Safety Landon Collins was selected with the first pick of the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft out of Alabama. He was projected to be a first rounder and when he was left undrafted, former Giants general manager Jerry Reese uncharacteristically made a deal with the Tennessee Titans to put Big Blue in position to grab Collins.

Collins did not disappoint. He started the first 47 games of his Giants career before missing the 2017 season finale with a broken forearm. In 2018, Collins started the first 12 games before going on injured reserve (IR) with a torn labrum in his shoulder.

Collins led the Giants in tackles in all four of his seasons here, was not assigned the franchise tag this past offseason allowing him to enter free agency. The 25-year-old three time Pro Bowler signed a six-year, $84 million deal with the rival Washington Redskins in March and the Giants have apparently moved on.

Current Giants general manager Dave Gettleman quickly back-filled the vacant safety spots (the other starter, Curtis Riley, signed with Oakland) with 34-year-old veteran Antoine Bethea and Jabrill Peppers, a former first-round pick he received as part of the package from Cleveland in the Odell Beckham Jr. trade.

What is unclear is how Gettleman, head coach Pat Shurmur and defensive coordinator James Bettcher plan on replacing Collins’s production. It most likely won’t be with one player.

Last year, Collins led the club with 96 total tackles (67 solo) in only 12 games. Linebacker Alec Ogletree was second with 93 tackles (58 solo) and Riley was third with 75 (63 solo).

Ogletree was brought in before the 2018 season because of his high production. He missed three games himself last year or he would have surely surpassed Collins. Riley was a mess in coverage but did manage to make plays when he was in position to do so.

With Collins and Riley gone, the Giants will rely on Bethea to repeat his 2018 season with Arizona where he led the Cards with 121 tackles (100 solo) and Peppers, who had 79 total tackles with 58 solo. These two can actually be an upgrade over Collins and Riley because they can both play free and strong safety and are better in coverage.

Collins was a pure “box safety” and he thrived within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. He was so adept at smoking out the ball carrier, he beat the rest of the defense to the tackle. That made the vulnerable in the pass game and in the run game, as it caused some confusion when it came to who was responsible for what.

What the Giants will also be needing is better play at linebacker. Ogletree was playing in his first season under Bettcher and was nicked up for a good portion of the year. He played the pass better than he did the run, picking off five passes but the Giants need him to plug up the run better.

The other three linebacker spots were not as productive as the Giants had hoped. In the new 3-4 base alignment, B.J. Goodson was Ogletree’s complement in the middle while Olivier Vernon and Kareem Martin were at the WILL and SAM outside linebacker positions.

Goodson has been hounded by injuries for the majority of his three-year Giants career, starting only 20 of the 37 games he’s dressed for. He has the ability to become a solid backer but he hasn’t been able to get much traction. Vernon is gone and Martin is seen as basically a rotational player and placeholder while last year’s third round pick — Lorenzo Carter — takes over the WILL this season.

Gettleman has signed veteran rush linebacker Markus Golden to help augment the pass rush, but he’s the same type of player as Carter and plays the same position. If one of them could play the SAM the Giants might be in business.

With the draft approaching, the Giants have 12 picks and plan on using most of them on beefing up this defense. To start, they could use a pure 1-technique nose tackle or a powerful presence in the middle of the defensive line but mainly, they could use some more talent and depth at linebacker position.

Gettleman has said that he is not afraid to draft over players and he might have been talking about Goodson and Martin. In the draft, LSU’s Devin White or Devin Bush of Michigan would be nice, but White could be gone by the time the Giants pick at No. 6 and they might think the 5-foot-11 Bush is too short even though he’s a tenacious playmaker.

Others to keep an eye on: Mack Wilson (Alabama), Cameron Smith (USC), T.J. Edwards (Wisconsin), Te’Von Coney (Notre Dame) among others. The Giants are said to be high on Maryland’s Tre Watson as well.

On the outside, some possible SAM candidates are Vosean Joseph (Florida), Germaine Pratt (N.C. State), Chase Hansen (Utah) and Blake Cashman (Minnesota).

Bettcher’s defensive plan is shifty one and will likely employ a fluid lineup, so the Giants might look to bring in more versatile players, but a collection from the groups mentioned above would be a good place to start.