EAST RUTHERFORD – The crowd of reporters and cameras gathered around Dexter Lawrence, the lone Pro Bowler for the Giants and a deserving choice for the second consecutive season.

Deonte Banks watched the scene unfold from his locker following Thursday’s practice with tremendous respect for Lawrence, whom he called “the man on this defense and this team, the best.”

The precocious rookie cornerback also made a promise about next season and beyond, a vow he plans to make good on for the Giants who believed in his talent from jump and the rest of the NFL that might just be sleeping on his ability at the moment heading into Sunday’s finale against the Eagles at MetLife Stadium.

“I want to win, that’s the most important thing, but I also want to show that I can be a great player,” Banks told NorthJersey.com. “I always knew I belonged in the league and I think I showed that. Now it’s time to prove I can be great. I’m going for All-Pro. I ain’t missing another Pro Bowl list. Next year, my name’s gonna be on it.”

Banks, 22, has been solid all season, and he has been fueled by his competition against the best. Those battles have produced wins and losses on the field, and how Banks has responded down to down is most impressive.

In what has been a lost season in the standings, Banks’ presence and the growth in his game from the outset has been an encouraging bright spot. He has two interceptions and 11 passes defensed, second-most by a rookie in Giants franchise history. He is three shy of the single-season rookie record established by Will Allen in 2001.

“We asked him to take a big role, starting from Day 1 as a rookie. And you know as a rookie, especially in this league, at corner, they are going to try you,” Giants defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson told NorthJersey.com. “The thing I think he did a good job of, he never blinked and never shied away from that opportunity or that challenge.”

Banks has gone into every one of his game day showdowns with the confidence that he would more than hold his own. D.K Metcalf, Jaylen Waddle and Stefon Diggs were challenging assignments, each presenting different qualities that tested his approach and his skill set. There were two games against Terry McLaurin, who stoked his competitive fire.

On Christmas Day, Banks embraced the most daunting matchup to date against the Eagles’ A.J. Brown. He limited Brown to one catch for seven yards before a shoulder injury forced Banks to the sideline.

Banks missed the Giants’ 26-25 loss to the Rams and has been a limited participant this week in practice, so his status for Sunday’s rematch with Brown and Philadelphia is uncertain. If his rookie campaign is over, there is plenty to be encouraged about.

“You look at his physical skill set, just starting there, it is tremendous,” Henderson said. “Just the raw talent he has: size, speed, ability to change directions, you just don’t find those combinations in every corner very often. The things you were unsure about [during the pre-draft evaluation process], we just worked on those things constantly, and it’s a daily grind. We’re still grinding now through some of those things.”

Banks has a compact frame (6-foot, 197 pounds) with above-average length, and his short-area quickness is elite. He’s physical and instinctive, too. Banks’ story here, like it or not, comes with the added theme of having to overcome the previous Giants’ draft busts of corners Eli Apple (No. 10 overall, 2016) and DeAndre Baker (No. 30 overall, 2019).

Neither finished out his rookie contract with the Giants, Baker is currently out of the league, and Apple, now in Miami after finding a home the last two seasons in Cincinnati, has not lived up to the expectations of a Top 10 pick. Last season’s success of the Jets’ Sauce Gardner shattered what had been a league myth turned reality: rookie corners tend to struggle to overcome what has historically been a steep learning curve.

Gardner was named a Pro Bowler for the second time Wednesday night, a reminder of what Banks is chasing.

“You still have to fight through – I’m saying Tae, myself, Rome, who’s done a great job with him – just the new things that he sees that are different in this league compared to college, and he’s been growing through those,” Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said. “The biggest jump is always from the first year to the second year so I’m expecting big things from Tae.”

Banks spends the special teams periods at the start of every practice with Henderson, and they shadow various techniques, teaching points and other nuanced parts of his game. The focus, more than anything else, is to make sure he maintains his fundamentals as a rookie in the midst of a long season: week to week and play to play.

“Sometimes it is stuff for that game. Sometimes it’s just general football. Been a little bit of both, such as, in this game, you’re gonna get this from this guy, so let’s get ready for it,” Henderson said. “Sometimes it’s just, in the NFL, when you’re in the back of the end zone, here’s how you play it, here’s what you do. Always trying to increase his knowledge base and his experience with having not been in those situations, and getting him ready for when he faces them. It’s all just so valuable to his growth and trying to get him experience on things that maybe haven’t come up yet, so he’s ready for that when it does come up. When you’re on their best player, you’re going to get your opportunities to prove that you can guard him.”

He paused before adding with a smile: “And Tae has made the most of his. With the way he works and how he has grown, we’re all excited to see how much better he’s going to get.”

Banks has already set the standard by which his own game will be judged moving forward.