There was a moment in time, not too long ago, when New York Giants linebacker Tae Crowder was labeled “Mr. Irrelevant.”
That will happen when you are the last player selected in the NFL draft, as Crowder was back in 2020. He’s quickly put those days are behind him and now he’s considered a veteran player, one who is seen a a leader on the Giants’ defense.
Crowder stepped in for the injured Blake Martinez last season after Martinez blew out his knee in late September and not only called the defensive signals for the rest of the season, but led the Giants in total tackles with 130.
Martinez is back this summer, fully recovered, but that hasn’t diminished Crowder’s place in the Giants’ lineup.
“He looks good,” Crowder said of Martinez on Tuesday at training camp. “The whole linebacker core is looking good. We are pushing each other. Everybody is coming to work each day, so I feel like that’s the important thing.”
New defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is bringing a legacy of success to the Giants. The players are embracing him.
“I just feel like he was an aggressive kind of play-caller. I knew it was going to be fun just having him as a coordinator,” said Crowder, who will line up inside again this year.
One of the nuances Martindale brings is that the safeties, not the linebackers, will be calling the signals. Crowder and the rest of the defense are still acclimating to that change.
“It’s a little different just because last year, obviously, I was calling it. Just having to get the communication from somebody else that’s the only difference,” he said. “We still are communicating as a defense, and everyone is still talking so, it’s cool.”
Communication will be the key, as it always is, for this defense to succeed. Competition is also a driver and Crowder has seen that early on at training camp.
“The competition level is actually at a high level. Everybody is coming to work every day. It feels like everybody wants to get better every day. So, I think that’s the biggest difference of this group, just coming each day and wanting to actually be better than yesterday,” Crowder said.
