It was the elite Eli Manning and a savage pass rush that got the Giants a pair of Super Bowl triumphs over Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
The Dave Gettleman Big Blue blueprint is built the same: Daniel Jones, aided by Saquon Barkley, as his Eli Manning, and Oshane Ximines playing Robin to Lorenzo Carter’s Batman as a next-generation Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora.
“We’re talking about all-time greats when you talk about those two guys, so let’s let them grow into their abilities and we’ll see,” former Giants great Carl Banks told The Post.
“I don’t want to project, but I would just tell you that they’ve got a pretty good skill set.”
Gettleman had better be right about Jones and Ximines for two reasons: He passed on Josh Allen, the draft’s best edge rusher, when he staked his legacy on Jones, and he drafted Ximines out of Old Dominion with the third-round pick that was part of the ill-advised Odell Beckham Jr. trade.
Carter, a third-round pick last season, has been such a star of training camp that a double-digit sack season is suddenly more expectation than hope.
X Man is working behind veteran Markus Golden at weakside linebacker, but he’s opened enough eyes to make you believe he and Carter on the opposite side will one day be meeting at the quarterback — and plenty.
“A tremendous athlete, man, and he’s physical, he’s not afraid of contact and not afraid to take blocks head on,” right tackle Michael Remmers said. “He’s a tough competitor out there, too. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s really got a little bit of everything. He’s gonna be a good player.”
X Man recorded 11.5 sacks last season, and Gettleman swears the Giants had a second-round grade on him.
“He’s got a variety of moves from what I’ve noticed, and he does a very good job of disguising his moves,” Remmers said. “But the biggest thing is that he’s got speed and he’s got power, and he’s got a handful of little moves in between that. … Very well-balanced player.”
Carter is 6 feet 5 and 256 pounds and built more like ex-Giant Mathias Kiwanuka, while X Man is 6-3½ and 255 and built like Umenyiora. Strahan had a different style than Umenyiora, and Carter has a different style than X Man.
“He’s a freak athlete,” X Man said of Carter. “He’s a lot faster than I am. I gotta be a little bit more conservative in things I could do versus him. Like sometimes, he could just fly past a guy versus I’ll have to use my hands more or stuff like that.”
No Gettleman blueprint would be complete without a Hog Molly, and Mountain Man nose tackle Dexter Lawrence, for those of you wearing Big Blue-colored glasses, will at the very worst be collapsing the pocket and at the very best be a 340-pound Justin Tuck. He’s big on X Man, too.
“He’s dangerous off the edge,” Lawrence said. “Every time you see him rush, it’s something exciting to see.”
Asked what makes him dangerous off the edge, Lawrence said: “He’s fast, and he has a killer countermove, too. All that put together is dangerous.”
Banks adds: “To be a great pass rusher, you gotta have great hands. He’s got that.”
X Man also has a baby face, much to his chagrin, and is determined to grow back the beard he shaved at the start of training camp. His mother, in Virginia, implored him to grow it back when he FaceTimed her.
“I look like I’m 12 right now,” he said, chuckling. “She wants me to grow it back, I want to grow it back, all my teammates want me to grow it back.”
X Man knows the history of Strahan and Umenyiora.
“The boys were just eating up out here, man, they were getting after the quarterback up here, and I know the fans feel real strongly about ’em,” he said, “and to be on the same team as those guys like that, I feel like I gotta play at a high level just to match their intensity.”
X Man was disappointed he didn’t get the chance to meet Strahan when he visited camp on Sunday. “Hopefully next time he gets in here, I get to shake hands with him,” he said.
Let the Deja Blueprint begin.