It would be easy to name Abdul Carter as a breakout candidate on defense for the New York Giants. Would it really be a breakout for Carter if he has a big second season, or would he just be doing what he was expected to do when the Giants made him the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft?
Instead, I am going to choose a heavily-criticized third-year player who has not come close to being the player the Giants expected when they drafted him in 2024.
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Safety Tyler Nubin.
A second-round pick in 2024 taken at least in part to soften the blow of having lost safeties Julian Love and Xavier McKinney in free agency, Nubin has not been the ball-hawking player with the Giants that he had been collegiately for the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Nubin had 13 interceptions, 11 passes defensed, and 3 forced fumbles in 55 collegiate games. In two seasons with the Giants, Nubin has no interceptions, one forced fumble, and just three passes defensed, in 26 games — 24 of which were starts. He ranked 50th among safesties in 2024 and 68th last season using the Pro Football Network Impact Score. Pro Football Focus ranked Nubin 29th of 66 qualifers in 2024, but just 53rd of 65 qualifers in 2025.
By those measures, he got worse instead of better.
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I did not have the opportunity to speaks with Nubin this spring about new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson and the team’s new defensive scheme, but this from legendary Giant Carl Banks got my attention:
The “allows him to play like he did in college” especially stood out.
Coaches always talk about putting players in the best possible position to succeed. Too often, though, that is just talk. Too many coaches are married to a system, and they try to play it regardless of the personnel they have. Then, they end up wondering why it doesn’t work when they to fit square pegs into round holes.
The best coaches understand that to get the best out of players they must utilize their strengths and do their best to hide their weaknesses. The best organizations know what they have seen a player do on film and whether or not he fits what they will be doing before they draft him.
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Nubin, as we have talked about many times, is not an elite athlete for the safety position. He is a smart, aggressive player with good instincts and ball skills who can make plays when put in the right situations.
Perhaps Wilson, a safety as a player, will be able to figure out how to deploy Nubin, thus unlocking the playmaking potential that got the Giants to draft him.
