No. 49 and The NY Giants Player Who Wore It Best

The countdown to the 2025 New York Giants season continues as we embark on the 49th day until the team’s season opener versus the Washington Commanders. As a way to acknowledge the days until kickoff, this article will commemorate the number 49 by recognizing the best players in Giants history to wear the corresponding number.

Who wore the number #49 in at least one regular season game?

DE Don Vosberg (1941) WR Dick Horne (1941) C Harold Hall (1942) T Frank Damiani (1944) HB/DB  Ray Coates (1948-1949) ATH Tom Landry (1950-1955) DB Erich Barnes (1961-1964), CB Jim Holyfield (1969) RB Joe Orduna (1972-1973), DB Jimmy Norris (1987) DB David Tate (1993) FB Nikita Whitlock (2015) LB Curtis Graham (2017), OLB Carter Coughlin (2020-2021) MLB Benardrick McKinney (2021), OLB Tomon Fox (2022-2023),  OLB Matthew Fox (2024). 

*Jersey numbers per Pro Football Reference

Which Giants player wore it best?

Before ever gracing the sidelines as a Hall of Fame NFL head coach for the expansion Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry paid his dues on the gridiron as primarily a defensive back and punter for the New York Giants. 

Despite initially being drafted by the Giants in the 18th-round of the 1947 draft as a futures pick—a pick that, at the time, allowed NFL teams to draft under classmen and retain their rights until they completed college education—Landry opted to sign with the New York Yankees of the All-America Football Conference(AAFC), who selected Landry in the 1948 AAFC draft, a team that, as Landry would later note in his biography, had a lot of native Texans on the roster, making the Texans born rising star feel more at home. 

As part of the Yankees, Landry was a defensive back and punter. He would join the Giants after the 1949 season, when the AAFC folded. Landry not only served as a player, but he also acted as a pseudo-coach of the defense, famously being chosen by head coach Steve Owen to explain the 6-1-4 scheme, or “umbrella” defense, to the Giants defense.  

Landry was named the Giants' defensive coordinator in 1954 while still performing as a player. He would later devise a defensive scheme that focused on reading keys based on where players would move, both before and after the snap.  

Landry’s final year as a player was in 1955, but he continued as a coach, pioneering the 4-3-4 defense (four down linemen, three linebackers, and four defensive backs), which replaced the 5-3-3 alignment (five defensive linemen, three linebackers, and three defensive backs).  He also devised blitzes that made for tough sledding for opposing offenses. 

In 1959, Landry’s last season as Giants defensive coordinator, the defense allowed only 170 points, 49 of which came in a single game against the Eagles.  Landry aspired to become a head coach, preferably with the Giants.

At the time, Jim Lee Howell was entrenched as the head coach, and Landry, deciding not to wait for Howell to retire, received permission from Giants team owner Wellington Mara to speak with the Dallas expansion team about their head coaching job.

Landry was hired by the Dallas team, initially known as the Rangers before becoming the Cowboys, a role he held for 29 years.

Mara, meanwhile, always regretted not being able to retain Landry, for whom he had a fondness. Landry, meanwhile, posted a 27-20-1 career coaching record against the Giants.

Who’s Wearing It Now?

Linebacker/special teams ace Chris Board has been assigned No. 49 for the coming season, the number he previously wore while with the Ravens and Lions. 

Last season, Board finished as the Ravens’ special teams tackle leader (10 total, eight solo). In just two seasons (2020 and 2019), Board finished as either first or second on every team he’s played for in special teams tackles, recording double digits in that category in five of his seven seasons in the league.