The Giants didn’t make much of an effort to retain wide receiver Hakeem Nicks when Nicks became a free agent this offseason, leaving a big role in the offense for Rueben Randle in Randle’s third season with the team.
Randle’s had some bright moments in his first two seasons, but he faded in and out of the offense alongside Nicks and Victor Cruz. Wide receivers coach Sean Ryan wanted to see more consistency from Randle this spring and says he saw progress from his pupil.
“For me, the battle with him is consistency, and I think he’s addressed it in this offseason in the way he approaches his job,” Ryan said, via ESPNNewYork.com. “I’ve seen a difference in his seriousness towards his work. This spring, I thought he was locked in. I thought he did a good job learning the new offense. Like I said, he’s got some football intelligence to him. Things come to him. He sees things pretty well. But I thought he really worked hard at being locked into the meetings and on the field as well. I noticed a difference in him.”
Randle may be helped by making fewer adjustments to routes that call for him to be reading things the same way that quarterback Eli Manning reads them, something that bedeviled the pair last season and led to interceptions. Ryan said that Randle will still have to make some of those reads and the Giants will need him to make the right ones on a weekly basis for the offense to rebound from last season.
