Grading the New York Giants Draft: Rueben Randle WR LSU Pick

The New York Giants have been very successful in the draft since Jerry Reese became General Manager prior to the 2007 draft. The Giants have developed a philosophy of staying true to their board and remaining put and select players as they fall to them. It is a style that has netted them two of the last five Superbowls. I recently broke down the David Wilson selection. Today we’ll look at Rueben Randle.

The skinny on Randle

Rueben Randle is a big physical WR who played his career at Louisiana State University. To say the Tigers are a bad passing team would be an undestatement, but Randle was able to make the most out of the situation. Randle checks in at 6’3 210 pounds with 33″ long arms, and 9.5″ hands. At the combine Randle ran a 4.55 forty yard dash, at his proday he clocked in at 4.43. Either way for a man his size, Randle is plenty fast enough to create separation in the N.F.L. Where Randle excels is catching the football away from his body. He has strong, yet soft hands. He routinely wins jump balls and catches errant passes b0th high and low. The way he catches the football allows him to seamlessly turn up the field to create extra yardage. Randle is an impressive route runner for a player who did not get the same type of repetitions other have, but he still has to develop this part of his game. Randle excels at making plays down the field as well as running slant patterns where he can shield the defender away from the ball and snatch it out of the air.

Where Randle needs to continue to improve his game is in the intermediate routes. He can do a better job of selling his routes (which I think he will get better at pretty quickly), and also he is not a guy who creates instant separation. He glides down the field, but it takes him a bit to get going.

How he fits with the Giants

Randle has routinely been compared to Hakeem Nicks, both by draftniks and even the Giants general manager Jerry Reese. Randle will instantly fill in for the Giants as the third WR spot which has been vacated by Mario Manningham and allow Victor Cruz to remain in the slot. Randle will compete with Jerel Jernigan, Ramses Barden, and likely Domenik Hixon for the #3 Wide receiver spot. The Giants believe they will find a good receiver out of one of these guys and if I had to put money on it, it would be Randle.

Here’s what the Giants are saying about Randle:

Jerry Reese:

Q: What impressed you most about Rueben Randle?
A: He’s NFL-ready – he runs the entire route tree. In this day and age in college football, it’s all about the spread offense, and guys don’t run the full tree. This kid runs the full tree. He kind of looks like a big, pro wide receiver out there with how he runs routes. I think he’s going to be a quick fit into the offense with how he plays; he’s big, he can post guys up. People mentioned Hakeem Nicks when we talked about him in our room. He’s not blazing fast; I don’t think Hakeem is blazing fast either. He’s game fast and he’s bigger than Hakeem – very good hands, ball skills. A talented football player.

Q: How close were you at taking Randle with the No. 32 pick in the first round?
A: He was in the discussion. There were five guys in the discussion, and he was one of the guys who we spoke about as well. We were really surprised a little bit with him still being there because we thought he would’ve gone early in the second [round]. He was still there, and I think we’re fortunate to get a guy of his caliber.

Tom Coughlin:

[Rueben Randle is a] big receiver, outstanding athlete, very smooth, quote unquote pro-ready, 97 receptions in the course of his career for almost 17 yards per. Size, speed. People said, ‘Can he get deep? He can get behind?’ Yes, he can. He doesn’t have that Olympic type speed, but he has the size and the speed and the power. He’s a smooth athlete. Very, very athletic guy and I guess Marc told you that we rated him very highly and when it came time for us to make our pick he was without a doubt the guy that had the highest grade.

Director of Scouting Marc Ross:

Q: Did you have a first-round grade him?
A: Yeah, he was in our stack there. Actually we talked about him a little bit yesterday at our pick. So he was in the discussion yesterday.

Q: What is it about his skill set that specifically impressed you?
A: Reuben is an NFL-ready receiver. I think with receivers a lot of it gets overblown with 40 times and speed and this and that. You need guys that are NFL-ready and what I mean by that is this guy is strong, he can catch the ball, he’s a good route runner and he’s position savvy – he knows how to get open. To me those are the successful receivers in the NFL. I think our guys who we have now – Hakeem and Victor – if you put them at the combine you won’t notice them, but you put them on the football field and they just take their game to another level and this is how Rueben is in our eyes.

Grade: A/A+

The Giants mentioned in their press conference during the draft day weekend that Rueben Randle was in play for them at the end of the first round, yet somehow he managed to fall to them in the second round. Say what you want about Randle and his lack of explosiveness- since 2007 the Giants have drafted the following Wide receivers: Steve Smith (07), Mario Manningham (08), Hakeem Nicks (09), Ramses Barden (09), and Jerel Jernigan in 2011. They also brought in Victor Cruz as a UDFA in 2010. I’ll trust the Giants track record with Wide recievers in the early part of the draft. Randle could have gone in the first round and no one would have batted an eye. This was my favorite pick the Giants made during the draft.

Thoughts?

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