The Giants took wide receiver Odell Beckham with the 12th pick in Thursday night’s first round, bringing the receiving corps some help after a rough 2013 season.
On Friday, though, safety Antrel Rolle wanted to talk about a player who joined the team earlier in the offseason. Rolle said he thinks cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, who signed with the Giants as a free agent, has the ability to be “one of the best corners in the NFL” and challenged his former Cardinals teammate to reach that level in 2014.
“I’ve played the corner position. I’ve been around several corners, and I know the talents and athleticism he brings to the game.” Rolle said, via Bob Glauber of Newsday. “He’s freakish. You put that together, along with the knowledge of the game, understanding where your team is going to be, when to gamble here and there, when not to. I think he has the best safeties around, with Stevie Brown, myself, Will Hill and Quintin Demps. Now he needs to show how good he can be.”
Rodgers-Cromartie has been in the NFL for six seasons and missed four games over that time, making for a pretty good book on him at this point in his career. It’s rare that a player who has played one way for six years suddenly eliminates the flaws in his game in Year Seven, so we may have already seen how good he can be at the NFL level.
And that should be enough to make the Giants defense better, although it certainly wouldn’t hurt if the Giants found some pass rush help in the next couple of days that puts less pressure on Rodgers-Cromartie, Rolle and the rest of the defensive backs.