biegel, Andrew Van Ginkle, Sam Eguavoen, and Trent Harris; even though they’re not superior to Carter, Ximines, and Fackrell, they still saw the field quite a bit.

There’s no doubt that Graham enjoys versatile players who have the athletic ability to execute their assignments. 

For bigger defensive linemen, Hill, Tomlinson, and Lawrence have enough athletic ability to play within the box's confines while showing some ability to be pursuit defenders on stretch zone plays. 

Still, Graham will use a lot of sub-packages that may take skilled defensive lineman off the field to replace them with faster players.

Injuries aside, Williams should play the most out of all the defensive lineman; he should be out there on most passing downs, and he can play the run very well. 

However, I can see the Giants spelling him on early downs and having either Lawrence, Tomlinson, Johnson, or Hill in the rotation. I’m not opposed to it, situations dictate, but the Giants have to make sure teams don’t go up-tempo and prevent subs, which would be a problem with the bigger fellas.

Lawrence should be the second most utilized defensive lineman, followed closely by Tomlinson. After that, there should be a slight gap where Hill and Johnson pick up the rear. I also wouldn’t be shocked to see McIntosh earn a few snaps in mop-up duty either.

Here are my snap percentages for each lineman heading into 2020:

• Leonard Willams: 75%
• Dexter Lawrence: 65%
• Dalvin Tomlinson: 60%
• B.J. Hill: 40%
• Austin Johnson: 20%
• R.J. McIntosh: 5%

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