The New York Giants lost safety and team captain, Julian Love, to the Seattle Seahawks last offseason. They followed that up by losing safety and team captain, Xavier McKinney, to the Green Bay Packers this offseason.
Those departures have left the team incredibly thin at the position.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently broke down the position and declared it a “glaring issue” for the Giants.
“I would be surprised if they didn’t take advantage of the market and add at least one veteran safety,” Barnwell said. “Justin Simmons, Quandre Diggs, Marcus Maye, Tashaun Gipson and Julian Blackmon are all free agents. . . Adding one of those guys on a one-year deal would bring a veteran into the defensive backs room and help a team that is otherwise set to run out a young secondary.”
Those over at Pro Football Focus concur and believe the Giants are the best landing spot for free agent safety Julian Blackmon.
Blackmon started for two seasons in college at cornerback, and he has logged more than 350 slot snaps since 2022. In Gus Bradley’s Cover 3-heavy scheme, Blackmon spent plenty of time as a single-high safety. Almost half of his snaps were down in the box in 2023. Blackmon appears to be a better fit near the line of scrimmage due to his average recovery speed, but his plus lateral movement and solid ball skills from his days as a cornerback show up more often when closer to the line of scrimmage. Blackmon’s 30 defensive stops in 2023 were more than his career total before this season, and he missed a career-low 7.4% of tackle opportunities.
The 25-year-old Blackmon was a third-round pick of the Indianapolis Colts in the 2020 NFL draft. He’s appeared in 50 career games (46 starts), recording 214 tackles (163 solo, 12 for a loss), two forced fumbles, two QB hits, one sack, 17 passes defensed, seven interceptions and one touchdown.
In 2023, Blackmon earned an overall PFF grade of 68.3.
If the Giants are interested in Blackmon, they won’t be alone. The Colts recently re-engaged contract talks with the free agent safety.
