Giants Reveal Key Hire for Brian Daboll's Defensive Staff

After adding defensive backs coach Marquand Manuel, New York made another move to help fill out the defensive braintrust.

According to Jordan Schultz, the Giants hired key assistant defensive backs/cornerbacks coach Jeff Burris on Thursday.

Burris was most recently the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Louisiana Tech – his second stint with the program. He also spent 2018–2020 with the Ragin’ Cajuns as the cornerbacks coach. In between, he spent three seasons as Louisiana’s cornerback coach.

New York will be Burris’ second NFL coaching job. He was the Miami Dolphins’ assistant defensive backs coach from 2013–2015, after Daboll’s tenure as offensive coordinator but right on time to overlap with Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who was a member of Miami’s front office at the time.

Burris was a first-round pick in the 1994 NFL Draft, spending a decade in the league at corner between the Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, and Cincinnati Bengals. After his retirement, Burris moved to the coaching ranks with the Sacramento Mountain Lions and UMass before his jump to the league. He was a defensive analyst at Notre Dame in 2016 and the defensive backs coach at Northern Iowa a year later.

Tasked with helping a secondary that struggled in 2024, Burris must improve the team’s ball production. New York found just five interceptions on the year, one of which came from linebacker Darius Muasau.

Slot corner Dru Phillips stood out in his rookie year, but first-round corner Deonte Banks’ struggles on the boundary became a point of contention as the defense faltered and the Giants got little production from the second outside corner spot, rotating between veterans like Nick McCloud, Cor’Dale Flott, and Adoree’ Jackson.

Working under defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, Burris’ work is cut out for him. New York needs more from its secondary in 2025; perhaps Burris and his 19 career interceptions can help.