The New York Giants traded up to gain a third first-round pick last night in the 2019 NFL Draft. With the 30th overall pick, they selected Deandre Baker, a defensive back out of Georgia.
Baker was the first defensive back taken in the draft and will add depth to the Giants secondary this season.
Here are five things you need to know.
Award-winning performances
As a collegiate athlete at Georgia, Baker had to work hard to earn his starting position. A feat he finally achieved during his sophomore season. His junior year, he was a second-team All-SEC selection after starting 14 of 15 games and recording 444 tackles, three interceptions and nine pass breakups. The most important interception that season came against SEC rival Alabama during the national championship game.
As a senior, Baker was the Jim Thorpe Award winner as the nation’s top defensive back. He was also named to an AP first-team All-American and first-team All-SEC after starting 13 games and recording 40 tackles, two interceptions and a team-high 10 pass breakups.
He wasn’t always a defensive back
When Baker arrived on the scene at Miami Northwestern High, he wasn’t a defensive back, he was a wide receiver. But the team already had depth at the position, so Baker didn’t see a lot of time on the field. Stephen Field, who coached Baker during his sophomore and junior years at Northwestern, brought Baker on a summer college tour where they landed at a camp at Florida State.
Field urged Baker to use the time to see if he could use his quick feet and long range on the defensive side of the ball. It didn’t take long for Field to realize that a switch was warranted, and upon arrival back at Northwestern, Baker moved to defensive back.
Family is everything
Baker showed interest in football from infancy…
“When he was an infant, he used to sit up and watch football games like he was already a teenager,” Andre [his father] said. “He’d sit and watch whole games.”
It’s rare for an infant to show such interest in football, so as he grew, Baker’s family rallied around him and kept him on the straight and narrow in an area where it was common for a kid to be killed once or twice a month due to violence on the streets.
His family supported him, urging him to use his physicality and academics to provide a bright future. His father had him doing 200-300 push ups a night to help instill discipline, and his family was always there to hold him accountable. Without their reliability, Baker might not be the man he is today.
His size could be a problem
At 5-foot-11, 193 pounds, Baker is on the small side for an NFL corner. This could pose a problem against bigger receivers, although the other Giants’ defensive backs are of similar size.
However, the average size of an NFL receiver is 6-foot-2, 245. As long as Baker doesn’t allow himself to be pushed around on the field, something that could easily happen with his thin lower body, he should be able to maintain his top-level play.
A strong work ethic
To combat his size, Baker has developed a strong work ethic, something instilled in him by his father at a young age. He had to change positions in high school in order to get playing time. He didn’t start in college until several games into his sophomore season due to being beat out by other players. But he kept at it, kept working, kept watching film and learning from his mistakes. And that hard work paid off in his being named the nation’s top defensive back in 2018.
Baker’s ability to read routes comes from his background as a wide receiver. His speed, constant communication with teammates and competitive nature should all combine to allow him to overcome the size differential and be a starter on day one for the Giants.
