Giants' top pick Deonte Banks: 'Felt like home'
New York Giants first round draft pick Deonte Banks, center, poses with head coach Brian Daboll, left, and general manager Joe Schoen during a press conference at the NFL football team's training center in East Rutherford, N.J., Friday, April 28, 2023. Credit: AP/Stefan Jeremiah
The image of Wink Martindale in a giddy embrace of Joe Schoen seemed to stamp the Giants’ first pick in this NFL Draft on Thursday night. By selecting cornerback Deonte Banks, who played collegiately at Maryland, the Giants got their man.
On Friday afternoon, Banks arrived at his new workplace.
In meeting with the media, Banks said his superpower is his physicality.
No wonder Martindale, the defensive coordinator, likes the guy.
“Yeah, he’s played a lot of press man-to-man [coverage],” coach Brian Daboll said. “Again, we play a variety of defenses with our system, but he’s played a heavy amount of man-to-man coverage and press and he’s strong. He’s got good length. He’s got good quickness, good speed. And now we’ll just throw him in the mix with our guys. It’s good to have him.”
Banks presumably becomes a starting cornerback for the Giants opposite Adoree’ Jackson, who is entering the final year of his contract.
After being drafted, Banks said Jackson was one of three Giants who reached out. The other two were quarterback Daniel Jones and cornerback Darnay Holmes.
“You can never have enough good corners,” Daboll said. “This is a passing league. We have a tough division and [Banks] is a tall, lengthy, press, man-to-man corner who we had graded high, and happy we have him.”
Banks arrived at the Giants’ facility shortly before 3 p.m. with his mother, father, sister, brother, girlfriend and closest friend.
Asked if he is looking forward to being with the Giants, Banks said, “I’m here to play football.”
The Baltimore native said, “I feel like I have to beat the odds.”
Maryland was the only major school that recruited him, though that does not seem to have been a deterrent.
“I always had dedication to my sport,” Banks said. “If I put my mind to it, I think I can do it.”
In drafting the 6-foot, 197-pound Banks, the Giants moved up one slot from their original 25th overall pick. With their eye on the prize, they weren’t going to allow another team to sneak in.
During the process leading up to the draft, Giants secondary coach Jerome Henderson worked out Banks. As Henderson conveyed to Martindale the details of the session and how impressed he was, Martindale, according to a source, was sold.
“It kind of felt like home for me,” Banks said of his interactions with the Giants. “They took me out to dinner, and the dinner was real cool. It wasn’t real weird. It was good vibes.”
Asked Saturday if he has designs on becoming the next shutdown corner for the Giants, Banks exhibited a savviness that may serve him well in the country’s largest media market.
“I’ve got to get my foot in the door first,” he said.
Coming to a team that plays a lot of press man coverage — does that excite Banks?
“Yes,” he said.
Does he look forward to learning from Jackson?
“I think he could teach me a lot of things,” Banks said. “I’m just going to get my feet in the door first. I’m coming to work.”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
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