The Giants took wide receiver Kadarius Toney in the first round of this year’s draft, but they didn’t have him on the field as much as they would have hoped in his first offseason with the team.
Toney had cleat issues during rookie minicamp, skipped the team’s voluntary OTA practices and missed practice time during the team’s mandatory minicamp. His availability for the start of training camp is in question after he landed on the COVID-19 reserve list, but none of those developments have created concerns for head coach Joe Judge.
“This guy does a tremendous job in meetings,” Judge said, via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “He does a great job in walkthroughs. He practices hard. So that to me is really the measuring stick of what it is. And I think there are a lot of things early in this guy’s career that are, to be honest with you, being overinflated. It hasn’t detracted from the actual football when he’s involved with us.”
While Judge said he’s “seen a lot of improvement” from Toney since the draft, his positive feelings about the rookie come with a caveat. He said there’s “always a learning curve” for rookies and believes “it takes a season for these guys to really get rolling” as NFL receivers, so Toney’s immediate contributions may not be massive for the Giants.