The New York Giants have entered a new era under coach John Harbaugh, which means everyone gets a clean slate.

We’ve already seen it with Evan Neal, a former top-7 overall pick who has had immense struggles over the first four years of his career. Despite the failures, Harbaugh thought it was worth backing Neal to the point where New York Giants GM Joe Schoen gave him a one-year deal. The plan is for Neal to move to guard and it could very well save his career if it works out.

Well now, Deonte Banks has bec0me a beneficiary of the new regime in place. Per Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Banks has had a strong spring and it’s resulted in a solid dose of momentum heading into the break before training camp.

The fourth-year pro has responded with a nice spring, flashing confidence that seemed to have left him, and may be a product of going back to a system, run by John Harbaugh’s new DC Dennard Wilson, that’s like [Wink] Martindale’s.

“He’s a talented player,” Dennard Wilson said of Banks back in April. “He’s big. He can run. He brings an element of physicality, but he’s had an up-and-down career thus far. … For us, it’s coming in with a clean slate. That’s everybody on this defense. …

” … We’re trying to evaluate the players, see what they do well, and we’re trying to teach them our way of football. … ‘Tae’ will have the opportunity to go out there and get better, we’re going to put things on his plate, try to make things as simple as they can be in terms of conceptual teaching and that’s for everybody.”

A new, yet familiar, scheme is helping Banks get back on track early-on

The ties between Wilson and Martindale make sense, as Wilson has said himself he’s incorporated a lot of the philosophy and workings of Mike Macdonald into his own defense.

Macdonald worked alongside Martindale for seven seasons before becoming defensive coordinator of the Ravens in 2022. He started as an intern in 2014, so it’s pretty clear he learned, and then incorporated, a lot of Martindale’s ways of doing things.

You can see a lot of his influence stemming from those great early 2020’s Baltimore units. His heaviest inspiration though—both according to Dennard himself and according to everybody’s eyeballs—is Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles.

You’ll often hear how Bowles is one of the only defensive minds in the league that operates around the line of scrimmage the way that he does. Well Dennard Wilson is one of the few along with him in that category.

Dennard’s scheme is build on dictating terms at the line. In the box, that manifests as a lot of simulated pressures and exotic looks. On the boundary that looks like a lot of aggressive, press-heavy cornerback play. He often asks his DBs to set the tone and disrupt the flow of a play as soon as the ball is snapped.

This limits quick and/or easy throws, but the cost of doing so is wagering you won’t get beaten downfield quickly. This is why he runs a lot of two-high shell looks with his safeties as insurance.

The aggressive/man coverage philosophy is perfect for Banks’ skill set, as he’s a big/long/fast corner who showed plenty of ability to disrupt receivers at the line coming out of college. It’s why Martindale’s system worked well for him.

Sure, it’s t-shirts and shorts, but this improvement doesn’t just come out of nowhere. There’s a real structural reason for the improvement. Banks is being asked to play in a way that aligns with his strengths, and the early returns suggest it’s working.

A revived Banks would give the New York Giants excellent depth at cornerback

The Giants already have a quality cornerback in Paulson Adebo, and they added Greg Newsome II over the offseason. Newsome II has dealt with some inconsistencies throughout his career, but he’s still a solid option on the outside. If Banks can sustain this trajectory, though, the Giants suddenly have three legitimate options at cornerback.

The caveat, again, is that this is still the spring. The real evaluation starts once the pads come on in training camp. OTAs and minicamp can only tell you so much, and Banks will need to prove he can carry this momentum into competitive, full-speed football against starting-caliber receivers.

But for a fourth-year cornerback who looked pretty good as a rookie and then fell off, this is the kind of encouraging development the Giants needed to see. Wilson’s scheme appears to be helping Banks – now the hope is more players start to find their Q-Zone.