Film Breakdown: Tyler Nubin and his incredible instincts

A look at what Nubin brings to the Giants’ secondary

For the second consecutive year, the New York Giants selected a Minnesota Golden Gopher in the second round. Joe Schoen on Friday added safety Tyler Nubin to Shane Bowen’s defense with the 47th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Nubin will replace former Giants’ second-round pick Xavier McKinney, who signed a four-year, $67-million contract with the Green Bay Packers during free agency.

Nubin started 43 of 55 career games for Minnesota, with 207 career tackles, 4.5 for a loss, two sacks, three forced fumbles, 51 STOPs, 11 pressures, and a missed tackle rate of 14.7%. He only had six missed tackles in 2023. Overall, Nubin is sound against the run – but it was his ball production that, as Joe Schoen stated, made him so valuable.

Nubin recorded 24 passes defended with 13 interceptions through his college career. He was a Second Team All-American in 2023 and was Second Team All-Big Ten in 2022. He led the Golden Gophers in interceptions in his final three seasons on campus.

Here are my notes from his tape evaluation:

Tyler Nubin, No. 27

• Imposing size – good frame
• Did have high speed of 21.4 MPH
• A glider and long strider – allows him to access functional range for deep half/Quarters
• Very good ball skills – extends and secures passes
• High end ball tracking and concentration
• Disciplined in coverage – doesn’t get grabby, well-timed hits
• Excellent instincts and eyes in coverage – dangerous robber
• Excellent reactive quickness
• Elite peripheral vision/awareness – a threat to undercut backside routes
• Leverages elite spatial awareness to create turnovers
• Solid burst in plant & drive downhill – enhanced by processing
• Very good zone coverage, split-field safety option
• Sees through routes well – disciplined/patient, understands concepts
• Reported film junkie (it shows up on tape)
• Good overall tackler who comes square and maximizes his tackle-radius (32 ¼” arms)
• Good presence downhill with proper positioning/angles of attack
• Solid blitzing option
• Menace on special teams
• Tight-hipped, not very fluid for a safety
• Not very explosive out of his breaks
• Transitions in man coverage aren’t fluid
• Below-average recovery speed
• Has range due to stride length/acceleration, but tightness affects his ability to play the post consistently
• Sub-optimal in man coverage

Overall, Nubin is an intelligent quarters safety with excellent instincts and ball skills. His athletic limitations hinder his upside as a man coverage safety, but he’s sound against the run and a physical presence with excellent size. He’ll be a problem for offenses over the middle of the field, but the Giants must be wary of pre-snap shifts that could position Nubin with an undesirable assignment.

The less-than-optimal athletic ability manifested at his Pro Day, but there’s crucial context that helps describe the poor testing:

Nubin played the final six games of the season with an injured right knee. After the season, he underwent surgery to repair his right lateral meniscus. He sped through his recovery process to test at his Pro Day, and the results were dreadful. He is a better athlete than the testing suggests, but he’s still only average—at best—when healthy.

He wins with his eyes, and his recognition skills put him in a better position than most athletic safeties. He’s a fit for defensive coordinator Shane Bowen, so let’s review plays that show why the Giants spent a second-round pick on the 22-year-old safety.

Ball production

Boundary safety, top of screen

The Golden Gophers use Nubin as the deep-half safety in this quarter-quarter-half (Cover-6, Cover-2 side) to the boundary. Using his judgment and precise timing, he smoothly backpedaled and quickly reacted once the quarterback attempted to fit the football into the honey hole. He planted and drove downhill, utilizing his solid burst to run through the football, secure it, and get a foot inbounds for an interception on second-and-19 against Rutgers in 2023.

Between the hash safety

Minnesota ran a version of an inverted Cover-2 with Nubin in the traditional MIKE Tampa-2 role, staying put in the middle of the field with the field cornerback taking the deep-half responsibility. Nubin exercises incredible peripheral vision while keeping his eyes locked on the quarterback; this allows him to react to the quarterback’s intentions while positioning himself well to undercut back-side routes. Watch how patient he is as he intercepts the dig route with excellent timing, and receiver like ball-skills.

Boundary safety, right of screen

We have the pleasure of seeing something similar in the play above against Northwestern. Nubin follows the stripe of the quarterback’s helmet in a controlled manner and pounces like a python against its prey. He failed to secure this interception, but the positioning and patience allowed him to almost come away with a possible pick-six on second-and-goal.

Safety top of screen

It’s obvious that Nubin can slow the game down in coverage; he’s not frantic and is a measured player. We can tell he thinks through each play and adjusts to account for other routes, as we see above. Nubin initially got outside to assist his cornerback but saw the backside drag and reacted accordingly.

Between the hash safety

I love how Nubin did not bite on the first cross that the second-level defenders handled. He quickly came across the middle of the field after anticipating the high-low and knocked the football away on third-and-long.

Run defense

Nubin sifts through traffic well and usually uses sound tackling technique to maximize his 32-inch arms. Occasionally, he will try to just use his shoulder at the line of scrimmage, which lead to some of the 13 missed tackles over the last few seasons. Still, he’s a sound tackler with BIG-DIME/BIG-NICKEL upside as a box defender – he aligned in the box for 198 snaps last season.

Physicality

Boundary safety

First, Nubin did a great job keeping the receiver out of the end zone as the receiver caught the football inches away from the line. It’s a good example of his physical nature. However, I primarily want to highlight how smart of a play this is from Nubin, who was supposed to be cleared out by the tight end’s outward vertical release that was directly and deliberately oriented to move Nubin off his spot.

Nubin gained depth and realized the inside release from the No. 1 WR, who just motioned to that spot. The No. 1 WR ran a pivot, and Nubin met him at the catch point by quickly discerning that the TE was the clearout and not the threat – the threat was underneath.

Nubin showed his hit power on this play against a susceptible Northwestern wide receiver who did secure the football. There are bigger hitters than Nubin, but he has functional physicality and can lay the boom against receivers. He is a bit more conservative as a hitter.

Nubin closes width quickly from the deep half to disrupt the catch point with good technique and timing. Over the last two seasons, Nubin did not have a coverage penalty, which is a testament to his discipline and intelligence as a player.

Where he can improve

Nubin isn’t the best athlete at safety. Although he did clock 21.4 MPH once in 2023, it was more due to his long strides on an extended play. Once Nubin opens his stride, he covers the ground, and he does have a solid burst out of his breaks when planting and driving.

However, he is a bit stiff in his lower half. He doesn’t have oily hips or the smoothest transitions, and his man-coverage upside has a lower ceiling than many other safeties who are selected as the first in their respective classes.

Boundary safety

The pass wasn’t completed, but we see Nubin isolated against the tight end to the boundary (top of the screen). It was a double-Y set, post-wheel concept, where the outward TE releases on the post by crossing the face of Nubin, who takes a bit to shift his weight inward to account for the post. The tight end gains about four yards of separation in a tighter area (just outside the red zone), and a better throw would have resulted in a touchdown.

Just outside field hash

Nubin is over the No. 2 WR at the bottom of the screen. The receiver ran a very smooth pivot route to get Nubin to over-pursue to the outside. The transition takes an extra step and isn’t optimal, showing lower-half stiffness that does come up throughout his tape when he needs to transition quickly. Luckily for the Giants, he doesn’t find himself out of position often.

On field hash

This is Nubin’s last game in college, so he was playing through his knee injury. Still, he badly loses to the corner route from the No. 2 receiver for this touchdown. This is a tough assignment for a safety against a wide receiver, but he’ll likely find himself in similar situations in Bowen’s system. Man coverage is not Nubin’s strength.

We see three plays where his athletic limitations are exploited. He typically takes good angles of approach; however, if he doesn’t, his recovery speed to account for the imprecise angle does him no favors.

Final thoughts

Joe Schoen mentioned that Nubin was a culture changer for Minnesota. Nubin was a team captain and an elite communicator who always assisted his teammates with positioning, an invaluable trait for a safety. Nubin reportedly has an insatiable work ethic and competitive edge—he is SMART, TOUGH, and DEPENDABLE!

Nubin combines an impressive frame with elite processing and positioning. His ball skills and ability to bait quarterbacks into mistakes will result in turnovers on the backend of the Giants’ defense. Nubin is solid in run support, has versatility, and reportedly is a film junky, which plays right into his elite spatial awareness.

He’s not the best in man coverage, and he’s a bit tight—not the tightest—but transitions aren’t overly smooth when he finds himself out of position. He can function as a single-high safety in certain situations and has solid range, but his lack of elite fluidity may not often put him in single-high looks.

Overall, the Giants replaced Xavier McKinney with a very capable and competent player. Nubin is smart and should help the Giants create turnovers in Bowen’s system. He’ll be one of the faces of the Giants’ secondary for the next several seasons.