The New York Giants’ defense is reliant on the safeties calling the shots, and this summer the team will be led by fourth-year player Xavier McKinney and former free agent addition Jason Pinnock.
Pinnock has been all over the place in both practice and in games this preseason, enough to earn him a starting job.
“I think that nothing has been set in stone yet, but it’s obviously looking that way,” Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale told reporters on Wednesday about Pinnock starting.
“I think that what he did last year and what he’s done to get in shape and get his body right and another year in the system so he’s playing even faster, more reacting instead of thinking now. I think he’s got a bright future.”
McKinney or linebacker Bobby Okereke are the top candidates to ‘wear the headset’ or ‘green dot’ and call the defensive signals but Pinnock could be in the mix as well.
“We’ve had a bunch of different guys doing it,” Martindale said. “I think it will still be one of those decisions that we will wait until probably the week of Dallas but we are going in the direction that I like.”
Pinnock has been superhuman at times, making eye-opening plays and is hard to miss while out on the field. He’s good and he knows it.
“I’m one of the best safeties in this league, and it’s just I haven’t been able to show that yet, and now it’s time, you know?” Pinnock recently told the New York Post.
The Giants think so. Now it’s time to prove it in some real games.
