The numbers and words hovered over the Giants like a dark cloud all offseason and weighed on Steve Spagnuolo like an anchor. The Giants were the worst defense in the NFL last season. They had one of the worst defensive seasons in NFL history.
But Spagnuolo has made one thing clear: Those bad days are over now.
“They’re done,” the Giants’ defensive coordinator said on Wednesday. “We’re going to be better. We’re going to be better because of players. We’re going to be better because of better coaching, less mistakes, because it’s the second year in the system. That’s what we fully expect to do.
“Everything that happened and what we went through last year is over.”
At least he hopes so. And he better hope he’s right, too. Because this year the Giants have the players to succeed. Which means Spags, and the rest of the Giants, are out of excuses now.
Spagnuolo knows it too, but his confidence was clear in some pretty tough talk coming from a coordinator who’s last two defenses – 2012 in New Orleans and last year with the Giants – were among the NFL’s worst-ever units. And he’s not the only one. He just summed up the feeling that’s been around the Giants’ facility all offseason long. Everything is trending up, especially on defense, and that’s because the defensive room is filled with much better players than before.
Last year Spagnuolo spent most of his time plugging holes on his beleaguered unit. This year he can actually coach and be creative because there are far fewer holes to fill.
“Well, look, I’ve always said this league is about players and the more top-notch players you can have I think the better defense you’re going to be,” he said. “To me it doesn’t matter what scheme you’re going to put in, players make plays. We’re looking for guys that can produce.”
And unlike last year, the Giants have them – or at least they’re pretty sure they do. They went on an unprecedented (for them) $200 million spending spree to get the top defensive end (Olivier Vernon), top defensive tackle (Damon Harrison), and top cornerback (Janoris Jenkins) on the market, and they brought back a still-good pass rusher in Jason Pierre-Paul.
The three newcomers alone are a giant step up over what Spagnuolo had to work with last season when Robert Ayers gave him little in the pass rush in the first half of the season. But they are deeper and better at other key positions too. Jenkins and first-round pick Eli Apple give them strength at a corner spot where they were mixing and matching with whatever bodies were available last year. Keenan Robinson and Kelvin Sheppard upgrade a middle linebacker spot that was a mess after Jon Beason got hurt. And he has high hopes that impressive rookie safety Darian Thompson can fill the big void they’ve had at safety for several years.
Add in the hoped-for return to health of defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins, linebacker Devon Kennard, defensive end Owa Odighizua, and the presumed improvement of Pierre-Paul, and it all adds up to an NFL-caliber lineup – something Spagnuolo definitely didn’t have at his disposal last season.
The talent frees him up to disguise coverages, knowing he has the players who can handle it. He can rediscover his aggressive nature now that he has players capable of reaching the quarterback on a blitz. He can even get creative with his defensive line in the same ways he did back in 2007-08 now that he has markedly better players to work with up front.
The Giants and new coach Ben McAdoo kept the 57-year-old Spagnuolo after last year’s disaster because they believed he was still a terrific coach. They understood the problem was that he didn’t have the players.
Now he has Vernon, the player “the offensive coaches thought was the toughest player to play against last year,” Spags said. He has Jenkins “a competitive, top-notch guy that doesn’t back away from anything.” He has Harrison and Hankins, “guys that people are going to be concerned with.”
So it’s no secret. Everyone knows Spagnuolo has the tools he needs now to put last year’s misery behind him. He’s convinced that they will.
And it’s up to him to make sure of that.