New York Giants: Secondary will prove to be catalyst for change

The New York Giants secondary is a clear weak point and is an area that will have a huge bearing on how this season pans out.

After plenty of changes over the offseason, the New York Giants secondary is a very interesting part of this side. This new-look group of players, which includes 2016 Heisman Trophy finalist Jabrill Peppers and three-time Pro Bowler Antoine Bethea, was always going to take a bit of time to gel. However, what we’ve seen thus far is a long way from promising.

Week 1 against Dallas showed glaring weaknesses within the secondary of Pat Shurmur’s team. While the Cowboys’ run game was limited as far as the Giants’ defensive line could go, the passing game wasn’t. Dak Prescott’s four passing touchdowns, which came at the hands of multiple easy drives, showed how much work the Giants do need to do on defense.

Throughout the Dallas game and the matchup with the Bills, which saw the Giants drop to the dreaded 0-2 start on the year, there have been far too many occasions where it’s looked as though the Big Blue is playing without safeties.

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Whether it’s been the play calls or just lazy defensive activity, there’s been far too much space for opposing receivers to operate in. This is perhaps the most important area the coaching staff has to look at.

It’s all too easy to lock down the offensive gameplan, but when you’re as weak defensively as this Giants team is, there’s a big chance for the opposition to come out with maximum points on each and every drive, at least it looks that way.

Sunday’s Week 2 matchup against Buffalo wasn’t as bad as the Dallas game, but there are areas which can only get better over time. Cornerback Janoris Jenkins blamed the team’s pass rush for the Bills’ ability to make long plays on Sunday.

On another day that the Giants defense wishes it could forget, there were plenty of errors, and Jenkins probably has a valid point: a pass rush that gave Prescott all the time in the world in Week 1 showed the wrong type of consistency by allowing second-year quarterback Josh Allen to look like a veteran at times.

When you’ve got a less than average pass rush in place as well as a newly assembled secondary coming off the back of losing team captain Landon Collins, it isn’t going to be easy. But still, the players in place have to be better than this.

This season was never going to be about winning games week in and week out. It’s a rebuilding year and that’s a fact. This Giants team won’t be winning anytime soon, but they’ve got plenty of promise and that second-year running back, who has been made one of the team captains this year, doesn’t look too bad either.

In a post-Odell Beckham Jr. and Landon Collins era, the goal is always going to be to get back on track, the track to being a competitive side in this league and being a football giant again — something that might not be as far off as popular belief would suggest. For that to happen, though, changes must start in the secondary.