Let’s look at the Giants’ newest edge defender

The New York Giants swapped 2025 late-round picks with the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday to acquire defensive end Carlos ‘Boogie’ Basham. The 6-foot-3, 274-pound 25-year-old defender was the Bills’ second-round pick in 2021. Here are some of his career statistics:

Basham was the heart and soul of the Wake Forest defense, but didn’t live up to his second-round potential in Buffalo. Still, Basham is a hustle player with active hands who anchors well against the run. He’s not the most explosive or flexible, but he has displayed the ability to flatten at the top of the pass-rushing arc.

Before we get into the film, it’s important to note the stylistic differences between Wink Martindale and former Bills’ defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. The Bills are a disciplined four-down rush team which blitzed at a 19% rate in 2021. The Giants, while disciplined in their own way, are an exotic front predicated on scheming pressure, not only off blitzes, but also because of presnap alignment and immediate post-snap movement from the defenders who are rushing.

The Giants led the league in blitzing with a 39% rate. Instead of having his hand in the dirt as a 5, 6, or 7 technique like he did with the Bills, Basham will likely be used similarly to Jihad Ward from last season. Ward and Basham have similar builds, albeit the former is a bit larger.

Ward played 657 snaps for the Giants last season; some of those snaps will go to Basham, as well as snaps from the now released Ryder Anderson (152) and Oshane Ximines (506). The acquisition of Basham is more compatible with New York’s desire to be stronger up front. The Giants ranked 28th in rushing yards allowed last season and they were 30th in rush EPA.

Adding A’Shawn Robinson, Rakeem Nunez-Roches, and Boogie Basham give the Giants a more physical presence up front. The signing of linebacker Bobby Okereke, and the trade for Isaiah Simmons provides the speed to supplement the defense’s new identity up front.

Pass rusher

There were times throughout Basham’s tape where he disappeared or wasn’t notable other than his hustle. The guy’s competitive drive is through the roof. Here are his career sacks:

[Basham is No. 55]

Basham is able to flatten at the top of the arc in a couple of the sacks above, showing solid flexibility in his lower half for a player of his size. I wouldn’t say this trait was consistent throughout his tape, but he’s fully capable of reducing the surface area of his chest, dipping his inside shoulder, and absorbing contact from a blocker that puts stress on his lower body joints. Here are some other plays of Basham flattening at the top of the pass-rushing arc:

[Left side of screen]

This is one of the cleaner pass rushing wins Basham had last season; I love this rep. If it wasn’t against Malik Willis (7) it may have been a quick sack for Basham, who violently chopped Nicholas Petit-Frere’s (78) punch, which sent the young tackle’s momentum downward and gave Basham the ability to win around the edge.

[Left side of screen]

The tackle sets inward which gave Basham an easy opportunity to win around the edge, which he did. Even though the set gave Basham an easier assignment, he quickly made the Dolphins pay with prompt hands and the will to fight through an obvious hold to earn a quarterback hit.

His explosiveness up the arc is average, so he’s not frequently in a position to bend through contact up the pass rushing arc. Still, when he does get hip-to-hip, his ability to mitigate the recovery attempt by the blocker is effective:

[Right side of screen]

It’s a little bit slow developing, but I loved this pass rushing rep from Basham. He turned a tight corner with active hands. From the 7-techinque spot, Basham stepped inside on the play action and the guard gets his paws on Basham’s breast plate, but the newly acquired Giant quickly landed the rip underneath the guard’s outside shoulder. Basham then stepped with the running back that released into a route before lifting the guard’s arm upward to separate. Basham then flipped his hips and pressured Tua Tagovailoa to throw an incomplete pass.

[Right side of screen]

I like the leverage Basham rushes with and his understanding of how to keep his chest clean when he’s in a half-man relationship. To be fair, he’s not frequently in the half-man relationship and blockers typically frame his attempts well. In the play above, the Bills schemed him up well and the guard was late to react, which allowed Basham to almost sack Mac Jones (10).

Basham doesn’t necessarily have a go-to move when he’s not on an island, nor does he string moves together often. His first step quickness is adequate for his size. One thing I appreciated through his film is his ability to win inside in one-on-one situations. Basham displayed frequent quickness to shoot the B-Gap (or C-Gap when against a TE) to penetrate. Here are several instances to that effect:

[Left side of screen]

[Left side of screen]

[Right side of screen]

[Right side of screen]

[Right side of screen]

His most effective pass rushing move is the inside double swipe against an over-aggressive blocker. Basham is strong and does a good job staying low in his rush to maximize power on contact; we see that in the play above against the Vikings. Basham turned Brian O’Neill (75) around with a quick employment of an inside long arm and elite precision with the placement of his hands. Basham does well to combine his strike with his feet to orient himself exactly where he wants to go.

Hustle

If I had to name one trait that Basham will consistently provide the Giants, it’s hustle. Here are several clips that stood out:

[Left side of screen]

[Left side of screen]

[Left side of screen]

[Left side of screen]

Run defense

As we saw in several of the hustle clips, Basham is a very smart and disciplined backside pursuit defender. He’s assignment sound, stout at the point of attack, and is rarely bullied. Basham plays until the whistle and has only been penalized once in his career.

[Left side of screen]

Basham blew up this third-and-1 by driving the tight end directly into the path of the running back. He’s low on contact, as good lower-leg drive with tight elbows and control; he completely overpowers the tight end, which isn’t a surprise with the rest of his tape.

[2i-Shade, left side]

Basham does such a great job prying open this ACE Combo block between the guard and center. Once the center climbed to the second level, Basham stayed low and lifted the guard upward while presenting his numbers in the desired rushing hole. This is a microcosm of Basham’s high floor, and he was aligned inside on the play.

[1-techinque, right side]

Basham stood the center rup on contact. Great job to quickly employ his hands, stay low, and explode high to deter any traction of movement from the center. Basham not only eliminated the play-side A-Gap with this stack, but he also has his hips in the backside A-Gap. Great rep.

Basham is also solid taking on pullers versus counter runs or the split-zone kick out block. He does well to either absorb the contact (block-down, step-down rules) or avoid the contact and hustle to the ball. Here are a few examples:

[Left side of screen]

[Right side of screen]

Final thoughts

Basham is a solid high-floor player who can align anywhere across the defensive front depending on the situation. In his best plays, as we saw above, he uses good leverage, executes good timing with his hands to separate, and is stout at the point of attack. There isn't a lot of tape of Basham flat-out losing in the run game; he’s assignment sound.

However, there are stretches of his tape where he’s nowhere to be seen. He’s not consistently explosive to threaten the edge, but he does well to flip his hips at the top of the pass rushing arc when he finds himself hip-to-hip against tackles. He also does well with his hands up the arc to generate a higher probability that he’ll establish a half-man relationship, despite modest explosiveness.

I like this trade. The Giants get a bigger - more physical - assignment-sound player on the edge to pair with Jihad Ward behind Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari. Fans will also love Basham’s high-energy play style. There will be fewer mistakes with Basham on the roster than Oshane Ximines and Tomon Fox.

Basham may not have fully actualized his second-round pedigree. Still, entering his third season in a completely different system, I expect Basham to have a solid rotational role and be a fundamentally sound contributor for the Giants.