The New York Giants are heading into a very important season in 2013 after missing the playoffs in their post-Super Bowl year and one thing that will greatly help the team improve is the play of the defense and that is why corner Prince Amukamara is aiming to be the best in the NFL.
According to ESPN.com, Amukamara, who is entering his third season with the team and his first as a likely starter, said that he is trying to improve to be the best that he can and he hopes to establish himself as the best cornerback on the team and in the league eventually. Amukamara spoke about Corey Webster and about how he is the number one guy and that eventually he wants to work his way up to be that and he also spoke about Richard Sherman and Patrick Peterson, two players taken in his draft that are considered to be elite. Amukamara dealt with injuries over his first two seasons, missing 12 games after being taken with the 19th overall pick.
Last year he got tons of playing time at cornerback as the team dealt with injuries and he said that working out with the team this offseason after dealing with the lockout and other issues has been a huge benefit. Fellow secondary player Terrell Thomas is coming back from his third major surgery and he will likely play safety to start, but if he is healthy he could end up back as a corner on the Giants along with Aaron Ross, who returned after leaving last season to play with the Jaguars.
Amukamara has been impressing coaches in camp as well as coordinator Perry Fewell, who said that the cornerback has looked more confident in camp since coming in. The Giants had issues on defense all season and ranked 31st in the NFL in yards allowed and in the bottom part of the league in passing yards allowed per game and Amukamara is going to try and get those numbers down. Fewell said that Webster has also looked better after getting beaten a number of times last season and he could return to the Pro Bowl form that the Giants expect.
The team starts training camp in July and one player that may be there is Victor Cruz after he signed his tender finally with the team. Sources say that he could still holdout, but at least there was one positive move on that front for the Giants and the receiver.