Uncredited/Associated Press

With the future of defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul up in the air, New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is no doubt going to be looking for young leaders who can step up on this defense to become cornerstones for the future.

One such young player who has shown himself to have a world of potential is second-year linebacker Devon Kennard, one of New York’s two fifth-round draft picks last year.

Kennard comes from a solid football pedigree. He is the son of former NFL offensive lineman Derek Kennard, who was part of the Super Bowl XXX champion Dallas Cowboys.

Kennard also has an older brother, Derek Jr., who played defensive tackle for the University of Nevada but was unable to catch on with an NFL team after getting a look from the Indianapolis Colts in 2004, according to KFFL.

Besides his pedigree, Kennard’s passion for the game and his willingness to work endless hours at getting better at what he does is bound to take him as far as he wants to go in this league.

Something Special

How special is Kennard? Fellow linebacker Jon Beason, who knows a thing or two about playing the position at an All-Pro level, doesn’t even bother to hide his excitement when the topic of conversation turns to Kennard.

“First off, I can’t praise Kennard enough,’’ Beason said in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio in June (h/t Paul Schwartz, New York Post). “He prepares better than any rookie I’ve ever seen, and that’s including myself.”

Mark Zaleski/Associated Press

Beason’s praise for his young teammate didn’t stop there.

“The thing I’ve noticed the most this offseason is I think he’s a step or two faster—he’s quicker. And he’s not afraid anymore. He’s making calls—he is a guy you can say, ‘What do we got on this again?’ And he knows it.

“I can trust in him. He has the potential to be as good as he wants to be, as good as anybody who’s played there.’’

That potential to be great is largely thanks to the former USC star’s thirst for knowledge about the game.

A little-known fact about the inner dealings of the Giants linebackers’ meetings room is that Kennard is so meticulous with his note-taking that sometimes he'll be the target of some good-natured ribbing.

Kennard nodded his head and said the rumors about his legendary note-taking were indeed true. “If I showed you my notebook,” he said after the team’s first OTA practice, “you’d see that I have it almost filled, and it hasn’t even been a week.”

Kennard might have only one full year of NFL experience under his belt, but he has been approaching learning a new defense as though he was a rookie all over again.

“I’m kind of approaching this year like I did last year: keep my head down and learn the defense, and re-gain my teammates’ trust and respect,” he told me for Inside Football.

“I go home every day, and I draw things up on my whiteboard at my house, have notecards and everything else to help me understand the defense. It’s a constant process. You study as much as you can and then you have to get the live reps. I just want to build on it every day.”

2014 Season in Review

The Run Stopper

One of the most misleading stats used to judge a linebacker’s play is his number of tackles.

However, not all tackles are created equal, as Beason noted during his most recent interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio. He revealed that Spagnuolo, after introducing himself to his players, tossed out the number 1,507, which was the number of yards the defense gave up after contact last season.

A quick look at Kennard’s tackles, as reported by the Giants in their 2014 season stat pack, credits the linebacker as having 43 total tackles, including 10 tackles for a loss (second-most TFL behind defensive end Pierre-Paul), or an average of one TFL per every 4.3 tackles made.

Unfortunately, Kennard doesn’t get a better grade from Pro Football Focus in the run-stopping game—the site has him listed as the eighth-best run defender, behind fellow linebackers Mark Herzlich and Jacquian Williams.

He should. Using the data provided by Pro Football Focus, Kennard was actually a lot better than his 1.1 PFF grade indicates, posting a lower missed-tackle percentage than top-graded run defenders Pierre-Paul and Johnathan Hankins.

2014 NY Giants: Missed Tackles on Defense Player No. Missed Tackles Missed Tackle Percentage Pierre-Paul 11 16.6% Hankins 2 5.0% Kennard 1 2.2% Source: Pro Football Focus

What about yards given up after contact? Using data compiled from last year’s NFL game books, here is a breakdown of the percentage of run-game tackles made by Kennard that were less than or equal to five yards as opposed to those that were six yards or greater.

Devon Kennard: 2014 Run-game Tackles ≤ 5 yards (including TFL) ≥6 yards % of Run-game Tackles 80.6% 19.3% Calculated by P. Traina from NFL.com Game Books

The Pass Rusher

With the availability of defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul unclear, the Giants might not have to look very far to find a player that can generate some of the pass rush New York stands to lose without Pierre-Paul on the field.

That player is Kennard, who not only has the ability to move around in the defensive front but also appears to be the perfect linebacker around whom Spagnuolo can focus his fire-zone blitz packages.

2014 Giants Sack Leaders Player No. Sacks Yards DE Jason Pierre-Paul 12.5 -88.5 DE Damontre Moore 5.5 -35.0 DE Robert Ayers 5.0 -37.0 LB Devon Kennard 4.5 -31.5 Source: NY Giants 2014 Year-end Stats

The beauty of having Kennard as a pass rusher is that he not only affords Spagnuolo the flexibility to move him around in the defensive front, but Kennard has also shown an ability to disguise the coverage. He doesn’t tip whether he’s dropping into coverage or rushing the passer by his pre-snap stance.

During the OTAs and spring minicamp, Kennard was often the one brought up to the line, leaving the offense to anticipate whether he was going to rush the passer or drop into coverage.

He did both well even though it was a non-contact drill run at partial speed. In fact, Kennard looked right at home as a potential pass-rusher, rewarding Spagnuolo’s faith in his skill set to help disguise the play being called.

Film Study: A Beast in the Making

Let’s look at two plays from last season, both against the Jacksonville Jaguars—a game in which Kennard recorded his first two career sacks

On this first play, a seven-yard sack, Kennard is lined up outside on the left side of the formation (the offense’s right side). What made this play work for Kennard and the Giants is the discipline the then-rookie showed.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Kennard, who ended up going unblocked on this play, didn’t go charging wildly after Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, who had success against the Giants running the read-option.

Kennard instead did his due diligence. He kept his eye on Bortles, and only after he saw that Bortles didn’t hand the ball off to the back in the backfield did Kennard come charging in for his first career NFL sack.

On his second sack in that game, this was simply a matter of a huge (pun intended) mismatch that pitted 6’0”, 197-pound running back Denard Robinson against the 6’3”, 251-pound Kennard—this time lined up on the right side of the defensive formation (offense’s left side) in pass protection.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

While Robinson tried to block his bigger opponent, it was no contest, as this next frame shows.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Robinson ended up pushed back, his base crumbling underneath him as Kennard tossed him aside and got to Bortles for the sack.

2015 Outlook

Last season, Kennard barely scratched the surface of his potential. Indeed, as the year went on, the former rookie got better and better, making more solo tackles and having more of a presence in games.

The big thing moving forward for Kennard, however, is not so much his play; it’s his health. Last year he missed four games because of injuries—three early in the season due to a hamstring strain—and the regular-season finale due to a toe injury.

This spring, Kennard had some additional injury issues, missing some of the OTAs and minicamp practices with hamstring and ankle issues.

If this young man can somehow find a way to stay out of the trainer’s room and stay on the field, the Giants might very well have a new cornerstone for their franchise for years to come.

More importantly, Kennard stands to become the first Giants draft pick at linebacker to have that “it” factor since Jessie Armstead, an eighth-round draft pick in 1993 who made a living out of making life miserable for opposing offenses.

Projected 2015 Impact Meter: Off the Charts, if healthy

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.

Follow @Patricia_Traina.