Giants let former first-rounder walk because of faith in this corner

Former first-round pick Adoree’ Jackson is currently a free agent after playing out his three-year, $39M contract with the Giants and at this point, it’s almost guaranteed that he won’t be returning to New York. According to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post, the team’s decision to let Jackson walk without a new contract is a result of their trust in Deonte Banks to step up as a “true No. 1” cornerback.

Jackson had been an extremely successful signing over his first two seasons with the Giants but saw his quality of play decline drastically in 2023. After grading Jackson out as the 15th- and 31st- best cornerback in the NFL over first two years with the team, Pro Football Focus ranked Jackson at 117th out of 127 graded players last year.

Banks, a first-round rookie in 2023, didn’t grade out much better last fall, with PFF marking him as the 110th best cornerback in the NFL. Still, Banks was productive as a rookie, nabbing two interceptions and leading the team with 11 passes defensed last year. He’s extremely physically gifted for the position and many in the building believe he surpassed Jackson on the depth chart last year.

He’ll have his work cut out for him as the team’s top corner in 2024. The Giants open their season against the Justin Jefferson and the Vikings. Other receivers he’ll be expected to shadow on the schedule are Terry McLaurin (twice), CeeDee Lamb (twice), A.J. Brown (twice), Amari Cooper, D.K. Metcalf and Ja’Marr Chase. The Giants have faith that Banks will develop into the CB1 they’ll need in order to succeed in 2024.

Here are a few other rumors coming out of New York:

• We’ve heard plenty of rumors already that Giants head coach Brian Daboll will take over play-calling duties for the offense in 2024 over offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. While it’s only organized team activities, Dan Duggan of The Athletic may have confirmed that notion, reporting that Daboll has been calling plays in OTAs. Daboll was spotted in the offensive huddle in-between each play while Kafka was lurking 10 to 15 yards back and to the left of the offense.
• Giants defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson missed out on getting promoted to replace Wink Martindale as the defensive coordinator, losing out to former Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. Despite the exodus of defensive staff that would usually follow such a move, Daboll made it clear that he wanted almost all of the assistant coaches on the defensive side of the ball to stay, per Paul Schwartz of the New York Post. Bowen was given a chance to make desired changes, but following the lead of Daboll, who personally let go any defensive staffers he didn’t want to hold on to, Bowen opted to retain much of the same staff as the previous campaign.