Andru
Phillips.
Andru
Phillips.
Kentucky· 5'11"· 190 lb· 4.48s 40
"Nobody drafted Dru Phillips for the box score — the Giants bought a temperament, and two years later the one trait the board doubted, taking the ball away, is the one he keeps adding to."Pre-draft read
Phillips is a slot corner first: he lived in the nickel for Kentucky, aligned in tight leverage over the No. 2, and played the position like a linebacker who can cover. The main trait is trigger. He reads the release, drives on the throw and arrives with real intent, which is why a 190-pound defensive back finished with 47 tackles in his last college season.
The second trait is physicality against the run. He fights through stalk blocks, sets an edge on perimeter runs and tackles low and clean in space. In coverage he is sticky underneath with quick feet in the phone booth, though he can be grabby when routes stack vertically. The athleticism is good, not elite; the separator is competitive temperature on every snap.
Best in a pressure-heavy, match-zone defense that uses the nickel as a sixth run defender and a blitzer — Cover-3 match and Cover-6 shells with occasional man-under from tight leverage.
Year 1: opening-day starting nickel and four-phase special-teamer. Ceiling: top-10 slot corner in the league who plays 800-plus snaps and doubles as a pressure package.
A press-man defense that parks him outside on the boundary against big X receivers, or a passive quarters scheme that keeps him depth-first and takes away his downhill trigger.
His value collapses if a coordinator refuses to blitz him or asks him to play off-coverage at 10 yards.
Andru Phillips 2023 Kentucky Highlights
Full breakout season in the slot: trigger downhill, run fits and underneath mirroring.
NFL Draft Film: Andru Phillips / CB / Kentucky / 2023 Full Highlights
Cutup of his draft-year tape with nickel blitzes and coverage reps.
Andru Phillips Highlights
Career reel showing tackling in space and physicality against stalk blocks.
A four-year Kentucky defensive back who only started 16 games, Phillips is a nickel prospect whose identity is toughness, short-area quickness and willingness to do the dirty work most corners avoid. He plays inside-out — blitzing, fitting the run, matching tight ends and backs — and looks comfortable in the traffic of the slot.
The production is thin on paper: 82 tackles and 10 pass breakups across 38 games, with one real starting season in 2023 (47 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, five breakups). The tape carries the evaluation instead. He mirrors quick releases, closes throwing windows fast and finishes tackles at a rate that shows up on special teams too. The flags are the lack of ball production, occasional grabbing when he loses the stem, and questions about whether the frame holds up to a full season of run fits.
Boards liked him more than his box score, and he was a common late-second, early-third projection with a defined role: day-one nickel, core special-teamer, low bust risk and a modest ceiling. At No. 70 the Giants took the safest version of a slot corner in the class, betting on temperament and scheme fit rather than untapped traits.
- 01
Slot instincts
Diagnoses stems and route combinations from tight leverage, passes off verticals cleanly and rarely gets caught guessing on switch or rub concepts.
- 02
Run defense
Attacks stalk blocks with hands and leverage, sets the edge on perimeter runs and consistently gets ball-carriers on the ground in the alley.
- 03
Short-area quickness
Elite feet in the phone booth allow him to mirror the first two steps of quick releases and stay in phase on option routes underneath.
- 04
Blitz ability
Times the interior nickel pressure well, finds the crease off the edge and offers a coordinator a real pressure package from the slot.
- 05
Competitive temperature
Plays every snap at the same intensity, chases from the backside and translated immediately as a core special-teams contributor.
- 01
Ball production
Just 10 pass breakups and no interceptions in college; he closes windows but rarely takes the ball away when he arrives on time.
- 02
Grabby technique
When the stem beats him vertically he tends to reach and restrict, a habit that draws flags against NFL officiating standards.
- 03
Frame and length
At 5-11, 190 he can be stacked and boxed out by bigger slot receivers and tight ends on back-shoulder and fade concepts.
- 04
Limited starting resume
Only 16 college starts and one full season as the primary nickel, so the projection rests on a small sample of high-level tape.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.48sp50
- Vertical
- 42inp50
- Broad jump
- 135inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Kentucky | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | Kentucky | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Kentucky | 13 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 2023 | Kentucky | 12 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Career | — | 38 | 82 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
Season lines verified against the official career totals: games sum to 38 and tackles sum to 82. Interceptions (none recorded), forced fumbles and fumble recoveries are not itemized by season and are left null rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Physical inside corner who starts for a decade in the nickel without ever being a household name.
The blueprint: undersized slot who blitzes, tackles like a linebacker and eventually turns pressure into takeaways.
Tough, versatile sub-package defender whose real value ends up on special teams if the coverage does not hold up.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The Giants installed him as the starting nickel from Week 1 of 2024 and never looked back. He forced a fumble in his debut against Minnesota, went for 12 tackles at Cleveland in Week 2, and closed the rookie year with 71 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, a sack and his first interception in 14 games with six starts — the ninth-most tackles by any rookie in the league. In 2025 he played all 17 games with eight starts, adding 66 tackles, two interceptions (including a 56-yard return) and 12 pass breakups while the Giants churned through outside corners around him. Two seasons in: 137 tackles, three interceptions, 13 breakups. He opened 2026 as the entrenched slot starter and lost a stretch of August camp to a knee issue described as short-term.
This one has aged well. The exact concern in the evaluation — no ball production — is the trait that flipped: three picks and 13 breakups in two pro seasons already beat his entire college output. He is not a star, and the small frame still gets tested by big slot bodies, but the Giants got a plug-in starter at a premium sub-package position on a third-round contract while their expensive outside corners underdelivered. Priced against the corners taken ahead of him, No. 70 reads as value rather than a reach.
Data note: Season lines verified against the official career totals: games sum to 38 and tackles sum to 82. Interceptions (none recorded), forced fumbles and fumble recoveries are not itemized by season and are left null rather than zero-filled.