On Day 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft, the NY Giants got it all wrong when with the No. 43 overall pick, they decided to draft wide receiver Wan’Dale Robinson out of Kentucky. They should have selected tight end Trey McBride or even linebacker Nakobe Dean who were both available and ready for the taking.
Instead, new general manager Joe Schoen decided to go with a wide receiver who had one decent season out of three in college. In his entire collegiate career, Robinson totaled 2,248 receiving yards, 195 receptions, and just 10 touchdowns. The bulk of his stats came when he spent his final year of collegiate play at Kentucky after two mediocre seasons with Nebraska.
It’s hard to understand what the general consensus was as to why they went with Robinson when other, significantly better wide receivers were available when the Giants were on the clock. Robinson is a small wide receiver at that as he’s just 5-8 and 178 lbs with his major trait being his speed and having great field vision to make plays.
The NY Giants made a ball call by drafting Wan’Dale Robinson
On the flip side, Robinson has many things to work on if he’s ever to be successful in the NFL as a starting wide receiver. He will need extra time to master his route-running at the pro level, learn when to adjust his speed based on what the coverage gives him, and make up for his lack of size through his natural speed.
Could Robinson maybe be used as a kickoff and punt returner to perhaps bolster that aspect of the Giants? It remains to be seen as he does have some experience as a returner but again, for a second-round selection, it would be expected the Giants would get someone that’s either ready to start immediately or could start relatively quickly. That might not be the case here with Robinson.
Hopefully, this pick turns out well for Big Blue as they definitely needed to draft new talent for their wide receiver corps. We’ll see if Robinson pans out to be a solid wide receiver for the Giants but as of right now, based on his stats, what he’s done in college, and his size, it’s perplexing Schoen went in this direction instead of other potentially better ones.