Will New York Giants’ Jacquian Williams Impact the Game vs the Patriots on Sunday?
This year the New York Giants rookie class has been disappointing. First round pick Prince Amukamara has been sidelined all year with a broken foot (hurt in his first practice after he held out and was the last rookie first round pick to sign), Marvin Austin was IR for the entire season with a pectora injury, Jerel Jernigan struggled so much in preseason the team has rarely let him see the field (I think he’s run three pass patterns so far), James Brewer has been inactive in nearly every game (and perhaps every game have to go back and look, think he was active for one), and the Giants fifth round pick was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for Sage Rosenfels and Darius Reynaud (neither player is currently with the New York Giants).
But then the sixth round came around and the Giants have seen return on their investment there. The Giants drafted two very productive Big 10 college players in Greg Jones (Michigan State) and Tyler Sash (Iowa) at great values. (They also drafted a fast running back out of Maryland Da’Rel Scott who had a very impressive pre-season, but hasn’t done much yet in the regular season, and hasn’t received many opportunities either).
And then the Giants drafted Jacquian Williams the LB from the University of South Florida and everyone said, “Who?”. Williams was nost listed on any draftnik’s big boards and there were no scouting reports available for him save for a nice article written on him by Bears beat writer Sean Jensen
But through the first part of the season it’s been evident that Williams has natrual abilities to suceed in N.F.L. particularly speed to burn. Williams has also proven to have good timing on blitzes as he often puts pressure on the quarterback on blitzes. Williams is also very plus in coverage. Through the first five games, Williams had 33 tackles which was second only to Buccaneers LB Mason Foster for rookies. But missed assignments, and some suspect run defense Williams had him benched after the bye week vs the Dolphins. He was replaced by Greg Jones. Against the Dolphins Jones had four tackles one for a loss, but the Giants again struggled vs the run.
This week the Giants will play in New England vs the Patriots who have one of the most dangerous passing teams in the league and it’s likely that the Giants will call on Jacquian Williams to excel in coverage the Patriots and their short passing game. Will he be up to the challenge?
The Patriots are well aware of who Williams is because he had a coming out party in the preseason game vs the Patriots where he had his finest game as a young player. Will he replicate the same kind of success in the preseason he had vs the Patriots? Will he be able to connect home on some of the bliztes he’s been very close on. Will the Giants let him back on the field after a bad performance vs the Bills.
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I’ll have a lot more on this game between now and Sunday.
Tommorrow I’ll have another rookie watch, NFL Midseason awards. On Saturday we have a bunch of scouting reports coming out. Stay tuned.
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