Tomorrow night, Steve Spagnuolo will start earning his $2 million salary.

In February the Giants gave Spagnuolo, their defensive coordinator, a contract extension to keep him from bolting to take the head-coaching job with the Washington Redskins. When the Giants play the Redskins tomorrow in the first NFL game of the season, Spagnuolo will need to show he’s worth that money (which made him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in football) when a revamped defense with significant personnel changes takes the field.

Spagnuolo became the Giants’ defensive coordinator last year after eight years as the Philadelphia Eagles’ linebackers coach, and he brought with him a reputation for using blitzing linebackers to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. In his first season, however, Spagnuolo ran a defense that didn’t need to blitz the linebackers to pressure the passer. The Giants had the best pass rush in the league, but it was defensive ends Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan who brought the pressure, and the linebackers were able to stay back in coverage.

With Umenyiora out for the season and Strahan retired, the Giants will start Justin Tuck and Mathias Kiwanuka at defensive end, and they can’t count on leading the league in sacks again unless a lot of sacks come from other positions. That’s where Spagnuolo’s background in Philadelphia comes in: The Eagles have always used blitzing linebackers and safeties to rush the passer, and while last year the Giants didn’t need to blitz that aggressively to apply pressure, this year they’ll have to get more creative.

Unfortunately for the Giants, their linebackers appear ill-equipped to handle the task of increased blitzing. Two of last year’s starting linebackers, Kawika Mitchell and Reggie Torbor, have left as free agents, and Big Blue will start Antonio Pierce at middle linebacker, with Danny Clark on the strong side and Gerris Wilkinson on the weak side tomorrow night. No one in that trio has ever been a significant threat as a blitzer: Pierce’s career high for sacks in a season was 2.5 in 2005, Clark has never had more than two sacks in a season, and Wilkinson has never registered a sack in two years with the Giants.

That’s why the most important addition to the Giants’ pass rush may come from a surprising place: First-round draft pick Kenny Phillips, a safety from the University of Miami. Phillips wasn’t drafted for his pass rushing skills — he never had a sack in three seasons at Miami — but he does have the kind of athletic ability to generate pressure on safety blitzes, if Spagnuolo’s defense calls on him to do so. Phillips is quick and physical and could make an immediate impact rushing the passer.

Last year the Giants didn’t get any sacks from their safeties, but they may have tipped their hand this offseason that they want to change that. In addition to drafting Phillips, the Giants attempted to acquire safety Roman Harper when they traded Jeremy Shockey to the New Orleans Saints. Although the Saints wouldn’t agree to give up Harper and the Giants eventually settled for second- and fifth-round draft picks, the Giants may have been targeting Harper as much for his pass rushing skills as his coverage skills: Harper led all NFL defensive backs in sacks last season with four.

But while blitzing safeties might become an important part of the Giants’ defense, the bread and butter of pressuring the passer is still the outside rush from the defensive ends. In Tuck, the Giants have one starter they know they can rely on, albeit a starter who will need to become a more complete player after spending his first three seasons as a situational pass rusher behind Strahan and Umenyiora.

The starter opposite Tuck is Kiwanuka, the Giants’ 2006 first-round draft pick. Kiwanuka was one of the best pass rushers in the country during his career at Boston College, twice leading the Big East in sacks. So far in two NFL seasons, however, he hasn’t been able to find his place in the Giants’ defense. As a rookie he got significant playing time because Strahan missed seven games and Umenyiora missed five, but he managed just four sacks. In 2007, the Giants moved him to linebacker, and in November, just as he appeared to be learning his new position, he suffered a broken leg. Now the Giants have moved him back to end, and they desperately need him to turn into the kind of pass rusher he looked like he’d become at Boston College.

On Sunday, the Giants made up for some of their missing depth on the defensive line by signing end Jerome McDougle, whom the Eagles cut a day earlier. McDougle was a bit of a disappointment during his tenure with Philadelphia, but he has good raw athleticism, and having worked with Spagnuolo in Philadelphia should give him a leg up on adapting to the Giants’ defense. McDougle, Renaldo Wynn, and Dave Tollefson all should be ready to contribute off the bench tomorrow night.

But McDougle, Wynn, or Tollefson coming in to spell Tuck or Kiwanuka won’t threaten opposing defenses nearly as much as Tuck coming off the bench to spell Strahan or Umenyiora did last season. In 2007, the strength of the Giants’ pass rush was superior depth. This season it will need to be superior game-planning. That’s why the Giants will be glad that Spagnuolo is on their own sideline on Thursday, not the Redskins’.

Mr. Smith is a writer for Fanhouse.com.