Landon Collins may have been the Giants’ second-round pick in this past weekend’s NFL Draft, but he was their most important addition.
Despite surrendering 400 points last season, Big Blue did little to improve their shaky defense in free agency. Then, with the ninth choice in the draft, Jerry Reese chose Ereck Flowers, a massive offensive lineman from Miami whom the GM likely could’ve landed if he’d traded down another 10 spots.
Undoubtedly, the Giants can use a shot in the arm on the offensive front and Flowers should provide that. But the primary reason the team went 6-10 last year was a defense that couldn’t stop anyone -- at least no one good. They played eight games against playoff teams, and didn’t win a single one, while yielding an average of 33 points per contest.
Can Collins, who was widely regarded as the best safety in the draft, help change that? Reese better hope so, after dealing his own second-round choice (No. 40 overall), as well as his fourth-round and seventh-round picks to the Titans to select Collins with the first pick of the second round (No. 33 overall).
At 6 feet tall and weighing nearly 230 pounds, Collins is nearly as big as your average linebacker, and basically played as one at Alabama, with his best work done in the box and against the run -- an especially weak spot for the Giants. In 2014, the team’s run defense ranked 30th in the NFL in terms of yardage, and they gave up the most yards pers attempt in the entire league.
However, Big Blue’s pass defense wasn’t exactly stalwart either, even as their 47 sacks were among the league’s best. Collins’s 4.5 second 40-yard-dash time ensures that he’ll be faster than many of the running backs and tight ends he’ll be asked to cover in passing situations. Opposing wide receivers may well be more of a challenge, particularly for a player who didn’t get much practice in covering them while in college.
Reese made other moves to shore up the defense this weekend, including the third-round selection of UCLA defensive end Owa Odighizuwa, who the team is hoping is the new Osi Umenyiora -- and not just because of his similarly near-impossible-to-spell name. In the fifth round, the Giants picked up Mykkele Thompson, a safety with size and speed nearly identical to Collins, but a much thinner resume than the Crimson Tide All-American.
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But make no mistake: if Collins becomes one of the better safeties in football over the next few years, and Flowers proves worth his lofty draft slot, then the Giants’ 2015 draft will be regarded as a resounding success. But if the two rookies don’t make an immediate impact -- especially Collins -- there may be someone other than Reese calling the shots in the not-too-distant future.
