Giants rookie minicamp a reunion for former college opponents and teammates
Wan'Dale Robinson #1 of the Kentucky Wildcats runs with the ball while defended by Cor'dale Flott of the LSU Tigers on October 9, 2021. Credit: Getty Images
Shortly after he was selected by the Giants with a third-round pick, cornerback Cor’Dale Flott was asked which receiver was most difficult for him to cover in college. He didn’t even pause.
It was, he said, Wan’Dale Robinson.
Sure it was.
“I’m not blowing smoke,” Flott insisted of naming his new teammate, the second-round pick of the Giants, as his toughest assignment. “He's just quick and elite, one of those guys in the slot you're not really going to be able to get your hands on right away. You’ve got to be able to create speed on top of the route. He’s a good receiver.”
Good thing for Flott he won’t have to cover him in NFL games. At least not at first. But the two will almost certainly be going head-to-head in practice reps and drills throughout the first steps of their pro careers beginning with the Giants’ rookie minicamp that begins on Friday.
“We were just trying to make each other better out there and just competing,” Robinson said of their college matchups while at Kentucky and LSU, “and now we're teammates and we are going to have to make each other better each and every day on the practice field.”
Theirs is just one of the many on-field relationships that connect this incoming class of Giants rookies in a way few here or around the league typically do. Rookie minicamps usually are more orientation than football practice with signs around the building pointing to everything from meeting rooms to the bathrooms. This year, nametags on the players will not be required.
Robinson, for example, played at Nebraska before he transferred to Kentucky, so he faced Iowa safety and fourth-round pick Dane Belton there. Iowa also played Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 this year, so they met in their final college contest too.
Not all of the relationships are as opponents. The Giants drafted two offensive linemen from the same college, North Carolina, taking Joshua Ezeudu in the third round and Marcus McKethan in the fifth.
“I love Marcus,” Ezeudu said shortly after McKethan was selected. “I just can't wait to call him and scream with him on the phone together.”
Even the undrafted free agents who have either agreed to contracts or are expected to attend the rookie minicamp have plenty of links to the drafted ones. Outside linebacker Tomon Fox was at North Carolina with Ezeudu and McKethan. Cornerback Darren Evans played with Flott at LSU. Tight end Austin Allen was with Robinson at Nebraska, and defensive back Yusuf Corker was with Robinson at Kentucky. And safety Trenton Thomas played at San Diego State with tight end Daniel Bellinger, the Giants’ fourth-round pick.
The deepest connection of all, though, may be the long and storied rivalry between the Giants’ two first-round picks. Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal never faced each other as college players at Oregon and Alabama, respectively, but when they were two of the most highly ranked high school players in the country they would often show up at the same camps and recruiting showcases.
Then it was on.
“Every time we came to a camp, we knew,” Thibodeaux said. “It was like, ‘OK, you know they’re going to set us up.’ It was like, he's the best, I'm the best, now let's get better, you know what I mean? Let's prove to ourselves why we got this far.”
They’ll be doing that again in the NFL, and their reps against each other this weekend and moving forward will be some of the most scrutinized and chronicled on the team.
“It's going to be 50-50 every time,” Thibodeaux said when asked about those upcoming duels on the practice field. “He's going to hit me with an uppercut and I'm going to hit him with a right hook. He'll hit me with a jab and I'm going to hit him with a stomach hit. We're going to keep going back-to-back.”
Neal, ever in character as the less outspoken of the two first-round picks, said only: “I'm going to talk with my shoulder pads.”
Neal did, however, acknowledge the benefit of his new sparring partner.
“I believe it's going to push us tremendously,” he said. “I believe in iron sharpens iron, so what better place to get better than the New York Giants? I'm just excited to go out there and just compete, compete my hardest, man, and hopefully we make each other better."
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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