Giants looking to internal option for second outside cornerback?

But the Giants have some in-house candidates to replace Jackson. An early favorite may well have emerged. Brian Daboll mentioned Cor’Dale Flott as a player the team believes in, per the New York Post’s Paul Schwartz, signaling a potential position change for the primary slot corner.

The Giants drafted Flott in the 2022 third round and have mostly deployed him as a slot piece, but with Jackson out of the picture, the team may be grooming the LSU alum for perimeter work. Flott, 22, played 518 defensive snaps last season. That work came for a Giants team that featured Jackson opposite 2023 first-rounder Deonte Banks. The latter will be one of New York’s starting outside corners to begin the season. Flott may well be the other.

Pro Football Focus did not grade Flott well in 2023, slotting him 101st at the position. The 6-foot-2 cover man did drop his completion percentage-allowed (as the closest defender) number from his rookie year, lowering it from 63% in 2022 to 59.6%. Flott will need to hold off the likes of Nick McCloud and Tre Hawkins. The latter, a sixth-round pick out of Old Dominion, impressed during the Giants’ 2023 training camp — to the point the Giants kicked Jackson inside to accommodate the rookie. But Don Martindale quickly benched Hawkins, scrapping the training camp experiment and moving Flott into a central role.

As for how the Giants will address the slot position, Schwartz adds third-round rookie Andru Phillips may be positioned to take over. Phillips will receive “every opportunity” to win Big Blue’s slot job. The team re-signed veteran slot player Darnay Holmes, but after it chose Phillips 70th overall, the former appears an insurance option. A Banks-Flott-Phillips trio appears the Giants’ preferred path, though offseason and training camp work could certainly change that.

The Giants have used a third-round pick on a corner in three of the past four drafts. The first of those, Aaron Robinson, has seen his career skid off track. Commandeering the starting outside job opposite Jackson in 2022, Robinson — chosen 71st overall in 2021 — missed all of last season due to injury. Robinson suffered ACL and MCL tears in October 2022 and landed on the Giants’ reserve/PUP list last season. Daboll’s latest assessment of the former starter does not bode well as the third-year coach said Robinson remains with the Giants’ rehab group at this point in the offseason.

If the Giants are to consider veteran assistance, Jackson joins some other notable names available. Patrick Peterson and Stephon Gilmore are available ahead of their age-34 seasons. Younger options include Steven Nelson, J.C. Jackson, Ahkello Witherspoon and ex-Giants Fabian Moreau and Eli Apple.