NY Giants first-round rookie wide receiver Kadarius Toney has yet to make any impact on the offense through the first two weeks of his rookie season
Kadarius Toney has yet to make an impact for the NY Giants, despite being chosen No. 20 overall in this spring’s NFL Draft.
Through the first two games of the season, Toney has been on the field for just 25 offensive snaps, and has been an afterthought in the Giants’ passing game.
With just two catches for negative-two yards, and quarterback Daniel Jones having a meager 79.2 passer rating on those completions, it’s impossible not to be disappointed by Toney’s first appearances.
"“Kadarius hasn’t played a lot of football for us, yet,” NY Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett told reporters Thursday. “He missed the spring. He missed most of training camp. He practiced about three days before the season started, so he’s a young player who’s learning.”"
Toney missed significant time during training camp, after testing positive for COVID-19 upon checking into East Rutherford and later suffered an injury that kept him off the field for much of August, but given how slowly the NY Giants have brought him along, it’s fair to wonder just how far behind the University of Florida alum is in even learning the playbook and understanding the offense.
"“Receivers, it takes them a little time to transition into the NFL,” Garrett says. “We all know that. I would say, in general, college receivers when they’re coming into the NFL, there’s a whole repertoire of routes that they haven’t been exposed to, so he’s in that process. It’s not unique to him or to us, that’s just the nature of things. The biggest thing with him is practicing day in and day out and developing some consistency. No fault of his, he’s just been hurt and been sick and has been dealing with some different things. He’s done a good job here lately continuing to work in practice.”"
As the NY Giants continue working to get Kenny Golladay more involved in the game plan, and Sterling Shepard’s hot start continues, adding Toney’s speed could shift the offense into overdrive.
But, it would seem that Toney needs to do his part from a learning and experience standpoint, before Garrett and the NY Giants can turn him loose.
Matt Lombardo is FanSided’s National NFL Insider and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday. Email Matt: Matt.Lombardo@FanSided.com.