{"id":904424,"date":"2026-05-29T13:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/904424\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:18:14","slug":"better-or-worse-giants-deeper-at-safety-but-will-the-starters-improve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/904424\/","title":{"rendered":"Better or worse? Giants deeper at safety, but will the starters improve?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much like the cornerback position we discussed on Thursday<\/a>, the New York Giants have poured a considerable amount of resources into the safety position the past couple of seasons without the return on investment they hoped for.<\/p>\n

Will things be better or worse in 2026? Let\u2019s examine the safety spot as we continue our position-by-position \u2018better or worse?\u2019 look at the 2026 Giants.<\/p>\n

Key additions: Elijah Campbell, Jason Pinnock, Ar\u2019Darius Washington
Key losses: Dane Belton<\/p>\n

The roster: Elijah Campbell, Beau Brade, Jevon Holland, Raheem Layne, Tyler Nubin, Jason Pinnock, Ar\u2019Darius Washington<\/p>\n

For starters, because three is better than one.<\/p>\n

Dane Belton had an outstanding season for the Giants in 2025 as a special teamer with a career-best 19 tackles. He started nine games, had an interception, two sacks, three forced fumbles, three tackles for loss, and five passes defensed.<\/p>\n

The Giants, though, replaced one quality depth player with three \u2014 Elijah Campbell, Ar\u2019Darius Washington, and Jason Pinnock.<\/p>\n

Washington is following coach John Harbaugh from the Baltimore Ravens, where he previously spent all five seasons of his NFL career. He can play safety and slot cornerback, and Baltimore sources I have spoken to believe the 26-year-old still has untapped upside.<\/p>\n

Pinnock had his best season in 2023, operating as a blitzing, athletic weapon in Wink Martindale\u2019s ultra-aggressive defense. The Giants brought the 27-year-old back this offseason, perhaps because defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson is expected to run a defense with similarities to Martindale\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Campbell, 30, has started just three of 68 NFL games. He has mostly been a special teamer, with more than 1,200 special teams snaps played to 296 defensive snaps played in a six-year career.<\/p>\n

Neither of the starters, Jevon Holland and Tyler Nubin, played up to expectations a season ago. Can they take steps forward?<\/p>\n

Nubin was a 2024 second-round pick, and Harbaugh seems optimistic about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing out [of college] he was a guy that everybody liked,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cHigh draft pick. He looks good, too. He\u2019s leaned up. He\u2019s moving well.\u201d<\/p>\n

If neither of those players is more impactful, at least one of the depth players will have to step forward. Will that happen?<\/p>\n

I believe the Giants will be better at safety this season. Maybe what we saw from Holland last year is the kind of player he really is, but I believe that is a better player than he showed in 2025. It is also clear there is more depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much like the cornerback position we discussed on Thursday, the New York Giants have poured a considerable amount…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,1917,56,1870,1978,2321,2469,6],"class_list":["post-904424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-new-york-giants-analysis","tag-new-york-giants-roster","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116658064794666131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}