The New York Giants were interested in signing Christian Wilkins. Dexter Lawrence even texted general manager Joe Schoen about Wilkins, asking Schoen what he thought about him.
Wilkins and Lawrence were teammates at Clemson and are good friends, so the pair would have been a natural fit in New York. They would also free up Kayvon Thibodeaux on the edge.
The Giants passed on signing Wilkins, in part because they wanted a good third-down pass rusher opposite Lawrence. This was revealed on “Hard Knocks” Tuesday night.
“I don’t think he’s a difference making pass rusher on third down,” the scout said. “Which is what we need opposite Dex. But he’s a really good football player that will do well for himself.”
Lawrence is actually one of the league’s top interior pass rushers on third down. As USA Today’s Doug Farrar pointed out, Wilkins had 27 third-down pressures in 2023 — tied for second in the NFL amongst interior linemen. Only Quinnen Williams (30) had more, as Wilkins was tied with Chris Jones and DeForest Buckner.
In another twist of irony, one of Wilkins’ third-down sacks came against the Giants.
Wilkins had 5.5 sacks on third down in addition to those 27 pressures, a pressure rate of 19.0%. He was actually tied for seventh amongst defensive linemen who line up in a three-point stance in sacks on third down (5.5), Wilkins was third amongst interior linemen in pressure rate on third down (minimum 200 snaps), behind Aaron Donald (21.5%) and Quinnen Williams (19.9%).
This was a critical error by this Giants scout in evaluating Wilkins, who ended up signing a four-year, $110 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Giants did end up trading for Brian Burns and are pairing him with Kayvon Thibodeaux and Dexter Lawrence to form one of the top pass-rushing units in the NFL, but there certainly was a miscalculation on Wilkins.
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Author: Jeff Kerr
July 3, 2024 | 2:00 pm
