Snubbed Giants Rookie Given Michael Strahan Reminder After Week 1

He was denied his NFL debut in Week 1, but a top member of the New York Giants’ 2025 NFL draft class can take comfort from how franchise great and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan started his career.

Defensive tackle Darius Alexander was a healthy scratch against the Washington Commanders, raising questions about the stalled development of this year’s third-round pick. Yet, the critics were urged by NorthJersey.com’s Art Stapleton to remember how things began for Strahan.

Stapleton pointed out how Strahan, a second-round pick and the first player taken by the Giants in the 1993 NFL draft, “could not beat out veteran defensive ends on the Giants as a rookie and was inactive for the first five games of his NFL career. He eventually found his game.”

Alexander can only hope to emulate the heights Strahan eventually reached as the league’s single-season sack record holder and the franchise leader in sacks. The Super Bowl champion needed a scheme change and some better personnel around him to eventually unlock his full potential.

Quality personnel is something Alexander can count on during his debut season, provided he can convince coaches to let him onto the field.

Darius Alexander Needs Reset After Week 1 ‘Disappointment’

The best way to sum up the negative aspect of Alexander missing out in the opening week is to consider who the Giants chose ahead of him. They felt more comfortable turning to Elijah Garcia, a former practice squad player with the Los Angeles Rams and Denver Broncos, who made three starts for the Giants last season.

As Dan Duggan of The Athletic put it, the Giants promoting Garcia “over Alexander speaks to how far they view the third-round pick is from contributing.”

What’s worse is Ralph Vacchiano of Fox Sports admitting Alexander being a scratch wasn’t “a surprise, but it’s certainly a disappointment.”

The disappointment stems from Alexander being versatile and athletic enough to act as an amoeba along Big Blue’s hybrid fronts. He’s supposed to add more playmaking dynamism at the heart of the trenches and take some attention away from double-teams magnet, All-Pro nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II.

Alexander obviously hasn’t done enough to convince Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen and D-line coach Andre Patterson he can be a worthy complement to Lawrence. That’s less than encouraging, but there’s still room for Alexander to deliver, especially after the way the Giants struggled up front in key moments against the Commanders.

Loaded Giants Defensive Line Still Needs a Boost

Surrendering 220 yards and two touchdowns on the ground showed the Giants still have work to do along the line. So did miserable resistance on second-and-long, when a supposedly loaded front seven “on 10 different instances had the Commanders on 2nd and 10 or longer. The Commanders averaged 15 yards per play on those plays,” according to Justin Penik of Talkin’ Giants.

Alexander can help as a 6-foot-4, 310-pounder who’s tough to move in the meat grinder along the line of scrimmage. The 25-year-old must take advantage of practicing alongside lineman as accomplished as Lawrence, Super Bowl winner Rakeem Nunez-Roches and veteran Roy Robertson-Harris, who can operate at both end and tackle.

Making the most of the experience and talent around him is how Alexander transfers his raw skills into making an impact in games that matter. It’s how Strahan eventually made the grade almost 30 years ago.

Michael Strahan Career Path Is Motivation for Giants Rookie

Strahan struggled to make a dent as a 3-4 defensive end in then-coordinator Mike Nolan’s schemes, despite his obvious physicality. Things hardly improved for No. 92 when Nolan and head coach Dan Reeves shifted to a four-man front in 1994.

It wasn’t until Jim Fassel replaced Reeves two years later and hired John Fox to take over from Nolan, that things changed for the better for Strahan. Fox gave his linemen more room to freelance and attack.

The new style, along with Robert Harris moving from end to tackle next to the perennially underrated Keith Hamilton, transformed Strahan. His sack numbers jumped from five to 14 in a single season, and the rest was history.

Alexander may not go from strength to strength the way Strahan did, but he’s still in a good position to succeed during his first year, once he earns his chance, because of the players around him.

Packers’ Colby Wooden Fires Back at Critics After Dominant Run Defense Performance

 Micah Parsons, a contrarian opinion had taken hold, too–the Packers defense would get chewed up in the running game.Three days before the Packers were to play the Detroit Lions in their 2025 opener, defensive lineman Colby Wooden got a phone call. It was his father. While much attention had been foisted on the Packers in recent days after the stunning trade for pass-rusher

The Packers had to trade away stalwart defensive lineman Kenny Clark to acquire Parsons, and the feeling was, that would be costly in the team’s efforts to handle the run. Detroit, after all, rushed for 2,488 yards last season, sixth in the NFL. Without Clark, surely the Packers would be in trouble.

Wooden, who is helping replace Clark in the middle, took the call from his dad, who said, “Do me a favor, shut ‘em up.”

And he, along with the entire Packers defensive front, did just that, holding the Lions to 46 yards on 22 carries, their lowest rushing output since Week 6 in 2023. Wooden, Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks held the line admirably in the middle all day for the Packers.

Colby Wooden: ‘I Took That Personal’

Wooden, for one, was insulted by the questions about the team’s inability to hold against the run.

“I for sure took that personal …” Wooden said. “So I just, did my job, went out there, stopped the run. I took it personal. Honestly, I felt like it was kinda disrespectful, like, ‘Oh, they gonna run the ball.’ So I made it my mission—we, excuse me—we made it our mission to shut them down.”

That’s not easy to do against the combo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, nicknamed Sonic and Knuckles.

“We know what they want to do,” Wooden said. “Last year, they wanted to run. They call them Sonic and Knuckles, or whatever. They want to run them 30 times. So we know they want to run that ball. We’ve got to do our job to stop the run so they can get back and let (Parsons) go get them.”

Packers Filling Roles With Micah Parsons on Board

Wooden said the effect of having Parsons on the field was obvious, and it works both ways. When offenses focus on corralling Parsons, the other Packers must step up.

“Everybody’s got a job to do, everybody got a role,” Wooden said. “Everybody’s got to buy into their role. We know what attention and what he comes with. And we know we got to stop that run, go help him out, if he is getting is getting chipped, doubled or whatever, now it’s somebody else’s turn to win their one-on-one.”

Packers Have Commanders Next

And despite the obviously encouraging results, Wooden is not getting ahead of himself. The Commanders will be next on the docket, with fearsome young quarterback Jayden Daniels on hand.

“It’s just one week,” Wooden said. “It’s Week 1. It’s great to start off with a win, dominate. But we’ve got to keep it going. We got a good team coming here on Thursday, we know we got to be ready to stop that run and contain that quarterback. So we just gotta keep going, keep getting better, keep jelling.”

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