When the New York Giants declined to pick up the fifth-year option of cornerback Deonte Banks earlier this year, it seemed like the beginning of the end for the embattled 2023 first-round pick.
But these aren't the Giants we've become accustomed to over the past 12 years. Failure is no longer in their vocabulary and will no longer be acceptable under new head coach John Harbaugh.
The Giants didn't pick up Banks' option because he hadn't earned it. His declining performance over the past two seasons didn't warrant the $12.63 million extension, but they weren't giving up on him. Banks would get a chance to get back into the good graces of the team with a solid offseason and training camp.
That has happened. Banks has worked hard and taken the advice
the new coaching staff has been giving him. He appears to be not only a different player, but the player the Giants hoped they were getting when they traded three draft picks to move up one spot in the order to select him three years ago.
"Tae has been amazing just in his press coverage, very strong, very physical, a cerebral player," teammate Greg Newsome II said last week.
Yes, he's talking about Banks, the player who got lost in coverage all too frequently, lacked drive, and appeared to be on his way out the door.
Banks is challenging Newsome and Paulson Adebo for a starting role at outside corner. Come Sunday night, in the Giants' home opener against Dallas, don't be shocked to see a lot of Banks on defense in the game. Several months ago, that didn't seem possible.
Banks' reemergence as a player is not a surprise to those who coached him over the years. Henry Baker, who was Banks' position coach at Maryland for three years, believes his former charge is ready to live up to his draft pedigree.
“Everybody is getting ready to see what they were expecting when they drafted him,” Baker, who is now the assistant head coach, pass game coordinator, and cornerbacks coach at Temple, told the New York Post.
“But the skill set, speed, the strength, the length, his ability to cover and stay sticky — like all those things, those things never left, you know what I mean?… Now that I think that he’s gotten to the place where he’s settled, he’s comfortable, now everybody’s gonna see the first-round draft pick that the Giants picked a couple of years ago.”
This is one of the good stories happening with the Giants this summer that is flying a bit under the radar. The new regime has everyone believing in themselves and back on the same page again.
"Yeah, we do," Harbaugh said last week when asked if he felt secure with Banks at corner. "He was very, very consistent. Very consistent every single day, same guy, played at a high level. Expect him to play really well."
Banks now has a chance to rewrite both his history and future.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Deonte Banks' ex-coach: 'Everbody's gonna see' why Giants drafted him
