Chauncey Golston would like to clear something up. The New York Giants veteran defensive lineman is not, and never has been, a stand-up edge defender.
“I played the edge, but stand-up? It’s always funny to hear that,” Golston said while sitting at his corner locker in the Giants’ makeshift locker room this week. “I never played stand-up.”
Why the misconception?
“I’m classified as an edge guy. And you really just go off of what you’re classified as,” Golston said. “It all depends on what defense you’re in.
Like, if you’re in a 4-3 and it says defensive end, you’re just an edge guy. But then you go to 3-4, and then it says defensive end, and you can be Cam Hayward.
“It’s very multiple. It’s all depending on where you’re playing at. And then for me, being a guy that’s smaller, I guess it just stands out more.”
In the second season of a three-year, $18 million free agent deal he signed with the Giants, Golston has emerged as a key part of the Giants’ defensive line. Generally, Golston is playing some form of defensive end when the Giants are aligned with three down linemen.
The 28-year-old played 28 snaps in Week 1 vs. the Dallas Cowboys. Via Pro Football Focus, the breakdown was as follows:
- DLT (9 snaps)
- DRT (3)
- LE (8)
- LEO (1)
- RE (4)
- REO (3)
Amazingly, Golston is fighting guards, tackles, tight ends, and double teams at just 265 pounds.
“I don’t have the ability to be like I can just roll out there and be big and I can take on two people. I can’t do that,” Golston said. “If I don’t come technique first, then I’m going to be out there, and it’s just going to look like Michael Oher in ‘The Blind Side’. I can’t have that.”
Golston weighed 285 pounds when he played for the Dallas Cowboys, but lost the weight last season because the Giants were not asking him to play inside.
“For what I did last year, I didn’t really ever go inside last year. So it was like, what do I need to be 285 for?,” Golston said.
Defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson pointed to Golston understanding the physical gifts he does possess, and having consistent technique.
“He’s not a big guy, but he plays big,” Wilson said. “He uses his length, his arm length. He plays with good center of gravity. He gets good vertical knockback. When you watch him, his technique is always the same. He plays same foot, same shoulder. He squeezes and constricts blocks. He plays the way that you’re supposed to play when you’re in that position. And he’s done it in the past. It’s not like he hasn’t done it. And Chauncey, man, kudos to him. He’s a guy that’s playing a five-technique in our base front. He moves around. He has a lot on his plate, but he’s doing a great job for this defense.”
Golston’s primary physical gift is his long arms. He has 34¾-inch arms that put him in the 87th percentile, and a 96th percentile 84⅜-inch wingspan.
“I have longer arms than the guards. I’m quicker than them,” Golston said. “I know how to work off the people around me. Those are some of the things that really help me when I’m in there.”
The six-year veteran says it also helps that “I’ve been doing that for a while now.”
“The overall amount of reps that I’ve had in my career because I also did that in Dallas … this is familiar territory,” Golston said. “With me playing end, a lot of it is I usually can feel what the scheme is. I can usually feel when it’s power because everything’s going fast this way, but then I see something flashing back that way, usually indicating that it’s something that the run is trying to hit outside of me. It’s little things that I’m able to pick up on because I play on the edge and I also play in there that just help me.”
Golston was on some winning teams earlier in his career with the Cowboys, and says “you can always feel the energy” when a team is good.
“Winning is contagious,” Golston said. “Not just winning the game, but just having a winning attitude overall, attacking everything, attacking the process. I really feel that. You can feel it, you can see it, and that’s really cool to be a part of. And, to be able to play my own part in it.
“And be able to help the people that are coming after me. That are coming up under me. Being able to tell them the little that I do know. And watch them take that and excel.”
