Jayron Hosley Finding Stride as True Professional in New York Giants Secondary

New York Giants cornerback Jayron Hosley spent this past offseason looking at himself on tape and didn’t like what he saw.

What he saw was a player selected in the third round of the 2012 draft out of Virginia Tech who had talent, but who lacked discipline, and who, if he didn’t do something quickly, was going to find himself tossed out into the street.

In his first three seasons, Hosley has played in 29 games, with the breakdown being 12 as a rookie, 11 the following year and six last season. He has 57 tackles, seven passes defensed and one interception in those first three years which were filled with assorted injuries and a four-game suspension severed last year.

The biggest wake-up call though for Hosley came toward the end of the season when he was a healthy scratch for the Giants’ final five games, this despite the injuries that were causing the cornerback unit to crumble along the way.

So Hosley, now in his fourth season and the final year of his rookie deal, knew that if he wanted to hang around another year, he had to change—and in a hurry. 

“I understood that you had to work at this level, but just looking back—I missed a lot of time with injuries and then the suspension, and going through all those things made me realize that I’m in a very good position,” Hosley said.

“To be in this league, it’s hard to get here. To stay in this league is even harder, so I have an opportunity to make the best of it.”

Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

The Banana

Hosley compared his transformation to that of a banana.

Before having his epiphany, he of course had one foot on the banana peel and one in the grave. By realizing he had to change and then proactively pursuing those changes, he became what he described as a “ripe banana.”

“It’s growth,” he explained. “Stay green. Nobody likes the ripe banana—it’s good, but you want to stay green and always continue to grow. That’s one thing my coach in college always told me, ‘Stay green, because once you feel like you know it all, that’s when you’re done.’

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The first thing Hosley, who missed games in 2012 and 2013 due to a hamstring issue, did was change how he prepared himself physically. 

“The body was No. 1 just to take better care of myself, take care of the soft tissue injuries and do things to avoid them coming back and just being more of a pro—do yoga and stuff like that,” Hosley said.  

The second thing he did was look at himself in the mirror and ask himself a simple question.

“What’s going to separate you from the next guy?” Hosley said. “First round, second round, third round, fourth round, free agent—what separates you? What’s going to keep you here?

The answer is to produce because, as Hosley realized, draft status doesn’t mean anything if a player doesn’t produce at the end of the day.

“Nothing is guaranteed in this league. There’s always guys coming in who are looking to take your job, take your roster spot,” he said. “There are guys that come in that have been around it more and understand it more. So if you want your spot, you have to be a pro all the way around and go about your business.

“You can be a nice guy, but what have you done as far as production? So that’s one thing I understand about this league; you have to produce.”

A New Era

In many ways, Hosley’s journey to this point is reminiscent of another Giants cornerback by the name of Corey Webster, who was a second-round pick in 2005.

Webster, remember, was well on his way to being a major bust for the Giants for his first two years in the league. He was stuck in a system that really didn’t take advantage of his talents, and he had coaches wgodidn’t seem as willing to work with him to harvest his talents.

In 2007, that all changed. The Giants hired Steve Spagnuolo to become their defensive coordinator and by the end of the season, Webster was not only relevant again, he was a big contributor to that Super Bowl XLII championship defense.  

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

Fast-forward to the present, and Hosley, who is Spagnuolo’s latest reclamation project and who is not only fine with having his tourney compared to that of Webster’s, but is also hoping that he can produce much in the same way as the now-former cornerback. 

Hosley believes that the changes he made to his training, combined with Spagnuolo’s system that he said puts the defense's back end in position to make plays, gives him a solid foundation to produce in the way he knows he can.

“He puts guys in position to make plays,” Hosley said of Spagnuolo.

“We love playing for that guy. Nobody’s perfect, but, hey, we’re going to play for him, and we’re with him. It’s a different energy in the locker room, especially for the defense.”

So far, so good.

According to Pro Football Focus, Hosley is tied with teammate Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie for the fewest targets in pass coverage among Giants cornerbacks with a minimum of 100 snaps.

However, of the two, Hosley has the lower completion rate of passes thrown against him (62.5 percent), besting Rodgers-Cromartie’s 75 percent, also per PFF.

“What you don’t recognize with corners, and especially press corners, is sometimes when you don’t hear anything from them, that means they’re doing a really good job,” Spagnuolo said. “Nobody throws the ball over there (at Hosley).”

Uncredited/Associated Press

Hosley also gives credit for his progress to Tim Walton, a one-time college defensive back at Ohio State, whom the Giants hired to replace long-time cornerbacks coach Pete Giunta in the offseason.

“Coach Walton is going to stay on you,” Hosley said, adding that Walton recruited him in college.

“When he sees something, he’s going to get on you, bring it out. He expects you to be great; he won’t settle for you just being good. He’s honest with us. He’s not going to tell us we did good if we had a bad play. He played the game, and he knows how it works.”

Staying Green

These days when Hosley looks at himself in the mirror, he admits that while he likes what he is seeing a lot better than previous versions of himself, he’s still very much that unripe banana.

“The reason a lot of guys are here in this league is because they worry more about their opponent more than the opponent worries about them,” Hosley said.

So far so good for the Giants’ nickelback. In four games he has recorded 11 tackles with one pass defensed.

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

“I know in my heart that I’m a good player and a smart player. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. I didn’t want my past to define my future.  I’m a guy who has talent, and I want to make a name for myself and continue to play in this league for a while.”

Hosley is very much driven these days, not just with his work on defense, but also on special teams, which he said he’s also taking more seriously since it’s all part of the big picture.

He’s also never satisfied with what he sees of himself on film, no matter how well he might grade out each week.

“There’s always room to grow. This is my fourth year, and there’s still room to improve. I go watch myself on film all the time, and there’s always something that I can sharpen up.

“You’re never going to be perfect, but as long as you take the time, you’re going to be better off at the end of the day if you want to stay in this game.”

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.

Follow me on Twitter, @Patricia_Traina.