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          NFL Nation

          Who will be Giants' third pass-rusher?

          Owa Odighizuwa, a third-round pick in 2015 who missed 12 games with injury, hopes to boost the Giants' pass rush in 2016. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
          • Dan Graziano, senior NFL national reporterJun 25, 2016, 09:00 AM ET
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              Dan Graziano is a senior NFL national reporter for ESPN, covering the entire league and breaking news. Dan also contributes to Get Up, NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, Sunday NFL Countdown and Fantasy Football Now. He is a New Jersey native who joined ESPN in 2011, and he is also the author of two published novels. You can follow Dan on Twitter via @DanGrazianoESPN.
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          Twitter mailbag time on a summer Saturday morning.

          Owa over or under 5 sacks?

          Owa? Over. Over? Under. Under? Owa. Feels like the cockpit scene from the movie Airplane!

          The question, though, is about second-year New York Giants defensive end Owa Odighizuwa, whose rookie year was almost totally lost to injury, and whether he can have an impact as a pass-rusher in 2016.

          This is a key Giants question for a number of reasons, most importantly because it gets at the issue of defensive line depth. The Giants are in love with their four defensive line starters -- Olivier Vernon, Damon Harrison, Jason Pierre-Paul and Johnathan Hankins. But every defensive coordinator likes to rotate linemen, and Steve Spagnuolo especially likes to be able to load up the line with pass-rushers in obvious passing situations. So the question of what's behind the starters is a vital one for the Giants, even amid all of the excitement about the starters.

          Odighizuwa is the preferred answer. This time last year, the former UCLA standout was working on developing and honing pass-rush moves he never had to use in college but knew he'd need at the NFL level. The Giants believed he could be a rotational piece as a rookie, help against the run and learn and develop into a pass-rusher. But his rookie-year injuries obviously cost him a lot of development time, so he's not as far along as they hoped he'd be at this point.

          If not Odighizuwa, someone such as Kerry Wynn, Romeo Okwara or Ishaq Williams could rotate in a the third defensive end, kicking Pierre-Paul inside on passing downs. But they do need someone to step up in camp to show them they have options if one of the starters gets injured. Same at defensive tackle, where Jay Bromley needs to show he can be a valuable part of the rotation.

          So I'll say this. Taking the under on 5 Owa sacks this year, but if he does go over, a lot of things will have gone well for him and the Giants will have found more depth than they even knew they had at this key position.