The Giants started eight different cornerbacks in 2022 (both outside and in the slot) and needed a lead at that position to play against veteran Adoree’ Jackson.
“You can never get enough good cornerbacks,” said coach Brian Dabul. “This is a passing league. We have a tough split and ‘Ty’, he’s a long, long corner kick and press, man-to-man that we’ve got high marks for, and we’re happy to have him.”
Banks is excited to be joining the Giants and excited to play in Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale’s gritty scheme. Banks grew up in Baltimore, where Martindale worked for the Ravens for 10 years before joining the Giants.
“I used to (watch crows a lot),” Banks said. “I’m very familiar, actually (with the defense). They talked to me when I was there for the meeting, so I kind of felt that, and I like that. I like that, actually.”
Schoen said Martindale was “thrilled” to acquire Banks.
“You guys know Wink’s defense and what he likes,” Schoen said, “and DuNet fits that mold with a T.”
“He played a lot of journalism man-to-man,” said Daboll. “We play a variety of defenses with our system, but he’s played a lot of coverage and man-to-man pressing and he’s strong. He’s got good length. He’s got good speed and pace. Now we’re just going to throw him in to mix with our mates and it’s good to have him.”
Banks was the third layoff, after Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes and Oregon State’s Christian Gonzalez went Washington-New England 16-17. With the top cornerbacks and wide receivers off the plate, Schoen concluded he had to make a move. He sent the 25th overall pick, as well as their first fifth-round pick, 160th overall, and the first of their three seventh-round picks, 240th, to Jacksonville for the 24th pick.
“It was the right thing to do for us,” Schoen said. “We do a lot of research on the needs of the team, what the people behind us need, including the team we’ve dealt with. So this was a scenario that we put together early in the day if we got there, and we were concerned about everyone else getting into that position. We had something in Jacksonville and it worked.
So, trying to manage phone calls with teams of us while also tracking options if we decide to drop out. Then the other option was to stay, pick at 25. We had a bunch of guys who ended up in the same range. Again, all the irony, if Was a player you aspire to, you naturally think everyone else might be…. You try to go through as many of those scenarios as you can and have phone calls with other general managers throughout the league and have good dialogue and conversations, where if you’re around the clock And there was an opportunity. I spoke to Trent Palkey in Jacksonville earlier today and I said, “I don’t know if there’s a scenario where I’m concerned someone might come after us into this position, would you be open to it, and that would be the criteria, and we stayed on contact throughout the draft period. “
In four seasons at Maryland, Banks played in 30 games with 21 starts. In 2021, he made just two appearances before a shoulder injury hampered him for the remainder of the season. Last year, he played in 12 games with eight starts and was credited with recording a career-high 38 tackles (25 solo) and nine passes defensed.
“I’ll give Scouts credit for that,” Schoen said. “He got injured in 2021 and one of our guys was there in August, he wasn’t really on our radar because he didn’t play much in 2021 and so our scouts were early on. We were able to go out and look and we had many looks all fall, live looks, both It was at school or games or in training. So, we had very good coverage on him.”
In addition to meeting Banks at the complex, the Giants hosted him for a visit at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center.
“I met with them several times,” Bank said. “They took me to dinner when I went out to visit. I met all the coaches when I was there and I also met my DB coach (Jerome Henderson) a week later he came to me, and we went outside to eat. We also met in the conference room.”
“He’s a classy individual,” said Schoen. “Football intelligence was good. Very good understanding of their defence.”
And Banks is well suited to defending Giants.
* The Giants currently have the 26th overall in both the second and third rounds of the draft — the 57th and 89th overall picks — which take place on Friday.
After dealing with two first-round picks, the Giants had five draft picks going 4-7 on Saturday: the fourth round (#128), fifth round (#172), sixth round (#209) and two. In the seventh round (243 and 254).
