The NY Giants added three former Vikings this offseason. Here’s how they can help in 2021.
The NY Giants will look much differently in 2021 from 2020.
New York struggled mightily on offense last year, and that is no longer expected to be the case. There are no excuses this year in Year Two of Jason Garrett’s offense.
The NY Giants went out and signed Kyle Rudolph and Ifeadi Odenigbo in free agency. Both players came from Minnesota where they spent multiple years with the Vikings.
GMEN HQ reached out to The Viking Age for a scouting report on both players. Hear from Adam Patrick, the Vikings’ Site Expert for FanSided.
Here are some things to know about two former Vikings, who will join the NY Giants this season:
GMEN HQ:
Question #1: Why did Kyle Rudolph get fazed out of the offense the last two seasons? Was it more because of a run-focused offense centered around Dalvin Cook or regression in Rudolph’s game?
Viking Age:
It was a little bit of both.
In 2018, the Vikings’ offense was run by John DeFilippo and he shifted the focus to more on passing the ball, which explains why Rudolph had 82 targets that year. But Minnesota wasn’t winning games with this offensive philosophy, so Mike Zimmer got rid of DeFilippo before the 2018 season even ended, and the offense reverted back to utilizing their rushing attack more than the pass.
With this shift back, Rudolph’s targets, and everyone else’s, saw a big decrease. At the same time, Rudolph has never really been a guy who’s going to lose an opponent with his route-running or gain a ton of yards after the catch. He emerged as a great threat in the red zone during his last few seasons, except for 2020 when Adam Thielen, surprisingly took over that role.