Darius Alexander

"Hello, New York Giants fans, and welcome to another edition of the Locked On Giants podcast. My name is Patricia Traina, your host, and on today's Locked On Giants podcast, we'll talk a little bit about what went down at practice, the last practice of pre-season during Wednesday's practice. A couple of things worth mentioning, but first, my 53-man roster projection is here. So let's get right into it because we got a lot of stuff to cover. Now this is obviously based on the current state of the roster, and this is before the Jets pre-season finale, where roughly about five to seven guys can probably sway things one way or another. So this is going to be my only roster projection on this show. I'll probably do one more post-game on New York Giants On SI, but let's get into it. All right, we'll start off with quarterback. Easy peasy. It's going to be two. Jackson Dart, Jameis Winston. I think if they keep a third quarterback, that person is going to go to the practice squad. I think you have to keep a third quarterback somewhere. Again, on the practice squad, because just in case something happens with Jackson Dart, you want to have somebody who can, you can bring up from the practice squad if you need a backup to Jameis Winston, should you need him to start. So whether that's Brandon Allen or Jake Hayner, I don't know which one of those two it's going to be, but I think a third guy goes to the practice squad. Running backs. I'm going with four. Najee Harris, Cam Scadaboo, Tyrone Tracy, Devon Singletary. Now, as far as the pecking order goes, I still think it's going to be a committee approach, and it's going to depend on the opponent, the situation and all that stuff. I don't know that, you know, you can honestly say that one guy is going to be the definite starter week in and week out. And again, with starters, it's basically who takes the first snap of the game. So, you know, I do think though, if Najee Harris, you know, does indeed make the team, and I think he will, he might be put on a pitch count initially, because remember, he's just coming off of that Achilles injury, hasn't really gone through a whole summer training camp. So, I could see a scenario where Cam Scadaboo handles a lot of the heavy lifting initially, and they just continue to build up a ramp up Najee Harris to where he can take on some of that pounding later on in the year. Tight ends. Now, I put Patrick Ricard, the full back, in the tight end group. So, I have the Giants keeping four. Isaiah Legley, Theo Johnson, Chris Mannertz, and Patrick Ricard, the full back. Mannertz was a guy that initially I wondered if they would keep him since he basically kind of does the same thing as Ricard. But after seeing that Mannertz was part of the leadership council, the Eight-Man Leadership Council, I think it's safe to say he's making the team. Theo Johnson has been dealing with a shoulder injury. He missed practice on Wednesday because of what John Harbaugh said was a shoulder injury. So, that prompted the Giants to bring in another tight end, a kid that they had had on their mini camp roster, a guy who was a tryout. I don't think Theo's injury is anything to worry about. I think the reason they brought in the extra tight end was to have enough bodies to go through the preseason finale. But that's something to keep an eye on with Theo Johnson because shoulder injury, then you got to wonder how effective he's going to be as a blocker moving forward. All right, wide receiver. I'm going with six. Now, before I give you my six, it was during Wednesday's practice, Malik neighbors went through the practice but left early roughly about 20 minutes or so before the practice actually ended, walked off the field with a trainer. John Harbaugh told the media that it wasn't part of the plan for Malik, he said as far as he knew, there was no injury involved, that normally he's updated right after practice if somebody has an injury, but it's something to keep an eye on. I don't think it's anything to be worried about because if it was, Malik wouldn't have walked off under his own power, he would have probably needed some help to walk off. I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. Remember, Malik is going through his first week of getting jostled around now because he's not wearing the red contact jersey or no contact jersey, I should say. There could be some getting used to the soreness and whatnot. That's my perspective on anything. Also remember, the Giants have a walk-through practice on Thursday. It's going to be closed to the media. They have the game on Friday. Malik's not playing in the game. They are off on Saturday. Malik's going to have three days to recover from whatever it is he might be feeling. Again, it could just be general soreness from having Gatton knocked around just a little bit as he continues his ramp up. I right now am not worried about that. That said, my six making the Giants roster, my projection. Malik Neighbors, Malachi Fields, Darius Slayton, Odell Beckham Jr., Braxton Berrios and Dalyne Cambry. I do not have Dornell Mooney making the roster. I still think that it is possible the Giants look to trade Mooney. Now, just let me go into why I picked some of these guys. The unfortunate ACL injury suffered by Calvin Austin pretty much opened up a roster spot. And I thought, you know, coming in, Odell Beckham Jr. was 50-50. To Odell's credit, he has been having a good week of practice. John Harbaugh even said that he had a great week of practice this week. And Odell looked pretty darn good in Wednesday's practice. So, any doubt about Odell making it, I think we can erase it. Now, I have Braxton Berrios for the return specialist job. Also, he can give you something on offense if you need him to. And Dailen Cambry is purely a special teamer. By the way, Jalen Hyatt hasn't practiced in, I don't know, it's got to be at least two, two and a half weeks, maybe three weeks. He's going to IR. I mean, no doubt about it. His Giants career is done. And it's a shame, but guy's going to stay healthy and he hasn't helped himself. So he's going to need to go on IR, maybe get an injury settlement. And they just, you know, get that roster spot. Or, you know, they give his jersey number back to Odell if Odell wants it. Okay. Off and some line. I've got nine. So you have your five starters, Andrew Thomas, John Runyon Jr. at left guard, John Michael Schmitz at center, Francis Malinoa at right guard, Germaine Illuminaur at right tackle. Your backups, Marcus Bowe, JC. Davis, Brian Hudson, and Aaron Stinney. I'm going with Brian Hudson over Lucas Patrick. Lucas Patrick's knee still makes me a little nervous. Brian Hudson, I think, has more upside. If you're talking about keeping a young center, I would go with Hudson, who can also play guard, by the way. I get it, Lucas Patrick is a little bit more established, a lot more established actually, but Hudson is healthier and younger and able to bounce back quicker from the bumps and bruises. So I think they go with the nine. And as was the case yesterday, they traded Joshua Azudu. So Azudu no longer in the picture. And I don't think Evin Neil is in the picture either. I mean, if anything, maybe Evin Neil goes to the practice squad. It's a no risk type of guarantee. Assuming that he gets to waivers, maybe you put them on the practice one, you continue to develop him. But at this point, I just wonder if they're gonna go that route or if they're just gonna say, okay, you know what, we gave it a shot and it didn't work out, so we're gonna move on. So that is my offense. I think if we add everything up, it comes to 25 on offense, which means we've got another 28 guys to do, all on defense and special teams. So I will do that section for you right after this. Hey, Giants fans, support for today's episode comes from Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps connect employers with candidates who match specific needs so that less time gets spent searching. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. And in the minute that I've been talking to you, companies like yours have made 27 hires on Indeed according to Indeed data worldwide. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help get their job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support the Locked On Giants podcast by saying that you heard about Indeed on this episode. indeed.com/podcastterms and conditions apply, need to hire, this is a job for Indeed-sponsored jobs. All right, Giants fans, welcome back to the Locked On Giants podcast. We are part of the Locked On Podcast Network now, the number one sports podcast network in America, celebrating our 10th anniversary all year long. I'm your host, Patricia Traina, credential member of the Giants Media for Locked On, as well as for New York Giants On SI, which is where all of my written work. Welcome to the Blue Crew, my newcomers and everybody in between. Thanks so much for spending part of your day with us here on Locked On Giants or if you're making us your first listen of the day, I appreciate that as well. We are looking at my 53-man roster projection, initial 53-man roster projection, because you know there's going to be tweaks made, there's going to be some additions made in the coming days after the rosters are set. This is an initial look. Let's do defense now. We're going to do defense and special teams. Starting with the defense of Lyman, I've got five guys right now, but I have an asterisk, and I'll tell you what that is as soon as I give you the names. So the five guys I have are DJ Reader, Darius Alexander, Shelby Harris, Chauncey Golston, who I am counting as a defensive Lyman even though he can be, you know, an outside linebacker. And I also have Bobby Jamison Travis. I do not have Leike Foutou making it. Now here's the asterisk. The Giants are going to get another defensive lineman. They have to. They cannot go into the season with two guys who are over 30. I mean, Shelby Harris, he's had his reps managed all spring, all summer long. The Giants defensive line group right now has an average age of 28 years. That's all the guys together. Based on these five projections that I just made, that average age jumps up to over 30 years. So the 28 years actually is second oldest on the 90-man roster behind quarterbacks. Quarterbacks would be the oldest. But once everything is all trimmed down according to my projections here, the defensive line group becomes the oldest unit on the team. You got to get more youth on that. You just got to. Now, whether that means sending Bobby James and Travis to the practice squad, whether that means, I don't know, cutting, gosh, I don't think they would cut anybody. I think James and Travis would have to be the guy out, the odd man out. But I am not going to be surprised if the Giants bring in another defense alignment. I think they need to. Okay. Now, let's do inside linebackers. I'm going to go with five at this position. And my five are Arvel Rees, Tremaine Edmonds, Micah McFadden, Jack Kelly and Zaire Barnes. Barnes, special teams, all right? Your special team, your core special team people are going to be your linebackers, your defensive backs, your receivers. You gotta allow for special teams. So I figured there's going to be about five to six guys who maybe are going to be core special teamers. Zaire Barnes is one of them. And I think Zaire Barnes, again, if you need him to give you a few snaps on defense, I think he's a little bit better of a player over say Darius Moulso, who, you know, I like the kid, but I just don't know that he makes this roster. All right, outside linebackers. This is kind of easy. I actually went with four here. Initially I was going with three, but I'm going to go with four again because of special teams. So the four I have, Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeau, and Caleb Murphy. Murphy, special teams. All right. Now, yes, there was going to be a way they could get all three of the main guys on the field. That's for another show though. We'll discuss that in another show down the line. But those four, I think, have the best chance of making the roster. Four safeties. I'm keeping four safeties. Javon Holland, Tyler Newbon, Jason Pinnock, and Ardarius Washington. Now, Washington can also be like a cornerback if you need him, a slack cornerback. So he's kind of like that swing man, if you will, on the defensive side. The only question here is, which of the four are the starters? I think Javon Holland is a lock. Tyler Newbon's been having a little bit better of a practice. So he's making more of a claim to keep his starting job. But don't rule out Jason Pinnock. And I say Jason Pinnock over Ardarius Washington, because Ardarius Washington is going to be that chest piece, that swing guy, whether you put him at deep safety, box safety or slot. So he's going to get moved around. I think Pinnock is definitely the biggest challenger to Newbon's starting job. And right now, I think Newbon has a little bit better grasp on it. But that's to be seen. There's one more game to be played. So we'll see if that holds true. Cornerbacks, I have them keeping seven. And I know it's a lot, but I have questions about this group. All right, some of the seven I have them keeping. Adibo, Paulson Adibo, Greg Newsom II, Colton Hood, Drew Phillips, Deontay Banks, Art Green and Nick Jones. Art Green and Nick Jones are special teamers. Green and Jones last year were two of the better gunners that this team had. So unless somebody emerges in this preseason game against the Jets, then I think those two guys you got to consider, all right? They don't, you know, Nick Jones doesn't give you a whole lot as a cornerback, whereas Art Green can. He could play, you know, outside or in the slot. But I'm talking just strictly for special teams. And by the way, I don't think, you know, by the time they play Dallas, I don't think they'll have seven cornerbacks, but we're talking initial projections right now. So those are the guys that I have at cornerback. And then finally, we have the specialist. This is kind of easy. Ben Mann, Jordan Stout, the punter and Dominic Savada as the place kicker. Easy. I mean, Savada, he's just been lights out. Ben Sauls is going to kick somewhere in the NFL. And I'm just wondering if maybe they look to trade him. I mean, I could see that being a possibility. It's not the first time the Giants have tried to have traded a kicker. They traded Brandon McManus. I think a few years ago, they traded Chris Boswell. So yeah, don't rule out the possibility of a trade. Just when we think we got this figured out with the Giants and the moves they're going to make and whatnot, they go and they find day three picks. So those day three picks, by the way, are going to be very valuable when the Giants get to the draft because they can package them up to move up the board if they need to. So you got to like what the Giants are doing with regards to taking guys that don't fit into their long-term plans or their season plans, I should say, and moving them to get draft assets. All right, so that is my 53. Tell me what you think about it in the comments below if you're watching on YouTube or if you want to drop me a letter or an email, I should say. Those of you who are listening to the audio on our podcast platforms, I'd be curious to know who you agree with, who you disagree with, and so forth. All right, coming up next, Giants did have a practice on Wednesday. Few things to come out of it. We'll talk about that when we come back. Hey, Giants fans, running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together. 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All right, Giant fans, welcome back to the Locked On Giants Podcast. I am your host, Patricia Traina. And big news, everybody. The all-new Locked On Giants, Everydayer Club, aka the Blue Crew, the new program is here. We have expanded it. All right. So some of the benefits members get include an expanded daily newsletter, exclusive material in that newsletter written by yours truly. You get an invitation to our regular AMA calls. We call them lunch hour calls because I usually hold them on a Friday during lunch hour. You get membership into our Discord channel. It's a group of Giant fans who are already there. They talk football. They update each other. They're a nice little family, a good group of people. So you get membership into that Discord group. You also get other little bonuses, including ad-free episodes of Locked On Giants and other little things that I tend to throw in there. You just never know what's going to come. Oh, and of course you also get one-on-one texting with yours truly. So you can check out all the details. We are offering one month free if you sign up for an annual subscription, all right? So you can get the information if you go to lockedonnygiants.supercast.com, all right? So check that out. Again, that is lockedonnygiants.supercast.com. All right, Giant fans, there was a practice today. Brandon Brown spoke. And a couple of things that I want to touch upon in these last few minutes that we have here on the show today. Brandon Brown was asked about the John Harbaugh effect. And basically, how does that affect their job in the front office? And what I really, really like about what Brandon Brown had to say, and by the way, every time Brandon Brown speaks, I just love listening to the guy. He is just so well-spoken. Why this man is in a GM somewhere is just a mystery to me. But selfishly speaking, I hope he doesn't become a GM because I just think he's amazing and I'm glad the Giants have him. But Brandon said that Harbaugh holds everybody accountable, including in the front office. That when you sit down and enter a meeting with him, you better have a plan. You can't just go in there and throw ideas out and go, you know, Hammond Hall and whatnot. Everybody has to have a plan. And you know, what's interesting is if you look at what the Giants have been doing in terms of the front office, when was the last time you can recall the Giants being so proactive in terms of trading away guys that didn't fit the long-term plans? I mean, in the past, coaches would hold on to the guys and they'd say, you know, look, I need these guys, I got to get through the pre-season, so let's not cut them, you know, let's see if they can turn things around. The Giants, you know, under Harbaugh, he knows who's going to fit and who's not going to fit. And if he says to Joe Shane and Brandon Brown, hey, Daniel Felleli doesn't fit in my plans anymore, or Joshua Azudu doesn't fit in my plans anymore, see if he can't get a draft pick for them. They're being more proactive and more in touch with what the league needs. I mean, kudos to the front office for actually having a better finger on the pulse of the league and who needs what. Some teams in the past or in the past, there were times that you just got the sense that the Giants really didn't do it until cut down day. If you're waiting till the last minute, that's not good. They're being a lot more proactive and I applaud them for that. But the other thing that Brandon said, and you can kind of see it, is that the giant players when they are banged up, they don't sit and linger on the sideline. They get back in there as soon as humanly possible. And the reason for that is because there is a underlying fear amongst the locker room that a guy will get Wally Pitt out of his roster spot, out of his job. And you know what? Good. That's good that Harbaugh instilled that. Okay, so that being said, there's definitely a new culture that Harbaugh has brought about. It's been competitive. It's been more direct. You know, I've talked about this before on the show, that head coaches come in here in the past and they say, we want to win, we want to be this, we want to be that. And they have no idea how to do it. Or they do things that kind of fly in the face of what they want to accomplish. Case in point, when Dable was here, we want to win. But how are you going to win if you're running a country club or a training camp? So different philosophies, but Harbaugh's has been more direct. And that's good. All right, earlier in the show, I mentioned Malik Neighbors left practice early. I don't think it's anything to be concerned about. You know, hopefully it's nothing with nothing. Now again, we don't have access to the walkthrough on Thursday. The next time we see John Harbaugh is going to be after the game on Friday. I'm sure the question will come up about Malik, even though Malik's not going to play. So until then, I'm not going to sit here and fret about it. Calvin Austin, I think I mentioned already, unfortunately, torn ACL. What a bummer for that kid. He worked so hard and he was part of that, you know, going to be part of that rotation. And it's just not going to happen now for him. It's a shame. It really is because you never want to see that. Okay, what else? Some injury updates real quick. I mentioned Theo Johnson dealing with a shoulder issue. I don't think it's anything serious, but something to keep an eye on nonetheless. Shelby Harris had his reps manage. Jalen Hyatt, you know, nice knowing you, Jalen. Good luck on your next team. Really unfortunate there. Francis Malinoa and Jermaine Aluminor. Malinoa with the stinger. Aluminor had, I don't know what it was, but it was never disclosed. They were both back at practice, so that's good. The other thing I'll just mention real quick is that Harbaugh hasn't said if he plans to play the starters. Now, you know, for some reason he likes to be secretive about it. My guess, and you know, I get it. Maybe there's going to be a little, you know, reluctance because the starters, you know, based on what happened with Calvin Austin, you know, you don't want to risk somebody getting hurt this close to the start of the season, which to me is, I don't know if I agree with that philosophy because injuries are going to happen regardless. You know, they could strike anytime, anywhere, any place. I think what Harbaugh will do is probably give the starters and key reserves a series or two at the most, kind of like what he did for the first preseason game. I don't think you need to play them like this is a dress rehearsal. I don't think that is necessary because, look, if you don't play them in this game, now they're going over three weeks without having played live reps. And no, I don't count practice as live reps because that's a controlled environment, whereas a game is not as controlled. So I suspect you will see the players go in there, and it will be very, very conservative. Like, for example, with Jackson Dart, maybe all he does is hand the ball off most of the game or most of his time in there. And then you get them out of there, and you get the backups in there. I don't think you'll see guys like Andrew Thomas or Bryan Burns or Tremaine Edmonds, guys who are pretty much established. I don't think they'll get a chance to play. Look, bottom line is that Harbaugh has worked these guys really, really hard this summer, which is a good thing. And, you know, even though it's not the same as live reps, it's been, the reps that they have gotten is quality reps. And sometimes that could be just as good. So that's my guess for what Harbaugh does against the Jets. You know, again, maybe some guys get a few snaps here and there. And there are still some battles and whatnot that need to be resolved. But we're going to talk about that on another show this week. So plenty more still to come here on the Locked On Giants podcast. And with that said, that's going to do it for this edition. Again, thank you so much for tuning in to the Locked On Giants Podcast. Or if you made us your first Listen of the Day, we appreciate you. We appreciate our everydayers and our newcomers. And we will see you again tomorrow, giant fans."

"Darius Alexander."

"Yes, he hasn't had that ready to go. Leckie Fattu has been bad. Josh Tupo has probably been the best guy. Darius Alexander is struggling. Chauncey Goldston, he's an outside linebacker who... The issue is run defense, and Goldston, I think, actually might be better in that, but that was his thing in Dallas. At defensive tackle, he's not great against the run, but he can rush the passer, and then it's kind of fights versa on the outside line."

"I mean, it's been a disappointment to start for Darius Alexander pretty much right from the jump. You look back to 2025, even in the preseason then, we were wondering why he was lining up so far off of the ball. And then he was kind of the last one off of the snap too, so he was late and far away. There was pretty much no production to start the year. We eventually saw some of the pass rush stuff. And I think that's really where he kind of carves out, like where he's best is rushing the passer. Because against the run, I mean, he simply just gets folded against blocks. If it's a head-on block, he really struggles to disengage and become an impact in the run game. He doesn't really even hold up the block very well. Whereas in the passing game, he actually can shed blockers and get up field pretty quickly. That seems to be his MO when he's lined up in those pass rush situations. And last year, I think on passing downs, I think he rushed the pass for like 99% of the times. It's pretty clear that the coaching staff caught on to what he's good at early on last year. The disappointment is that as a pass rushing defensive lineman, he's not like elite or anything like that. It's not offsetting anything. I mean, among defensive linemen with a minimum 20% of pass rush snaps, he ranked 77th."

"You'll be glad that you did. Next up, we have Darius Alexander, 26-foot-4, 310-pound, 26-year-old defensive tackle out of Toledo. It is actually his birthday today. Happy birthday, Darius Alexander. I feel like we did that with another player in this Player Profiles Series this year. He was the first pick of the third round last year, started the season as a healthy scratch, got some playing time, had some moments of pass rush, but he was largely disappointing. The year two player is now at an important impasse in his career, Grump."