New York Giants: Tre Boston would provide stability in secondary
The New York Giants are reportedly meeting with safety Tre Boston, a potential signing that would be a quality addition to a secondary with questions.
There is no denying that the New York Giants have talented players in the defensive backfield. Janoris Jenkins has shown he can be a high-level cornerback. The G-Men also added Sam Beal in last year’s Supplemental Draft and spent a first-round pick on Deandre Baker in 2019. Furthermore, the Giants also have Jabrill Peppers joining the party as part of the Odell Beckham Jr. trade. That doesn’t mean Tre Boston wouldn’t help, though.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported on Monday that, on the cusp of Giants training camp beginning, New York is meeting with Boston, who remains a free agent after seeing a lucrative safety market go by early. Rapoport offered nothing more than the fact that the team and player were meeting but it does seem that a signing is a possibility.
In truth, there is a natural fit for Boston in the Giants secondary solely in terms of his position. As a bona fide coverage safety, the 27-year old safety who has played on three teams in as many seasons recently fits seamlessly next to Peppers on the back end. Furthermore, Boston is an upgrade from veteran Antoine Bethea, who currently seems in line to start at free safety.
More than just the fit positionally, though, Boston provides the Giants something else that they don’t have: stability.
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Despite the evident talent in the Giants secondary, there are few proven commodities. Peppers was inconsistent in Cleveland, Jenkins has been a rollercoaster himself, Beal has hardly seen an NFL field and Baker hasn’t yet at all.
So, even if you like the pieces that are in New York right now, it’s hard to fully trust them on a week-to-week, snap-to-snap basis at this point. Maybe they come out in the 2019 season and take a big step forward and showcase that they can be a strong core but trusting them to do that right now would be a mistake.
Boston, however, has shown in his young career that he can be a high-end performer at safety consistently. Despite playing for three different teams in the past three seasons, he has still been one of the highest-graded safeties in the league by Pro Football Focus (subscription required), particularly in regards to his coverage abilities.
It’s hard to say why Boston is still available at this point in free agency but it certainly has nothing to do with his level of play. Even playing in new systems these past few seasons, he’s still come out, picked up his new role and performed well in it. That kind of consistency is invaluable to a defense like the Giants’ that has very little of that in their current form.
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Depending on the money that Boston wants, the Giants should be heavily inclined to ink the free-agent safety. This is a team that is going to have their share of growing pains in 2019 given their roster turnover. Subsequently, having the opportunity to strengthen and likely improve an already-talented unit on defense should only help lessen the blow of those growing pains.