They gave him a contract worth $40 million over two years ago, but the New York Giants can’t ignore an “odd vibe” about starting middle linebacker Bobby Okereke. A vibe that has one reporter sounding a warning about the sudden decline and departure of Okereke’s predecessor Blake Martinez.
It comes from Dan Duggan of The Athletic. He described the “odd vibe around Okereke this offseason, beginning with reports that he had fallen out of favor with some in the organization and continuing with his unexplained disappearance from practices this spring. Okereke was brimming with optimism when he spoke to reporters after the team’s first OTA practice, but then he wasn’t in attendance at any of the next four open practices of the spring.”
While Duggan also noted head coach Brian Daboll didn’t clear up the mystery, “there are some parallels to linebacker Blake Martinez’s unexpected release before the 2022 season, but the main difference is Okereke was brought in by this regime.”
Duggan thinks Okereke is safe for now because of the finances and a lack of alternatives, but the 28-year-old is still under pressure to play like the active, on-field general the Giants thought they paid for in 2023.
Bobby Okereke Not Delivering for Giants
The Giants paid Okereke to be an all-round playmaker, starting with being a tackling machine. Unfortunately, he’s hardly leading by example as someone among the most guilty for a major weakness in Big Blue’s defense.
Okereke isn’t acting like a force against the run, and it’s not just because of an uneasy scheme fit in defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s system. Instead, Okereke is also too often “overwhelmed by a block,” per Coach Gene Clemons.
This issue explains why Okereke is a something of a stat-padder whose numbers don’t reveal the full story about his skill-set and performances. His 242 tackles in a Giants uniform don’t look nearly as impressive when many of them occurred at the end of positive gains for an offense.
It’s a problem the Giants have seen before. A problem that had major implications for Martinez.
Giants Won’t Want Repeat of Blake Martinez Problem
Daboll made Martinez a high-profile casualty of the salary cap in 2022, despite the player agreeing a deal worth more than $30 million only two years earlier. Martinez amassed 151 tackles during his first campaign in a Giants uniform, but a torn ACL ultimately wrecked his time at MetLife Stadium.
The silver lining was initially considerable, when Martinez made a fortune trading Pokemon cards. However, controversy soon followed when his company, “Blake’s Breaks” became embroiled in controversy and the subject of an investigation “following a series of accusations from customers and fellow card game streamers. Several online allege that Blake’s Breaks practises rampant scamming techniques, including theft from customer orders, sleight of hand, and trading card pack manipulation,” according to NintendoLife’s Alan Lopez.
An investigation led by social marketplace Whatnot resulted in refunds and eventual removal from the platform for the Martinez business. It wasn’t long before Martinez was returning to football, first signing with the Carolina Panthers as a practice squad player, then joining the roster for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Martinez is currently out of the league, but the Giants are arguably still struggling to replace him. Okereke has been inconsistent, while fellow starter Micah McFadden is productive, but not overly impactful.
What Daboll and Bowen need is for a young and multi-faceted contender to emerge and apply pressure at the top of the rotation. It hasn’t been Dyontae Johnson, even though his versatility attracted admirers last preseason.
Injury derailed those plans, but the Giants should revisit the strategy, despite Johnson being “surprisingly buried on the third-team defense in the spring,” according to Duggan. The Giants need more from Johnson because a new arrival they spent years pursuing, veteran Chris Board, is more of a special teams demon than a three-down linebacker.
Finding a credible potential replacement could help the Giants reconsider Okereke’s $14,413,333 salary cap hit for 2026 and make the key starter another Martinez.
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