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The Giants had just finished riding Hill Belichick after their first joint practice with the Patriots when a former New England media friend of mine stopped me and asked:! ‘”?
Of course, the Patriots’ first-round draft pick Mac Jones, taking advantage of Cam Newton’s COVID-related absence, himself had a day that wasn’t going to go well in the movie shoot with Joe. Judge and Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, while Daniel Jones wasn’t as sharp as he should be and should be once the cavalry returns to town and everyone can relax about a serious training interception in the middle by Patriots safety Kyle Duggar.
Everyone – and no one more than the Giants ‘Jones – is breathlessly waiting for the return of Saquon Barkley, Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney, so it’s no wonder the Giants’ Jones were working a bit on their option of reading. .
But let’s not forget what a veteran under the radar with skins on his wall, especially as a red zone threat, has a chance to mean to the Giants’ Jones.
His name is Kyle Rudolph, who was a sight for sore eyes wearing his blue No.80 for the first time as a giant after offseason foot surgery and PUP roster activation on Wednesday.
“For me this is the first football I have been able to play since December,” said Rudolph, “so I still have a long way to go, a lot of work remains to be done, but that’s what I ‘likes to do. So the last few months have been hard to watch every day, but I have to give a lot of credit to our medics, our coaches, our doctors.… Here I am back to training today, and this’ was damn good.
Rudolph got his feet wet with limited reps and wouldn’t predict if he would be ready for the Sept. 12 regular season opener against Denver.
“One of my favorite sayings is, ‘You eat an elephant one bite at a time,’ so if I look in two weeks, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to prepare to play a game?’ I will never make it, ”said Rudolph.
He can’t wait to get there and play wrestling with the Giants’ Jones.
“It’s great to watch it,” Rudolph said. “I was a big fan of him from afar. Obviously, we created the Vikings a few years ago and our supporters raved about his talent. And now, getting to know him as a player and as an individual, his leadership ability, the guys gravitate around him, and he’s come a long way, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The continuity is enormous and we come together behind Daniel.
From 2015 to 2019, before his 2020 season was cut short after 12 games, Rudolph caught 30 touchdown passes. Remember, he’s a 6-foot-6, 260-pound target who was a professional bowler in 2012 and 2017. He’s had a fall for the past three seasons.
“He’s played football a lot at a very high level, he knows the game inside and out, knows how to make plays, knows how to open up and catch the ball,” said Jones of the Giants. “I think he will make a difference for us, and I’m excited to bring him out.”
Since catching six touchdown passes as a rookie, here are Evan Engram’s touchdown totals over the past three years: 3, 3, and 1. Rudolph’s presence could give offensive judge and coordinator Jason Garrett a Belichick-ian tandem.
“He’s a reception threat, he’s a blocking threat, he’s really smart in the movie theater – every meeting he teaches me something,” Engram said, “and I know that is the same for the rest of the guys. So he’s going to literally help us in every aspect of the game, I’m really excited about him.
Rudolph, who turns 32 in November, had played 93 straight games before the Vikings put him in the injured reserve following a Week 13 foot injury. I asked him: what is it? who makes Kyle Rudolph a red zone weapon?
“A big target. … I have a lot of basketball in my past, ”Rudolph said. “You see a transfer between the game of basketball and the tight end position. The thing with the red zone is that the windows are a lot tighter, there’s a lot less space, I try to be very proud of making tight window captures and when the quarterback has the trust me to throw me the ball in a narrow window, catch it for him.
Asked what he can do for his Jones, the judge said: “We haven’t seen him on the pitch with Daniel, it would be unfair to make any sort of prediction or statement for him right now. I know he works very hard. He obviously has a very accomplished CV, he’s a good player, he brings a lot of value to situational football, he’s a big target with good hands.
Rudolph also adds a wealth of experience, wisdom and maturity off the pitch to a young and evolving team.
“I have a bit of the Patriot Way and the culture that Coach Judge comes from because I played for Coach Charlie Weis at Notre Dame,” said Rudolph. “I’ve been on this program for a long time, and you see the culture he’s trying to instill here with us as the New York Giants.
“We have a very young team. It’s a team that must learn to win. And he says it all the time, “You can’t start winning until you stop losing. And you see it day after day, the way he pushes us on our fundamentals, on our technique. For me, this is the first time that I have a head coach who is not a defensive coordinator. He’s a head coach who is in charge of the whole team, and it’s been a lot of fun for me to learn from him.
“He said it on day 1…” It’s not rewarding if you haven’t worked for what you earn “, and this team is going to work for everything we earn this year… guys are very proud of the product that we put on the domain because we worked for it.
When I asked Rudolph, a 2011-2020 Viking, if he was part of a better conditioned team than this, he laughed and said, “Not at all. No chance. ”The X factor for the Jones of the Giants.
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