Giants need Deonte Banks to be exactly what he wasn’t last year
NY Post
Deonte Banks — and his failures — were at the heart of one of the Giants’ more significant moves this offseason.
It didn’t come on the field but rather on the sideline, when they fired defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator Jerome Henderson after the season. He was a respected member in the organization, having been hired in 2020 under head coach Joe Judge and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, then retained under head coach Brian Daboll and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who called him the best defensive backs coach in the league.
After the Martindale fiasco resulted in his exit, Henderson interviewed for the defensive coordinator position, and though he didn’t get the gig, he got a promotion with the passing game coordinator title added to his responsibilities.
That promotion lasted just one year before he got canned, however. The Giants’ secondary was a disaster last season, and Banks was in the middle of it. Beyond his poor play, what was more concerning was repeated lack of effort, which resulted in a benching during a Week 8 loss to the Steelers.
The Rangers hit the mark with their on-ice ceremony honoring Mika Zibanejad ahead of his 1,000th NHL game Monday night.
PORT ST. LUCIE — For now, Craig Kimbrel is choosing Mets purgatory.
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Almost a year to the day after a goaltender interference call against Kyle Palmieri lost the Islanders a game against the Blue Jackets that started their season’s death spiral, they were on the wrong end of another controversial call against those same Blue Jackets that might have had the same effect.
On the Queens side of town, the reno began in earnest almost as soon as Francisco Lindor grounded into the 4-6-3 double play. That ended a 4-0 loss before a rare sizable crowd at Miami’s loanDepot Park last Sept. 27, all of them there to witness the final death rattles of an epic baseball calamity.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is being paid handsomely for his breakout season.
Next comes the harder part. Mostly because it can’t get any easier.
It was Kids Day at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, but for the Rangers, it’s been All About The Kids for months.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.