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5 Former Giants are Super Bowl Bound
Seattle Seahawks defensive end Leonard Williams is one of five former NY Giants players who are Super Bowl bound. Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Next to actually hoisting the Lombardi trophy in the air after being crowned world champions, there is probably no better feeling for an NFL player than to make it to the Super Bowl, a game played on the world’s biggest stage in terms of global reach and ramifications. 

Although it’s been over a decade since the New York Giants have been on that stage, there will be five players on both the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots combined who fall under the “Once a Giant, always a Giant” slogan that the team’s late owner, Wellington Mara, once coined.

Here’s a look at players who once wore Giants blue but were part of some of the team’s leanest years, leaving them dreaming about what a Super Bowl experience might be like.

The Seahawks have three former Giants

The Seahawks have three former Giants on their roster, two of whom, safety Julian Love and defensive lineman Leonard Williams, were key starters during their time with Big Blue, and the other, quarterback Drew Lock, a key reserve.

Love, a 2019 fourth-round pick by the Giants, left the team in free agency after the 2022 season, coincidentally his first full season as a starter.

Love, who in his first season with the Seahawks earned a Pro Bowl berth, appeared in 64 games with 32 starts and posted five interceptions, 1.5 sacks, 291 tackles (192 solos), 13 tackles for loss, and four quarterback hits during his time with the Giants.

Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Williams originally began his NFL career with the Jets, who traded him midway through the 2019 season to the Giants, who then traded Williams midway through the 2023 season to Seattle.

During his time with the Giants, Williams appeared in 61 games with 53 starts, posting 22.5 sacks, 230 tackles (115 solos), 27 tackles for loss, 72 quarterback hits, six pass breakups, and four forced fumbles. 

Since being traded to Seattle, Williams has also thrived, earning back-to-back Pro Bowl berths and a second-team All-Pro nod.

Lock spent just one season (2024) with the Giants as the backup to then-starter Daniel Jones. 

Lock appeared in eight games with five starts, notching just one win in a game against the Colts in which Lock had a career game in throwing for 309 yards and four touchdowns, completing 73.9% of his pass attempts in a 45-33 rout of the Colts.

Lock’s final stats in his one season with the Giants were 107-of-181 for 1,071 yards, six touchdowns, five interceptions, and a 75.5 passer rating.

The Patriots are sending two

As for the Patriots, their former Giants include third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito, who, of course, rose to fame in 2023, his rookie season, when he stepped in for an injury-wrecked quarterback unit.

For a brief time in what was an otherwise miserable season, DeVito gave Giants fans a spark of hope by winning three straight games, including an upset win over the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football, to keep Big Blue’s slim playoff hopes alive that year before the bottom fell out. He was ultimately benched midway through a loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

DeVito, who was the odd man out of the Giants' quarterbacks room last summer, appeared in 12 games with eight starts for the Giants, going 3-5 in those games. He completed 145-of-222 pass attempts (65.3%) for 1,358 yards and eight touchdowns to just three interceptions for an 88.4 passer rating.

The other former Giant on the Patriots is a guy who had a cup of coffee in New York but who has seemingly found new life with New England: defensive tackle Cory Durden, who was with the Giants in 2024 after being signed off the Rams practice squad in November of that year following a rash of injuries to the Giants' interior defensive line.

In his one season with the Giants, Durden appeared in four games, registering 10 tackles and one tackle for loss in 84 defensive snaps. Durden also contributed in 18 special teams snaps in his short stint with the Giants.

As a member of the Patriots' defense, Durden appeared in all 17 games with four starts. He recorded 30 tackles, five tackles for loss, and one quarterback hit–all single-season career highs–in 383 defensive snaps. He also contributed to 97 special teams snaps.

Congratulations to all the former Giants headed to the big game in two weeks.

This article first appeared on New York Giants on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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