Is the Giants’ 2024 starting CB2 already on the roster?

If not, where are they going to find one?

As the 2024 NFL Draft approaches, the discussion is all quarterback. Wide receiver. Quarterback. Wide receiver. Quarterback…

News flash: The New York Giants have other critical roster needs as well. One of them is at boundary cornerback. Tae Banks will hopefully solidify his rookie-year status as CB1 in the coming season. Cor’Dale Flott and recently re-signed Darnay Holmes will presumably man the slot CB position.

The other boundary corner position has nothing but question marks, though. Adoree’ Jackson started at the position for much of 2023 once Tre Hawkins III was determined to be not ready for prime time. Jackson is currently a free agent.

Once upon a time, Aaron Robinson was supposed to be the Giants’ starting CB2. His career has been defined by injury, though. In 2022 (yes, 2022) Robinson missed two games due to an appendectomy, then promptly tore his MCL and partially tore his ACL upon returning. Tendinitis developed in the knee. Nothing has been heard from him since.

Option 1: Nick McCloud

McCloud was a restricted free agent this offseason but was tendered by the Giants for one year at $2.9M, none of it guaranteed. Quietly, McCloud had what might have been the best 2023 season of any Giants’ cornerback, albeit in only 182 coverage snaps. Here are the Giants’ CB stats playing man defense:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

And playing zone defense:

Courtesy of Pro Football Focus

Some notable aspects of McCloud’s play last season:

• He had by far the Giants’ best PFF grade among cornerbacks in both man (72.5) and zone (84.7) coverage. Under Shane Bowen, the Giants will be playing much more zone than they did under Wink Martindale, which would benefit McCloud.
• He surrendered very few yards after catch, particularly when playing zone.
• He didn’t give up a completion longer than 25 yards.
• In zone coverage, the NFL passer rating when targeting him was an outstanding 53.9.

Could McCloud possibly take the starting CB2 position in 2024? Unless Hawkins takes a big step forward or Robinson returns, it’s not out of the question.

Option 2: Free agent

Here is the complete list of remaining unrestricted free-agent cornerbacks:

Courtesy of Over The Cap

The Giants are just about tapped out in effective cap space, so barring further restructuring of contracts, they will not be signing a higher-end free-agent cornerback. There aren’t many available in any case. Stephon Gilmore isn’t what he used to be, but he is still an effective cornerback; however, he will be 34 this season and isn’t a good fit for a rebuilding team. Steven Nelson and Rock Ya-Sin are somewhat younger capable cornerbacks who could be possibilities at a lower cost. Ex-Giant Fabian Moreau, who played well for them could probably be signed for a vet minimum deal.

Option 3: Draft a cornerback

Chris Pflum noted this past weekend that there is a lot of cornerback talent at the high end of the 2024 draft, but there isn’t a lot of depth. Never say never, but almost surely the Giants will not be drafting a cornerback in Round 1, nor Round 2. You can’t draft just for need, but you should draft where need meets value. One of those picks will surely be a wide receiver; multiple good-to-great options should be there when the Giants pick in both rounds. The same may be true for quarterback, depending on how deep Joe Schoen’s list of acceptable prospects goes. This is the one downside of the trade for Brian Burns – having an extra second-round pick would have been really helpful.

That leaves Round 3 if the Giants don’t pass on QB in the first two rounds. The Giants could seek a starting CB2 there. I’ll suggest that they won’t, though, for two reasons. Here are the top 20 CB prospects from the NFL Mock Draft Database Consensus Big Board:

Courtesy of NFL Mock Draft Database

There will probably be a run on cornerbackss in the mid-to-late first round, and then another early in Round 2. At No. 47 the Giants could get a promising cornerback if they wish, but they won’t. No. 70 in Round 3 is a bit of a no-man’s land for cornerbacks, though, once Mike Sainristil is off the board. You never know when a promising player will drop to you (e.g., Nick Falato likes Max Melton more than some draft boards do), but it might be more of a stretch to take one of the remaining cornerbacks there to play on the boundary and expect them to start right away.

The second reason I believe the Giants won’t take a cornerback in Round 3 is one of their other big needs – the offensive line. Most of the attention given by Giants fans to the offensive line problems has focused on the underperformance of Evan Neal at right tackle. Tackle, though, was not the Giants’ worst offensive line problem last year:

These are sack stats from Pro Football Focus, which separates offensive line responsibility for sacks from quarterback and other player responsibility, i.e., the Giants’ place in the chart above excludes any sack that Daniel Jones (or Tyrod Taylor or Tommy DeVito) was culpable for.

The Giants IOL by itself gave up more sacks (25) than the total number of sacks surrendered by the offensive lines of 20 NFL teams, and twice as many as the Giants’ offensive tackless did. That’s amazing. The only team close to them in IOL futility was Carolina – that’s not company you want to be keeping.

Of course, there are only two OTs but three IOLs on the field for any play except for jumbo packages, so all else being equal, one would expect more IOL-attributed sacks than OT-attributed sacks. Yet the offensive tackles are the ones who have to face most of the league’s best pass rushers. The Giants’ moderately good number of OT-caused sacks is partly due to having Andrew Thomas on one side, but he only played half the season, and the Giants replaced him in several games with guards (Josh Ezeudu, Justin Pugh).

The bottom line is that the Giants’ IOL was a bigger part of the offensive disaster last season than most of us give it “credit” for. Center John Michal Schmitz was part of the problem, but as a second-year player, they are not about to replace him this soon. The Giants tried to address the other part in free agency, signing Jon Runyan to man left guard and Jermaine Eluemunor to play right guard. That should help. However, if Neal struggles again at right tackle, expect Eluemunor to move over to replace him. The possibility of that happening suggests that drafting a guard has to be a priority, and if you want such a player to be ready to play starting snaps as a rookie in an emergency, then you don’t wait for Day 3 to get him. The Giants signed Aaron Stinnie as a contingency plan in case Eluemunor has to move outside, but you don’t want that as your only option.

Here is the top of the IOL big board from the NFL Mock Draft Database:

Courtesy of NFL Mock Draft Database

Not all of those prospects are guards, but many are. IOLs don’t tend to fly off the board as quickly as some other positions, so there is a decent chance that the Giants could get a player of the caliber of Cooper Beebe or Christian Haynes at No. 70. If not there are some interesting ones a little lower. Value on the IOL tends to be more spread out in the draft than value at cornerback, so we might expect the Giants to leave Day 2 with a guard rather than a cornerback. This might also be a place where Schoen attempts a trade-down to add assets.

That still leaves the question of the Week 1 CB2 up for grabs. The Giants could draft a cornerback in Round 4 from some of the names further down the depth chart above. Occasionally you get a gem that late who can start right away, but there is not thought to be another Tariq Woolen in this draft. What position the Giants go with at No. 70 may tell us a lot about where their bigger concern lies, cornerback or guard.

Who do you think the starting CB2 will be?

Cornerback prospect profiles

Andru Phillips
Kamari Lassiter
Mike Sainristil
Ennis Rakestraw Jr.
T.J. Tampa
Kool-Aid McKinstry
Cam Hart
Khyree Jackson