New York Giants finished 2024 with one of NFL’s worst tacking grades

The New York Giants have a lot to work on during the offseason. They need a quarterback, they need receivers that can (and will) catch the ball to help Malik Nabers, they need an offensive line that actually protects the quarterback, and they need defensive players who actually make tackles.

Before the 2024 season started, Next Gen Stats and Amazon Web Services collaborated on a new artificial intelligence model designed to estimate all 11 defenders’ chances of making a tackle every tenth second of every play from scrimmage. They called this Tackle Probability.

Using this model, metrics were tracked and they have now assigned grades to all 32 teams’ tackling ability.

The Giants ranked 25th overall, among the league’s worst.

GRADE: 68.7 (D+)

The Giants’ defensive struggles in 2024 weren’t limited to just one area, but tackling was a clear issue. Though their 13.3% missed tackle rate hovered right around the league average (13%), the real problem was the damage those whiffs created.

New York was just one of six teams to give up over 1,000 yards after missed tackles, finishing with the fourth-highest total in the league (1,081) and the second-highest average per miss (6.3). Rookie third-round cornerback Andru Phillips had a rough introduction to the NFL in that regard, accounting for 167 yards gained after missed tackles — more than all but two corners across the league.

It’s no secret that the Giants’ defense was atrocious at times in 2024, and the metrics support what we all saw.

This is one area the Giants must have a huge focus on during the offseason. The offense has to be better, but they won’t win any games without improving their defense.