00:05the Giants defense added some length and some much needed size to the trenches on
00:10the defensive side of the football and you pair up the personnel with the play
00:14caller and the 2026 Giants defense has a chance to be a top 10 to 15 defense if
00:21new defense coordinator Denard Wilson is going to mirror the success he had his
00:26first season as DC and Tennessee when he turned around one of the worst defenses
00:31in the league and turn that into a top four defense he's going to have to get
00:37his front seven to dominate the trenches and of course stop the run because
00:43what's the point of having a big three of pass rushers if offense is running up and
00:49down the football field on you in fact Brian Burns told me once you got to earn
00:54the right to pass rush and that means stop letting teams run up and down the
00:59football field so the pass rushers get third and medium to third and longs to
01:05punch in the clock and go to work check this out according to Google AI search
01:11their words not mine the New York Giants 2025 run defense was a historic disaster
01:17allowing 2470 total yards and 5.3 yards per carry to finish near the bottom of the league this abysmal
01:27performance ultimately led to the firing of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen again Google's words not my
01:34145.3 rush yards allowed per game 21 rushing touchdowns allowed 69 runs of 20 plus yards for a league
01:45rank of
01:4631st and rushing yards allowed per game but look that was last season we put that to
01:51bed a long time ago and John Harbaugh and Joe Shane addressed the trenches in free agency in the draft
01:58and they
01:59added some length and beef to this year's front seven first move Bobby Okereke was released to add some money
02:08to the cap and
02:09then we saw Dexter Lawrence get traded to the Bengals for a first round pick in comes free agent
02:14signing Tremaine Edmonds to fill that void left by Bobby Okereke Shelby Harris and DJ Reader will anchor the
02:21interior defensive line and then they drafted who some called the best player in the entire draft in
02:29Arvel Reese so let's break down the defensive line first because it was hard to watch the entire sexy Dexy
02:36situation unfold I mean dude was one of the faces for the franchise for almost his entire tenure as a
02:43Giant was an all pro at one point but the 2025 numbers for both him personally and the Giants defense
02:51just is what it is or was what it was it was bad Shelby Harris wasn't signed as Dex's replacement
02:57he's
02:58one of many or a defensive line by committee as I like to call it he'll be one of the
03:03anchors up front
03:05last season he finished the year with the 64.4 run defense grade on PFF and ranked 28 out of
03:12134
03:13qualified interior linemen in that category his job is simple he's getting paid to push at the point of
03:21attack take up some space fill some gaps and allow those linebackers to run free DJ Reader is another guy
03:29that's brought in for a d-line by committee 61.7 run defense grade in 2025 with 18 solo tackles
03:38Dexter
03:38Lawrence had the highest double team rate last season and guess who was number two Reader but
03:44what jumps out on tape when we're talking about this kid is how he was able to control the double
03:49team at
03:50times split it and still get in on the tackle 64.4 run defense grade for Harris 61.7 for
04:00Reader versus 46.6
04:03grade for the Giants interior defensive line as a unit last season those two are not the future but
04:10they're two vets that Wilson can plug and play and add value to that run defense now let's go to
04:17the
04:17interior backers Bobby Okereke had one of his best NFL seasons in 2022 when they signed him in free
04:25agency 143 total tackles in 2025 which was top 10 in the league but he earned a pro football focus
04:33run
04:34defense grade of 46.2 that ranked him 81st among qualified linebackers and he had a 13% missed tackle
04:42rate I say that to say this Joe Shane John Harbaugh rolled up their sleeves and then they added two
04:4964 plus interior backers that can run are athletic and are very physical at the point of contact
04:58Tremaine Edmonds comes over in free agency and then they use the fifth overall pick in the draft on
05:03Arvel Reese when they signed Edmonds they signed him to a three-year 36 million dollar deal
05:09six foot five 250 pounds only 28 years old and he showed he can still get sideline to sideline
05:17by racking up 112 tackles three tackles for loss and four interceptions and 13 starts for the Bears
05:24last season he recorded 47 run stops and a 7.9% missed tackle rate to go along with the
05:3181.1 run defense
05:34grade which ranked him 16th instant upgrade on the second level as for Arvel Reese after watching how
05:41this kid moved throughout OTAs and mini camp during the spring you can tell that he is going to come
05:49in
05:49and have an immediate impact on this defense especially in the run game now look we got to
05:55wait until the pads come on just to see how nasty and how physical he could potentially be
06:00but we saw the explosiveness we saw the way that he closes and we definitely saw his ability to get
06:07east west all throughout his college career and during his short time as a giant final thought the
06:14Giants defense got better by subtracting and adding certain personnel not to mention adding a defensive
06:20coordinator that wants his players to be aggressive within the front seven and the trenches all in all
06:26on paper it looks great so did last season but it's clear John Harbaugh doesn't want his defense
06:33getting ran over in his first year as head coach
06:37you
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