David Merritt is in his ninth season on the Giants’ coaching staff and his seventh as the team’s secondary coach/safeties.
In 2011, the safeties were one of the most reliable and consistent units on the Super Bowl champion Giants. Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant played in all 20 regular season and postseason games - Rolle started every one – and Kenny Phillips missed only one. The three safeties were often on the field at the same time. Rolle led the team with 96 tackles and intercepted two passes, Phillips had 72 tackles and four picks and Grant had 58 tackles, an interception and a sack.
David Merritt is in his ninth season on the Giants’ coaching staff and his seventh as the team’s secondary coach/safeties.
In 2011, the safeties were one of the most reliable and consistent units on the Super Bowl champion Giants. Antrel Rolle and Deon Grant played in all 20 regular season and postseason games - Rolle started every one – and Kenny Phillips missed only one. The three safeties were often on the field at the same time. Rolle led the team with 96 tackles and intercepted two passes, Phillips had 72 tackles and four picks and Grant had 58 tackles, an interception and a sack.
The safeties were the most improved unit on the team in 2010. Rolle and Grant – newcomers that year - teamed with Phillips (who missed most of the previous season after undergoing knee surgery) – to form a versatile and productive trio. Rolle started all 16 games, was the Giants’ second-leading tackler with 100, and was voted to the NFC Pro Bowl team. Phillips started 15 games and had 88 tackles. Grant had eight starts and, like Rolle, was often deployed close to the line of scrimmage. He had 68 tackles. The Giants were ranked seventh in the NFL in total defense and ninth in pass defense that season.
In 2009, Merritt molded a functioning safety unit after his best player, Phillips, was lost for the season following the second game because of the knee surgery. Five different players started at safety for the Giants that year, including converted cornerback Aaron Ross. Despite the shuffling, the Giants were ranked 15th in the NFL in pass defense.
Merritt has demonstrated a knack for developing players who were not highly-touted entering the NFL. When the Giants won the NFC East title in 2008, the starting safeties were Michael Johnson, a seventh-round draft choice, and James Butler, who joined the team as an undrafted free agent. That season, Johnson and Butler tied for second on the team with 76 tackles apiece. They also combined for five interceptions.
In the Giants’ 2007 Super Bowl season, one of the team’s best defensive players was free safety Gibril Wilson, who arrived as a fifth-round draft choice. Wilson led the club with 33 postseason tackles, was second with 96 regular season tackles, and was one of the top free agent safeties in 2008.
Merritt assumed his current position prior to the 2006 season. In 2005, he was the Giants’ defensive assistant coach. The previous year, he had the additional title of quality control coach. Merritt was hired by Tom Coughlin on Jan. 26, 2004 after spending three seasons with the Jets as a defensive assistant/linebackers coach.
Before joining the Jets, Merritt coached at the collegiate level for four seasons. In 1997, he was the outside linebackers coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. The following year, Merritt moved to the Virginia Military Institute, where he coached the defensive ends and outside linebackers for one season and the defensive line for two.
A linebacker, Merritt was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1993. He played for the Arizona Cardinals from 1993-96 and for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe in 1997. Merritt was an All-ACC linebacker at North Carolina State in 1992, when he led the conference in tackles. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from N.C. State.
Merritt and his wife Yolonda have three sons, David Jr., Devin and Dawson, and a daughter, Drayah. He also has an older daughter, Kiki, who attends college in Atlanta.
