Tom Rock: Giants' Deonte Banks and two-time Super Bowl champion Corey Webster have a lot in common
Former Giants cornerback Corey Webster, left, and current Giants CB Deonte Banks. Credit: Getty Images/Jamie Squire; Ed Murray
Corey Webster was a two-time Super Bowl-winning cornerback for the Giants and was on the defensive end of some of the most memorable plays during that championship stretch. He made the overtime interception of Brett Favre that set up the winning field goal at a frigid Lambeau Field in the NFC Championship Game and ran stride-for-stride with Randy Moss on a couple of desperation heaves from Tom Brady in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XLII.
He played nine NFL seasons, all with the Giants, holds the franchise record for most passes defended in a season (24 in 2008, although that didn’t become an official stat until 1999) and had 20 career picks. A few years ago, he ranked 87th on the Giants’ own list of the top 100 players from their first century.
But before all of that, he was something else. He was a high draft pick who struggled, mostly because of a coaching staff and scheme that misfit him like a blister-causing pair of tight cleats. He was a young starter who was demoted in games, eventually was benched and was considered by many to be a bust.
He was, in other words, Deonte Banks.
Banks also endured a difficult start to his career. He hasn’t yet had the full reputational rebound that Webster enjoyed, nor has he managed to earn the rings that truly elevate a player’s status. But the cornerback’s 98-yard interception return for a touchdown as time expired in last week’s victory over the Cardinals felt like the pivot point in his narrative with the Giants.
And just like with Webster, it took a change in coaching styles and philosophies to unlock that potential.
“I didn’t really catch that correlation until I thought about it,” Webster said this week in a phone interview from his home in Texas. “But I can see that. I can see how you’d come up with that.”
Tim Lewis was the Giants’ defensive coordinator the first two seasons after Webster was taken with a second-round pick in 2005, and the two definitely clashed. Lewis had Webster, who had always been a strong press cornerback in man coverage at LSU, to play nearly 10 yards off the receivers in a soft zone.
In 2007, though, Steve Spagnuolo came in and changed everything. He turned his cornerbacks from passive to aggressive, which suited Webster much better.
“A guy is more comfortable doing the things that he’s been taught to do in the past, especially if he had success with it,” Webster said. “If it’s similar to their scheme, they’re going to be more confident in it and they’re going to be more comfortable. I think that can lead to a good recipe for success.”
Banks has enjoyed the same kind of return to comfort this season. After two years of giving receivers their space under defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, he’s thriving under Dennard Wilson’s press schemes.
“Whether we are playing zone or man, it doesn’t matter, as much as they can be up there and get hands on [receivers] within the scheme, that’s how we want it,” Giants defensive pass coordinator Donald D’Alesio told Newsday on Friday. “[Banks] has gravitated toward that.”
Even more, though, Banks has gravitated toward the coaches themselves. Just as Webster hit it off with Spagnuolo and his coaching style — which was far less harsh than the criticisms from Lewis that often felt more personal — Banks has bonded with Wilson, D’Alesio and cornerbacks coach Addison Lynch. Banks gave them shout-outs last Sunday after his triumphant moment.
As Wilson said this week: “You can’t ask for the hand until you touch the heart.”
“Our first meeting with him, we set the tone that all that stuff was a clean slate for him so he didn’t have to come in worrying about that,” Lynch told Newsday. “We took him for who he was, and that kind of energized him from the beginning. What you see now is a product of him believing. Now he’s happy playing football again.”
Webster was quick to mention that even his greatest moments came in games in which he had negative moments. Before the Favre pick, he was beaten for a long touchdown by Donald Driver in the same game. And he was covering Moss when he caught the touchdown pass that gave the Patriots the lead late in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
One way to look at that: Without Webster there is no Eli Manning escape, no David Tyree helmet catch, no Plaxico Burress touchdown.
Webster said that Green Bay game, though, was sort of his whole career wrapped up into one evening: Starting poorly, maintaining confidence and coming through at the end.
While we are drawing parallels, maybe last week was that for Banks, too. He gave up a touchdown early, gave some questionable effort on a touchdown run later, drew a phantom pass-interference penalty that seemed to be thrown more at his reputation than his actual play, and then punctuated it with the interception.
Webster said he doesn’t know Banks personally but intends to reach out to him at some point this season to share his experiences and some wisdom. He said he will tell Banks to keep working on his technique and keep studying opponents and watching what the elite cornerbacks around the league are doing. He also noted that Banks shouldn’t be afraid to go back and see what the players who came before him were able to do.
If he does that, Webster would be as good a place as any to start.
It might even be where he ends up.
Giants, Jets injury updates. Giants WR Malik Nabers (sore knee) missed practice on Wednesday and was limited on Thursday and Friday, but coach John Harbaugh said he will play on Sunday against the Commanders . . . Jets RB Breece Hall (quadriceps) and WR Adonai Mitchell (finger) were ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Browns.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
