Getty FA Safety Earl Thomas
Earl Thomas’ tenure in Baltimore has officially come to an end. The Ravens announced the release of the three-time First-Team All-Pro selection on Sunday, two days after a confrontation with teammate Chuck Clark.
A few days ago, the idea of the New York Giants acquiring Thomas seems somewhat unnecessary. While he’s undoubtedly an elite talent at the position, New York appeared more than set at safety. Jabrill Peppers, Julian Love and rookie Xavier McKinney were all projected to play massive roles for Big Blue in 2020.
However, a recent injury to McKinney may force Love, who was expected to moonlight at both safety and cornerback this season, into a more standard safety role.
Yet, while Love may be a more than serviceable replacement for McKinney, the addition of Thomas in Big Blue’s secondary could potentially unlock Love’s true potential.
Plugging Thomas at Safety Gives Giants Flexibility at CB
Are we proposing the Giants sign a 31-year-old safety only to move him to cornerback? Certainly not. Yet, how about a 22-year-old safety who, less than two years ago, was locking down wideouts on the boundary with regularity?
Rising sophomore, Julian Love, is currently slated as the jack-of-all-trades in the Giants’ secondary. Fresh off a brilliant 2019 campaign in which he finished ranked as the No. 13 player on PFF’s Top 50 NFL Rookies list, despite playing at a foreign position, Love has begun to make a pseudo-return to his natural position of cornerback during training camp.
With DeAndre Baker’s playing career very much in doubt and Sam Beal’s decision to opt-out of the 2020 NFL season, Love has been cross-training at both positions for the Giants this summer.
“He has the athletic ability that we’re going to play him in a different variety of spots based on the matchups,” head coach Joe Judge said of Love, per NY Post. “You see him play up in some man-coverage sometimes. We’re going to move him around as needed.”
In 2018, Love’s final season with the Fighting Irish, the then full-time cornerback finished with a highly impressive coverage grade of 90.7, ranking as the third-best mark by a player in his draft class.
While players such as Darnay Holmes, Corey Ballentine and Dravon Askew Henry have had their moments in camp, none are guaranteed to be the answer opposite James Bradberry. The addition of a player as steady as Thomas at safety could allow the Giants to be more aggressive with Love’s reversion to cornerback.
Hybrid Talent at Safety Would Allow Thomas to Roam the Backend
While Love is the most obvious name to make a position switch, he’s far from the only Giants safety with the potential to do so.
The team has hinted at Jabrill Peppers taking snaps at cornerback this season, who not so long ago was a Heisman Trophy finalist as a linebacker.
Xavier McKinney may ultimately prove to be the most versatile of the bunch, although he will now need to wait a bit longer to prove his case.
At Alabama, McKinney was one of just five collegiate safeties over the past two seasons to play over 450 snaps in the box, slot and at free safety. Of those five safeties, only McKinney received a Pro Football Focus grade of 70.0+ at all three alignments.
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NY Has the Cap Space, But Do They Want the Burden?
Thomas was set to make a base salary of $10M with the Ravens this season. According to Over The Cap, the Giants are currently sitting on over $22.5M in cap space, clearly enough spending money to pursue Thomas if they so choose.
The question is will they? Aside from the fact that Thomas doesn’t fill a direct void on their roster, his off-the-field/locker room concerns over recent months, which include being held at gunpoint by his wife, have likely hampered his value on the open market.
More importantly, bringing aboard a player with these recent transgressions, no matter how talented, does not seem to follow the Joe Judge approach of building a football team.
While the addition of Thomas would certainly soften the blow of losing McKinney, as well as potentially solve their pressing need at cornerback in a roundabout way, it’s highly unlikely the Giants would proactively pursue Thomas.
Instead, they’ll likely leave that up to their NFC East foe, the Dallas Cowboys.
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