The New York Giants defense finished the 2016 season on a tear en route to the playoffs. They allowed just 25 touchdowns all season -- the fewest in the NFL. The Giants allow touchdowns on just 42.5 percent of red zone trips for opposing offenses. Bend, but they definitely don't break. The Giants allowed just 35 percent of third downs to be converted -- the second-fewest in the NFL. The Giants only allowed 88.6 rushing yards per game to opposing running backs -- the third-best rate in the NFL. Finally, They allowed just 17.8 points per game. Only the Patriots allowed fewer total points in 2016.

In 2017, the defense completely collapsed. Top players from the 2016 defense including Damon Harrison, Landon Collins, Janoris Jenkins, Olivier Vernon, and Jason Pierre-Paul all dealt with injuries during the season. Collins and Jenkins tried to play through their injuries before being placed on injured reserve while Vernon was never the same after a Week 4 high-ankle sprain. If the injuries were not bad enough, the Giants secondary had three starters suspended. By the time Week 14 rolled around, the Giants were starting multiple street free agents at key positions like middle linebacker and cornerback, among others.

During the 2018 offseason, general manager Dave Gettleman decided to flip the script and hire James Bettcher to be the new defensive coordinator. Bettcher brings with him a 3-4 base defensive scheme after years of the Giants utilizing the 4-3 base scheme. Bettcher also brings a completely different mentality and goal for the defensive linemen, different blitz packages than the ones previously used under former defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, a more aggressive style (with a lot more blitzing) and new responsibilities for both the cornerbacks and safeties in coverage. Today, we will dive into all of that on a more in-depth basis. We are going to be breaking down Bettcher’s seven-step plan to fix the Giants defense.

Step 1: Rush five players almost every snap

At the Giants Town Hall, Landon Collins revealed the new defensive scheme has been giving Eli Manning headaches because Bettcher brings at least five pass rushers on almost every snap making it difficult for the offensive line’s pass protection scheme. Under Spagnuolo, the Giants blitzed (sending more than four pass rushers) on 28.2% of dropbacks, slightly below the 29.2% league average, according to Pro Football Focus. Bettcher blitzed on 36.6% of dropbacks with the Cardinals in 2017 and his defenses have finished in the top-3 in blitz percentage in each of the past three seasons. Bettcher believes in maximizing the amount of one-on-one matchups for his best pass rusher and the easiest way to do that is by blitzing.

Step 2: Utilize the A-gap and double A-gap blitzes

The A-gap blitz punches an offensive line right in the teeth -- up the gut -- through the middle. The goal of this is to not allow the quarterback to step up into the pocket when trying to avoid the rush around the edge instead forcing him to escape the pocket and break rhythm. Under Spagnuolo with one linebacker in the middle, the Giants rarely used the A-gap blitz or the double-A blitz. Through the first 12 full-team OTA and minicamp practices, Bettcher has used the A-gap blitz over and over again. Linebackers Alec Ogletree and B.J. Goodson have created chaos for the first time offense, and even when they haven’t gotten to the quarterback, they have sometimes batted the pass down at the line of scrimmage while screaming through the middle. Sending two linebackers though the A gap is a key concept used by defensive minds like Mike Zimmer of the Vikings, among others, and now it is here to stay with the Giants defense.

Step 3: Use a rotation on the defensive front

One of the biggest issues for the Giants defense over the past two seasons has been depth. Pierre-Paul and Vernon played more than 90 percent of the defensive snaps when healthy. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Giants defensive front was gassed and the opposing offense moved the ball with ease against them. That is about to change in 2018. Bettcher will use a rotation on the defensive front and general manager Dave Gettleman has provided him with the pieces to make this possible. Adding defensive linemen B.J. Hill and Josh Mauro to the mix will help this process.

"Ideally, there will be a rotation there, so they’ll roll through it," Shurmur said to reporters after the second day of the draft. "I think that’s what you’re seeing now (in the NFL). Whether you play a five-on-the-line front or a lot of the time you’re in a four-man front, you see a rotation and that’s the best way to play our guys. So hopefully when we have good candidates to play those positions we can get a little rotation there that will keep them all fresher throughout the game and then limit their reps throughout the season, so that they can play longer, hopefully into the playoffs."

The Giants will be a “five on the line” team and this is where the acquisition of Kareem Martin will also play a major factor as he rotates in with rookie Lorenzo Carter at one of the two EDGE linebacker positions.

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Step 4: Get Olivier Vernon as many one-on-one matchups as possible

As we touched on earlier, the main goal of Bettcher’s defense is to send enough blitzers to guarantee as many advantageous matchups for his best pass rusher as possible. Chandler Jones was that man in Arizona last season and he had a breakout year with 17.5 sacks. Vernon is that man in New York this year and Bettcher’s presence will play a big role in helping him realize his breakout season with the Giants. Although (until the 2017 season when he injured his ankle) Vernon was among the league leaders in total pressures (quarterback hits, hurries, sacks combined) from 2015-2016, and individually in his first season with the Giants, fans want the sacks. Vernon closed out the 2016 season with 7.5 sacks over his final nine games and Bettcher is going to help him get on the scoreboard early and often in the sack column in 2018.

Step 5: Press-man coverage on the outside

In Spagnuolo’s defense, the Giants wanted to be a press-man coverage team on the outside but they used zone coverage far too often. Bettcher’s scheme is more straightforward overall and specifically in what he asks of his cornerbacks on the boundary. Starters Eli Apple and Janoris Jenkins will be asked to play press-man coverage most of the time and they will often be left on an island. This is excellent news because both Jenkins and Apple are perfectly-suited for a press-man scheme. Apple has long arms, physicality in press coverage and recovery speed to operate in this scheme while Jenkins is shadily one of the smartest cornerbacks at reading receivers in single coverage in the NFL.

Step 6: Single-high safety looks allowing Landon to roam free

The Giants used a lot of Cover-2 and other two-high safety looks in Spagnuolo’s defense, but these will become less frequent in Bettcher’s scheme. The Giants want to use Collins as a weapon on defense, a similar mix to how Bettcher used Tyrann Mathieu and Deion Buccanon in Arizona. The Giants will leave the deep safety on an island in a single-high look and this will allow Collins to make plays around the line of scrimmage and in coverage against big slot receivers and tight ends. Disguising where Collins is going to start and end up on the field on any given play will allow him more opportunities to make big plays in 2018.

Step 7: Use the defensive linemen to disrupt

In the old Giants defensive scheme, the defensive linemen were not always used to attack up the field and disrupt the passer as a pass rusher. Damon Harrison and Dalvin Tomlinson were certainly not provided with many one-on-one pass rush opportunities in 2017. That is going to change in 2018 under Bettcher. Dalvin Tomlinson gave a sneak peek earlier this offseason.

"I'm excited for the new scheme we have," Tomlinson said on Giants Insider with John Schmeelk, via Giants.com. "It's a lot of 1-gaps. I get to go a lot more and attack so I'm pretty excited for it. He (Bettcher) wants us to get upfield and make tackles for losses and sacks. Defensive linemen make a lot more plays in this defense. I want to get a few more sacks and a lot more tackles for losses. The biggest thing to work on for me is get off. You have to have 'get off' in this defense (scheme)."

After Wednesday’s minicamp practice, Bettcher confirmed Tomlinson’s analysis.

“There’s going to be different guys in different situations that are going to have one-on-ones,” Bettcher told Giants reporters at minicamp. “As much as you talk about one-on-ones on the perimeter in the pass game, covering your man, there’s other guys that have to win too to help those guys out. And if we’re going to be any good as a pressure team, we’re going to have to win some of those one-on-ones inside, not just outside on the perimeter.”

Step 8: No more delayed blitzes

Spagnuolo’s defense loved to utilize exotic blitz packages where the Giants defense would send defensive backs from all over the field to rush the passer. Sometimes, Spagnuolo would even use defensive backs lined up several yards off the line of scrimmage on delayed zone blitzes. These blitzes didn’t pass the eye test from an efficiency standpoint. Bettcher’s defensive scheme is more straightforward and you can expect his blitz packages to be the same.

Step 9: Establish a dominant run defense again

The Giants run defense fell off after a dominant 2016 season where they allowed just 88.6 rushing yards per game (the third-fewest in the NFL). The run defense will return to prominence in 2018 with the addition of B.J. Hill, a healthy Harrison, and Kareem Martin (6-foot-6, 280 pounds) to set the edge from the outside linebacker position. Over his past three seasons as Cardinals defensive coordinator, Bettcher’s defenses have finished ranked No. 6, No. 9, and No. 6 overall, respectively, in run defense. In Bettcher’s entire career as a defensive coordinator, his defenses have never finished outside the top-9 in fewest rushing yards allowed per game.