Regardless of reported concerns of a deal falling through, the NY Giants officially signed Kyle Rudolph Wednesday.
Rudolph will join New York and work his way back through foot surgery.
Rudolph injured the foot last season, which caused him to miss the last four games of his 2020 season. He is looking to bounce back from his worst season since his injury-plagued 2014 season in terms of yards, catches, and touchdowns in 2020.
Rudolph declared to not miss any time on the field and be back in time for training camp. It’s an aggressive timetable for the 31-year old veteran. If all things go well, Rudolph should be back fully in time before Week 1. This is all that matters as the NY Giants need him healthy for the regular season and they do not want any setbacks in his rehab or further aggravate a preexisting injury.
It has been an interesting 24 hours for both Rudolph and the Giants as Ronnie Barnes and his medical staff saw enough concern in Rudolph’s foot to believe it requires surgery. On a positive note, it’s much better to discover these type of things now rather than ignore it or not know about until later in the year where more extended wear-and-tear could have caused significant harm to the foot.
By getting the operation done in March, Rudolph can focus on his rehab properly all offseason and get back in time healthy and up to speed to develop chemistry with Daniel Jones.
After the findings from the x-rays on Monday, there was concern whether the signing would completely fall apart from one side or another. Thankfully it didn’t, and both sides agreed to the same terms as originally agreed upon.
It is interesting to note that Rudolph had signed a somewhat surprising 2-year, $12 million deal. Coming off a career-worst season and peaking in age at 31, it was unexpected to see Rudolph still command $6 million per year. Rudolph’s usage and snap counts went down dramatically, as he was targeted only 37 times and played 53% of the offense’s snaps, down from 78% in 2019.
Rudolph stated today he had “interest from 12-13 other teams”.
He came to NY over all his other offers and stayed true to his original contract with the Giants. The Giants need to hope he can stay healthy and show that his 2020 numbers were an aberration and he can become Jones’ go-to security blanket.
It’s a substantial investment for the Giants who now have their most complete tight end probably since Martellus Bennett during his one-year tenure with the team in 2012.