Wan'Dale Robinson having a career year; will WR be part of Giants' future plans?
Wan'Dale Robinson of the New York Giants smiles before the game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on Monday Credit: Getty Images/Winslow Townson
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Wan’Dale Robinson having a career year probably was not on anyone’s bingo card for the Giants’ 2025 season.
It was reasonable to predict that the Giants would finish under .500 — they entered Monday night with a 2-10 record — but Robinson has been a bright spot with his best season as a pro.
Entering the Giants’ game at New England, the fourth-year receiver had a career high in starts (11) and receiving yards (794). He had two games with more than 100 receiving yards after totaling only one in his previous three seasons.
With injuries affecting Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton, Robinson has been the Giants’ most dependable receiver. Three years after a season-ending knee injury, it’s something Robinson — who could record his first 1,000-yard season — doesn’t take for granted.
“Just from the moment I was a rookie and tore my ACL and just to get to this point, [it] goes to show the work that I’ve tried to put in just ever since I’ve been in the league,” he said.
It’s fair to ask, then, if Robinson will be part of this offense going forward. He’s a free agent after the season and his future is something he and the Giants must decide on.
Can Robinson be this effective once Nabers returns in 2026? Will he be in line for a bigger payday elsewhere? Both are questions Robinson tried to avoid, even if others close to him have asked the same.
“I try not to think about it too much,” he said. “Obviously, I have family and friends that will call and say something about it, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to go out there and play my best ball. So yeah, I’ll let my agents handle that whenever the time comes.”
Robinson certainly can bet on himself. The 5-8 standout has improved his receiving yards total in every season. He has proved he’s not just a weapon in the slot on third downs but can be utilized downfield.
It’s something he always believed he could do, and the coaches had similar faith in that. It just required an opportunity that came even before Nabers’ season-ending ACL injury in Week 4.
“I don’t think anybody in this building is surprised by Wan’Dale,” receivers coach Mike Groh said. “In our evaluation, we thought that he had the skill set to do a lot of different things, even though he is smaller of stature.
“He is the definition of a pro. Comes in, he’s on time, he’s prepared, alert . . . understands football extremely well at a high level and can handle the volume of things that are asked of these guys.”
The caveat to Robinson’s success is that it’s come in a year with Nabers sidelined. Robinson had 142 yards alongside Nabers in Week 2 at Dallas but has benefited from more targets without Nabers as the main focus.
That means the Giants have to figure out if Robinson can repeat that impact with a healthy Nabers in the lineup. Is he worth the long-term commitment or should they commit to finding another receiver in the draft? They’re currently in line for a top-five pick.
Either way, Robinson’s value is higher than it’s been, and the Giants see it by spreading him around the field more.
“This year we asked him to play a little bit more outside receiver,” interim coach Mike Kafka said. “He jumped at the bit and just worked and worked and worked the whole entire offseason. And then when the opportunities came up, he’s taken advantage of them.”
With Robinson being one of the best picks of general manager Joe Schoen’s first draft class — a group that has produced mixed results — it will be interesting to see what Schoen does.
Schoen exercised linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux’s fifth-year option this past spring but didn’t with tackle Evan Neal, who hasn’t played all season. Linebacker Micah McFadden had a strong 2024 but hasn’t played since suffering a foot injury in Week 1.
Cornerback Cor’Dale Flott has been excellent playing opposite Paulson Adebo, but Robinson arguably has been the most productive player of his class this season. Letting him walk could be another low mark on Schoen’s resume.
After Monday, these could be the last four games of Robinson’s tenure with the Giants. Yet he is staying focused on his main task: being available and reliable and chasing that 1,000-yard goal.
It’s been one of the few positives for the Giants this season. Time will tell what that means going forward, but Robinson is focused more on the present.
“I know it’ll all take care of itself whenever it’s supposed to, and there’s no need for me to stress about it,” he said. “At the end of the day, I know it’s going to come, and I just continue to do what I do.”
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
