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USA Today Sports Media Group
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John Fennelly

Watch: Highlights of Giants first-round pick, Deonte Banks, in college

Deonte Banks Giants TE New York Giants Joe Schoen Nick Falato Maryland (Organization) the New York Giants Wink Martindale NFL

The New York Giants selected Maryland cornerback Deonte Banks with the 24th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft on Thursday night.

Banks is perhaps the best complete corner in this year’s draft class and he fits perfectly into Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s defensive scheme.

“You guys know Wink’s defense and what he likes, and Deonte fits that mold ‘to a T,'” Giants general manager Joe Schoen told reporters after he made the pick.

“He was ecstatic.”

Banks has world-class speed. He ran the 40 in 4.32 seconds at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine and is a top cover corner.

Here are some of Banks’ highlights from his days at Maryland:

Banks has eye-popping talent

Banks, who is 6-foot tall and weighs in at 197 pounds, ran the 40 in a sizzling 4.32 seconds at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine to go along with a 42-inch vertical and a broad jump of 11 feet, four inches.

He was a four-year starter at Maryland, appearing in 30 games, starting 21. In 2022, he recorded 38 total tackles with nine passes defensed and one interception and was an All-Big Ten honorable mention selection as a senior last year.

Did someone say "shutdown corner?"

Banks is a solid man-to-man cover guy. The Giants have been short on those in recent years. In a passing league, that can kill a team (and it has).

“You can never have enough good corners,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll. “This is a passing league. We have a tough division and Te, he’s a tall, lengthy, press, man-to-man corner who we had graded high, and happy we have him.”

“He’s a prototype from a size standpoint. He’s athletic. He’s physical. He can run. He has arm length, big hands. He’s been a four-year starter. He was hurt a year ago but he has played a lot of ball there at Maryland and schematically, he’s a good fit,” general manager Joe Schoen said.

Banks was on the Giants' radar, big time

“We spent a lot of time with him,” said Schoen. “Met with him at the Combine. He’s a guy that, you know, we went down to the pro day, and we spent a good amount of time with him, and again we felt comfortable with him.”

Schoen felt he had to trade up in order to secure Banks as the teams around them were taking a lot of their available options.

“If you look a lot of the mocks and just like you guys track the 30 visits, we track the 30 visits, and the reality is, the last four or five teams in a line there, when things looked like they were lining up for us, he visited a lot of those places,” he said. “So you take a lot of that into account, risk versus reward. Didn’t want to get greedy. Hey, this is a player we like, we covet, don’t get cute. Let’s just take him, and then we’ll move on to day two of the Draft.”

Happy to be a Giant

“I like them. They cool. They have a unique kind of character. I loved them. It was a great meeting,” Banks said of his pre-draft interactions with the Giants.

“When I came out here, it felt like it was my home. I felt like that. Everybody was cool. It just felt like my home. It felt like family…I already knew if I made it to 25, it was going to be the Giants. I already knew.”

Other college film

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