The Giants Defense is best known for its pass rush. It's transitioned from Michael Strahan to Justin Tuck to Jason Pierre-Paul without missing a beat. But you may be surprised to learn that it's made a bigger impact with its secondary than its pass rush in recent years.
New York has ranked higher than 14th in sacks just once in the last five years; outside the top 20 in three of those seasons. But in interceptions, it's been one of the league's best over that span.
The Giants have put a lot of free agent dollars and draft picks into their secondary, drafting Landon Collins and Eli Apple and signing Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Janoris Jenkins. With that core, it's totaled 87 interceptions over the last five seasons. That's an average of 17.4, 3rd-best.
Interceptions have been on the decline league-wide, but New York is a defense that's defying those trends.
Team interceptions over the last five season, sorted by total picks, are shown below.
INTERCEPTIONS, 2012-2016 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | Total |
Arizona | 22 | 20 | 18 | 19 | 14 | 93 |
Cincinnati | 14 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 17 | 92 |
N.Y. Giants | 21 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 87 |
Carolina | 11 | 20 | 14 | 24 | 17 | 86 |
Seattle | 18 | 28 | 13 | 14 | 11 | 84 |
Buffalo | 12 | 23 | 19 | 17 | 12 | 83 |
Tampa Bay | 18 | 21 | 14 | 11 | 17 | 81 |
Green Bay | 18 | 11 | 18 | 16 | 17 | 80 |
Denver | 16 | 17 | 18 | 14 | 14 | 79 |
New England | 20 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 13 | 78 |
San Francisco | 14 | 18 | 23 | 9 | 10 | 74 |
Kansas City | 7 | 21 | 6 | 22 | 18 | 74 |
Chicago | 24 | 19 | 14 | 8 | 8 | 73 |
Atlanta | 20 | 10 | 16 | 15 | 12 | 73 |
Cleveland | 17 | 14 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 73 |
Miami | 10 | 18 | 14 | 13 | 16 | 71 |
Philadelphia | 8 | 19 | 12 | 15 | 16 | 70 |
Washington | 21 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 68 |
Houston | 15 | 7 | 20 | 14 | 11 | 67 |
L.A.-St.L. Rams | 17 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 67 |
Tennessee | 19 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 67 |
Detroit | 11 | 15 | 20 | 9 | 10 | 65 |
Baltimore | 13 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 18 | 64 |
Indianapolis | 12 | 15 | 12 | 17 | 8 | 64 |
Minnesota | 10 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 62 |
San Diego | 14 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 18 | 61 |
Pittsburgh | 10 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 13 | 61 |
Oakland | 11 | 9 | 9 | 14 | 16 | 59 |
Dallas | 7 | 15 | 18 | 8 | 9 | 57 |
New Orleans | 15 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 57 |
N.Y. Jets | 11 | 13 | 6 | 18 | 8 | 56 |
Jacksonville | 12 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 45 |
--Andy Richardson