Giants' Former First-Round Bust Has Completely Turned a Corner

After the 2025 NFL campaign, New York Giants cornerback Deonte Banks' career appeared to be on life support.

He had just posted back-to-back miserable campaigns and was benched for much of last season, playing in just 44 percent of the Giants' defensive snaps.

Banks was failing in just about every aspect. He couldn't cover. He couldn't tackle. He was missing assignments. He looked completely and utterly lost.

It got so bad that some felt New York should trade the former first-round pick for a late Day 3 selection heading into 2026.

But the Giants hired a new coaching staff including defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, who seems to have turned Banks around.

Banks has gone from fodder to a valuable asset, and we saw that plain as day on Sunday when the 25-year-old held Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins to just two catches for six yards.

Banks did miss a couple of games this season due to a calf injury, but during the five contests he has been on the field, he has logged 20 tackles, an interception (which was a game-winning pick-six) and 10 passes defended.

Ten passes defended in five games.

The University of Minnesota product has been ubiquitous throughout the first half of the campaign, and he looks like an entirely different player in Wilson's press-heavy system.

Perhaps this is all Banks needed to be unlocked.

Everyone saw the talent with Banks in college. That was why the response was generally favorable when the Giants selected him with the 24th overall pick back in 2023.

But after a middling rookie season, Banks was downright awful in 2024 and 2025, and Big Blue fans couldn't wait to get rid of him.

During the early stages of the offseason program, however, buzz emerged that Banks was playing well enough to steal a starting job.

It sounded absurd at first based on what we had seen from Banks the past couple of years, but with New York's cornerback room being thinner than paper, perhaps we shouldn't have been overly surprised.

Sure enough, Banks did win a starting role, beating out $54 million man Paulson Adebo (who was subsequently placed on IR after Week 1 and just returned).

Of course, the jury was still out on Banks, who had to prove his worth in meaningful live-game action. But thus far, he has done just that.

The Giants declined Banks' fifth-year option for 2027, making him a free agent after this season. But at this rate, New York seems like it will be angling to re-sign the budding star come springtime.