#Giants still may regret not making run at Logan Ryan

There are no more dots left to connect leading the Giants to Logan Ryan, but it’s still a puzzle.

It made sense for the Giants to pursue Ryan …

At the start of free agency, when he was a cornerback coming off a career year, capable of addressing a major area of need, with experience playing under coach Joe Judge, and a chance to come home to New Jersey …

In May, when DeAndre Baker was arrested, and again in July when Baker was placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List …

Earlier this month, when Sam Beal exercised the COVID-19 opt-out clause, taking away a second cornerback.

Then it was revealed Ryan’s agent is marketing his client to teams as an elite safety. Well, after a brief moment of understanding the reason for not uniting, it makes sense again for the Giants to pursue Ryan because safety Xavier McKinney underwent foot surgery that could sideline him until November.

It’s not that the Giants don’t recognize a need for secondary help: Since a deal fell through with veteran cornerback Ross Cockrell at the start of camp, the Giants signed Prince Smith and are expected to add Brandon Williams.

This is equivalent to shopping at Dollar General instead of Target, putting a lot of pressure on defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to repeat the in-season improvement he created with the young Miami Dolphins last season.

But the results in Friday’s scrimmage were encouraging — only two completions for 12 yards in the first half — and the secondary’s best friend could be the fierce pass rush provided by Lorenzo Carter, Markus Golden and Leonard Williams.

“I’ve seen [Graham] play with practice squad players and get them to the level of being NFL, on-the-field game-day players and beat us,” Judge said, referencing the Patriots losing to the Dolphins last December. “That’s important to me.”

The roster includes just three cornerbacks with NFL game experience, two of whom (Corey Ballentine and Grant Haley) remain unproven. Four safeties have game experience, but it’s a similar boat for Julian Love, Montre Hartage and Sean Chandler.

In other words, after James Bradberry and Jabrill Peppers, the Giants’ secondary is a collection of first-, second- and third-year players who entered the league as late-round picks or undrafted.

“It’s all about what you do going forward and how we can develop you and get the best out of you,” Judge said. “We have a lot of young guys who are all working hard. They are developing and pushing ahead through competition. We’re letting the process of training camp develop every day for us.”

A career 85-game starter, Ryan played 395 special teams snaps over his first three years with Judge as a special teams coach for the Patriots. Judge favors cross-training positions, and Ryan, 29, can play in the box, roam deep or lock into a one-on-one slot matchup.

The Giants’ reasoning for staying pat makes sense: With the NFL salary cap potentially dropping by 11.6 percent to $175 million per team in 2021, there is value in rolling over unused 2020 space (currently $25.6 million) to soften the blow when the team is more competitive. Ryan was willing to take a one-year, $10 million contract to return to the Tennessee Titans and initially wanted at least that annual salary to change teams.

If the Rutgers product — one of two players in the NFL, along with Tyrann Mathieu, who has more than 60 passes defended, 15 interceptions and five sacks since 2013 — is (generously) worth one or two wins, the Giants likely still are not a playoff team. This is not the case of a contender stretching to go over the top.

But the Giants risk misreading their fan base’s patience and repeating a familiar mistake. It was obvious last summer that the secondary was under-talented, but the Giants stuck to a plan.

Dak Prescott had a perfect passer rating and four touchdowns in Week 1 against the Giants, setting the tone for the NFL’s fifth-worst passing defense. Now a season’s worth of time invested in development could be for naught if Baker and Beal never play for the Giants again.

“I don’t care if it’s a first-year player or a 10th-year player,” Judge said. “We’re looking for good players who can help build this program. To answer that question pretty directly, is it a priority to have a veteran? No, it’s not.”

Changing tunes in Week 2 might be too late. Again.