Matt Citak: It’s no secret that the defense has struggled to stop the run over the last few seasons. When you combine that with coach John Harbaugh’s general philosophy of wanting to run the ball and stop the run, it should not come as a surprise that improving this area of the defense was a priority for the Giants this offseason. And it has been reflected in some of the team’s early moves in free agency.
One of the first agreements the Giants came to once the negotiating period opened last week was with linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. The veteran comes to the Giants with a whopping 900 career tackles across his first eight seasons. The 6-foot-4, 251-pound linebacker has recorded 100+ tackles every year since entering the NFL as a first-round pick in 2018 and is coming off one of his best campaigns in terms of stopping the run. Edmunds picked up 42 run stops last season, according to Pro Football Focus, the second-highest total of his career. In addition to his strong abilities against the run, Edmunds has also done a great job of staying on the field throughout his career with only two seasons of less than 15 games played, and no more than four games missed in a single season.
Along with the addition of Edmunds, the Giants also brought back Micah McFadden. The 26-year-old suffered an injury in the first half of last year’s season opener, which forced him to miss the remainder of the year. However, McFadden had registered back-to-back 100+ tackle seasons in 2023 and 2024, and it looked as if he was really starting to round out into form prior to the Week 1 injury. PFF had him down for 41 run stops in 2024 and 36 the previous year, which were easily his best two seasons against the run.
While the Edmunds-McFadden duo offers a very solid pair of linebackers in the middle of the defense, the Giants may not be done adding to the position. Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles appears to be firmly in play for the Giants with the fifth overall pick. Adding Styles to the two veterans would give the Giants perhaps their best linebacker core in a very long time. Even if the Giants don’t go with Styles at No. 5, there are numerous intriguing linebacker options that could be available at No. 37 that would also help shore up the depth at the position. Georgia’s CJ Allen, Texas’ Anthony Hill Jr., and Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez are all projected to go either late in the first round or sometime in the second round, and any of the three would provide the run defense with yet another big boost.