The New York Giants' defense is going to have an extremely different look this season. The final defensive staple linked to their Super Bowl past was removed Thursday with the trade of Jason Pierre-Paul to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Giants’ longest-tenured projected defensive starter is now Landon Collins, the 24-year-old Pro Bowl safety. It feels like just yesterday that the team was trading up in the 2015 draft to select Collins out of the University of Alabama with the first pick of the second round.
In this busy offseason, already Pierre-Paul has been traded, defensive captain Jonathan Casillas is not expected to return as a free agent and cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was a salary-cap casualty.