Who will start at free safety next to Pro Bowl safety Landon Collins is still a huge unknown for the New York Giants.
A week ago head coach Pat Shurmur was hopeful that he would get some clarity on who will be the New York Giants’ starting free safety.
But after two weeks of training camp and the team’s preseason 20-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night, we still do not have insight on who will start next to Landon Collins when the regular season kicks off September 9 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Darian Thompson started all 16 games at free safety least season and finished third on the team in tackles with 75. However, throughout training camp, several players including Thompson, Curtis Riley, Andrew Adams, and even William Gay rotated with the first team defense at safety.
Giants secondary working on tackling drills @EliteSportsNY #GiantsPride #NYG pic.twitter.com/a79A8p6Ddg
— Jason Leach (@JasonKLeach) August 2, 2018
In the team’s first unofficial depth chart release, Riley was listed as number one on the depth chart, but he was unable to play in the preseason opener due to a hamstring injury. Gay was also unable to play against the Browns due to his hamstring injury he suffered in practice, and then to make matters worse, Thompson left the early due to suffering his own hamstring injury.
Due to these injuries, Adams saw an extensive amount of playing time on Thursday night and would lead the team in tackles with seven.
Even with Adams’ effort on Thursday night, Shurmur admitted in his conference call on Friday that there’s still isn’t any clarity on who will be the starting free safety.
“Curtis wasn’t out there and then [Darian Thompson] hurt himself on one of the special teams and was out of the game with a hamstring. Probably no. In terms of the clarity, no. There were guys that were out there performing well, but in terms of saying this is the guy, I would say no.”
The Giants will have a morning practice on Sunday, and then another morning practice on Monday before leaving for Detroit to have joint practices with the Lions before the two teams meet in their second preseason game Friday night.
Shurmur spoke about what lies ahead this week.
“We’ll practice on Sunday in pads. We’re going to practice on Monday, and then we’ll fly to Detroit. Then Tuesday, the practices will be held in the mid-morning. So Tuesday, we’ll practice in Detroit in Allen Park there at their facility. I guess it’ll be like 9:30 [a.m.] or so. Same on Wednesday, same on Thursday. Then, we’ll play them Friday night”.
When the Giants return home at the end of next week Shurmur hopes he’ll have more insight on who will be the team’s starting free safety.
