How did NY Giants’ DT Darius Alexander really play this preseason?

There is a lot of discussion surrounding the New York Giants as the regular season approaches. While much of the conversation has surrounded the offense, there are some storylines on the defense that demand our attention too.

On the positive side, the Giants’ pass rush could be among the most formidable in the NFL (which remains a passing league), the linebacking corps looks deep and talented, and the Giants’ secondary could be primed to surprise skeptics.

However, if there’s one area of concern it’s along the defensive line. In particular, 2025 third round pick Darius Alexander has been a frequent topic — and target — throughout the preseason. Giants’ great Carl Banks has said multiple times that the Giants need to see more from Alexander, while Pro Football Focus has pilloried him.

But, did he play poorly?

After all, the NFL is fast and the action along the defensive line can be messy to follow. Takes spawned in the moment can often prove to be somewhat less than accurate. So we’re going to go to the eye in the sky to get as accurate an assessment as we can.

The bad

Footing

If there’s one issue that immediately stands out in Alexander’s game — and by “immediately” I mean on the very first play of the preseason — it’s that he can have bit of trouble staying on his feet.

While I won’t go so far as to say that it’s a consistent problem, it does crop up multiple times. That said, there doesn’t seem to be a consistent issue with Alexander’s technique that leads to him being on the ground, and there seems to be several culprits.

On the first play, a Vikings’ 18-yard prun, we see a good example of the issues that (should be) within Alexander’s ability to correct.

We see Alexander lined up as the 5-technique on the outside shoulder of the Vikings’ left tackle. The Vikings execute a wide-zone run to that side, putting Alexander on the play-side. He starts off the play well, engaging the left tackle and bowing him back while giving up little ground. His hips are in the left B-gap, essentially closing the gap and helping to string the run laterally.

That, however, is where things start to go wrong.

As Alexander engages with the left tackle, his base begins to narrow and his pads rise. As that happens, the left guard gets piece of Alexander’s side, who isn’t able to absorb the block with a narrowed base while also moving laterally. That overbalances him, forces his pads up further, and allows the left tackle to put Alexander on the ground.

From there, the guard is able to give Micah McFadden a shove, perhaps disrupting him enough that back is able to run through McFadden’s arms.

Alexander generally does a very good job of playing half-man leverage and putting his hips in gaps to close them. However, he needs to do a better job of using his long arms to fend off blockers when he does so, as well as more consistently keeping a wide base to maintain his balance.

This also showed up in a couple instances in Week 3 against the Jets. It seems to crop up most commonly when Alexander tries to run his feet and drive the blockers back, as opposed to keeping a wide base and simply eating the blocks. Notably, his hips rotate as he tries to drive the blocker, making it easier for the second linemen to move him laterally.

There were also multiple instances of Alexander being tripped by his teammates as he either engaged blockers or penetrated into the backfield. It’s difficult to say whether that’s a “him” problem.

For instance, we see Alexander against the Dolphins.

Alexander is lined up in the right B-gap, between the right guard and right tackle. He engages the right guard with good leverage, also inserting his right arm into the A-gap to get a piece of the guard. Between squeezing the B-gap as well as putting his hips in the C-gap, Alexander is able to wall off the right side of the line and creates a path into the backfield for cornerback Nic Jones on a run blitz. That forces the back through the left A-gap.

Alexander slows the right guard down well enough that Jack Kelly could insert himself into the left A-gap and blow up the play in the backfield. However, Kelly hesitates slightly which allows the back to work back to the right side. At the same time, Jones steps on Alexander’s leg, tripping him and allowing the right tackle to expand the gap and the back is able to pick up some dirty yards.

Taken as a whole, we see that not only does Alexander need to continue to work on consistently playing with better technique, but also that his perceived level of play could improve when surrounded by starters.

Anchor

Alexander’s issues with consistency in his footing bleed into other areas of his game, and in particular his ability to consistently anchor against blockers.

We got a good example early on against the Jets.

Alexander is aligned as the 3-technique on the left guard’s outside shoulder. He makes an effort to stay low and play with a wide base off of the snap, which allows him to at least hold the guard. However Alexander fails to win inside leverage and gain control of the guard’s chest plate. Instead, the guard gains inside leverage on Alexander, using the grip on his chest plate to torque him laterally and prevent him from engaging with the center, who works up to the second level.

This isn’t a huge loss for Alexander, particularly considering he’s able to occupy the guard well enough that that Micah McFadden is able to occupy the gap. The run itself, however, goes for a nice gain after Kelly attempts to occupy the same gap instead of flowing to the outside while Ar’Darius Washington is washed inside by a wide receiver who inserts into the box as a blocker.

That said, this is a good example of how Alexander needs to become more consistent in his technique to fully take advantage of his athletic tools.

The good

Alexander’s tape is littered with flashes of impressive play, particularly as you begin to get a sense for what the Giants want to do on defense.

Dennard Wilson’s scheme will likely depend heavily on living in nickel sets and attacking offenses with motion, the blitz, and the threat of the blitz. This isn’t the place to get into the weeds of how a defense can use stunts, twists, zone drops, simulated pressures, and blitzes to attack an offense — that’s for another piece. However, Alexander’s traits hold solid upside for helping to execute a modern defensive scheme.

Athleticism

Darius Alexander is a very good athlete, with a great first step and explosiveness. That showed up in flashes throughout the preseason.

We’ll start with a play in run defense against the Vikings.

Alexander begins the play lined up at 5-technique on the left tackle’s outside shoulder. The run is an outside zone to the right, putting Alexander on backside contain and pursuit. The Vikings attempt to account for him with a double-team from the tackle and tight end. However, Alexander is able to split the double team as the tackle releases to block at the second level. He runs the play down from behind as the back attempts to exploit a massive hole created when Josh Tupou gets washed out.

This is the look just before Alexander closes on the play:

There isn’t much between the back and the open field, and the run could have gone for another double-digit gain (if not much more). Instead, Alexander is able to discard the tight end’s block and close on the back quickly enough that this is only a 4-yard gain.

Later in the game we get another good look at Alexander’s speed in space as he drops into a shallow coverage zone to create a path for Kelly on a zone blitz.

Both Alexander and Chauncey Golston simulate a rush before dropping out in shallow coverage while linebackers Micah McFadden and Jack Kelly blitz, as well as cornerback Nic Jones. The pressure scheme confuses the Vikings’ blockers while also muddying J.J. McCarthy’s reads. Kelly’s pressure flushes the quarterback from the pocket, which Alexander recognizes, coming down from his coverage zone to pick up the sack.

We see Alexander’s lower-body explosiveness and power on display the next week against the Dolphins.

Alexander is lined up at the 4i with the rest of the defensive front in a Wide-9.

He does a good job of timing the snap and is among the first players moving, firing low and hard to get under the left guard’s pads. Alexander wins the initial leverage battle and places his hands well to fight off the guard’s attempts to get under his pads. While none of the Giants are able to get to the quarterback before he gets the pass off, Alexander and Caleb Murphy do a good job of constricting the pocket while a stunt on the defensive left allows two defenders to occupy three blockers.

Alexander finishes the play by getting his hand up to disrupt the passing lane, forcing a high throw that is nearly picked off by Tyler Nubin.

Anchor

“Wait,” you might be asking, “isn’t anchoring one of Alexander’s weaknesses?”

Yes, when he doesn’t execute his techniques well. However, he is also a powerful defender who can handle multiple blockers when he does execute well. And when he does, it’s impressive.

Here we see him take on a double-team on a duo run play by the Dolphins.

Alexander is aligned directly over the right guard in a 2-technique. His job is to take on the guard-center double team and keep the MIKE linebacker clean so he can come up and fill his gap. Alexander does an excellent job of engaging the interior linemen with a wide base, keeping his feet from coming together, and rooted in the ground as much as possible. Likewise, he keeps his pads down and doesn’t allow the center to access his side while keeping his hands inside to control both blockers.

Alexander’s presence allows the defenders on the offensive right to flow over top of the play, forcing the back to slow and cut. That, in turn, opens the door for the edge defender and WILL linebacker to make the tackle for just a yard gain.

Final thoughts

I tend to agree with Carl Banks that the Giants need to see more from Alexander. Not, however, because I believe that he has played poorly. But rather because Alexander is capable of being a real impact player and difference maker.

Alexander certainly had his poor plays, but accusations of him being a “bust” after one season as a part-time player or that he should have been cut is simply the result of a narrative run amok. Alexander plays a pretty thankless position as a defensive tackle, and when he fails it’s pretty obvious and ugly. By the same token, when he succeeds, it’s generally to allow a teammate to make a play. That generally means that it’s easy to clip videos of him losing his balance or being leveraged out of a gap, but few will focus on a defensive tackle winning half-man leverage and closing a gap to force a run elsewhere when the highlight play is elsewhere.

But as I said above, the flashes that Alexander shows are impressive. He needs to play with greater consistency in technique, but the tools are there to be a force against both the pass and the run. Development isn’t linear, though the Giants are counting on Alexander to take steps forward in his second season. It can be tough to remember that Alexander is still a developing player and has less than 400 snaps of NFL experience.

As with B.J. Hill and Dexter Lawrence before him, the next (and necessary) step in Alexander’s development will be consistently playing with excellent technique to unlock his tools and raise his floor.

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