Against the Chicago Bears in Week 12, the New York Giants rotated cornerbacks DeAndre Baker and Sam Beal to some relative success.
Add in the performance of defensive back Julian Love, who basically does it all, and Giants head coach Pat Shurmur was pleasantly surprised with what he saw despite the 19-14 loss.
“Well, it was good to see Beal on the field. His first action, so to speak, playing defense. He played the week before, but extended and planned. He did a good job,” Shurmur told reporters.
“What I liked about it? They’re young players, and if we add Love, we have another rookie out there. You can make the case that really Sam is a rookie. Last year was like year zero for him, because he didn’t get a chance to compete at all. But he competed. First, he got lined up properly. He knew, generally speaking, what to do and he competed. It’s always good to see a young player get out there and get something done.”
Baker took 63% of the team’s defensive reps on Sunday, while Beal took 37%. The end result? A strong showing by Beal and Baker’s best performance of 2019.
Not wanting to mess with one of the few good things happening with the team, Shurmur revealed that Baker and Beal will remain in a rotation for the time being.
“Yeah, they’re both going to play. So, probably we’ll stick with it,” Shurmur said. “I think it was good to get Beal on the field. DeAndre… It’s always good when there’s a competitive setting, too. I think I mentioned it earlier in the week on the conference call, but when he was out there, he competed hard. When he wasn’t in there, he was standing there, watching and in-tune with what was going on. Hey, they’re young players. There’s a lot to learn for all of them. We’ll keep them all going.”
The competition should light a fire under Baker, who admitted only a few short weeks ago that he didn’t have a handle on the playbook, while Beal has the scheme down pat but has lacked the necessary playing time due to injury.
