What’s Going on with Kadarius Toney? | NY Giants’ rookie report
The NY Giants’ rookies haven’t been off to the best start in 2021, especially first-round pick Kadarius Toney
The NY Giants added six rookies to the roster this offseason. The Giants wisely maneuvered the board, traded back twice, and then ended up trading back up later in the draft, but to date Kadarius Toney hasn’t lived up to expectations.
The NY Giants had a nice draft on paper.
New York filled two big needs by taking a receiver and a pass rusher in Rounds 1 and 2. They then followed that up by attacking another weakness and adding a cornerback to the secondary. From there, the front office double-dipped with another pass rusher in Round 4 and another corner in Round 6. Sandwiched in between these two picks was a running back selection as well.
The NY Giants need some immediate production from their draft class in 2021.
Here’s a rookie progress report for the NY Giants heading into Week 2 of the Preseason.
Round 1: Kadarius Toney, Wide Receiver
Kadarius Toney has had quite a tumultuous start to his NFL career.
Toney started his NFL offseason off by struggling to participate in Rookie Minicamp due to cleat issues. From there, he skipped Team OTA’s while working on signing his rookie contract, still an unusual situation to say the least. After that, Toney tested positive for COVID-19 a week before training camp started.
Toney was activated off the COVID/Reserve list five days later. The University of Florida alum did not participate in any on-field drills until August 2nd. The following day, he finally participated in on-field individual receiver drills for the first time during camp.
Just a week later, Toney didn’t practice in front of fans during the Giants’ ‘Fan Fest’ Practice on Wednesday night last week. From there, Toney did not practice Thursday and Friday leading up to his preseason game.
Inauspiciously, Tony was nowhere to be found during pregame warmups and he didn’t even appear on the sidelines during what should’ve been his first NFL game.
Toney was apparently dealing with another mysterious injury “late in the week” that led to him missing the game.
In short, Toney has had a very strange and unusual rookie offseason.
The NY Giants haven’t had this much uncertainty from their #1 pick in seven years since taking their last first-round receiver in Odell Beckham Jr.
Toney needs to pick it up immediately or he could end up staring at a lost first season.
Toney doesn’t want to follow into the steps of guys like Corey Coleman, Josh Doctson, or Laquon Treadwell as perennial 1st round receiver busts. Whatever is going on with Toney, the NY Giants must figure out immediately or #89 could get lost in the shuffle of the team’s offense.