Shortly after the Giants agreed to terms with Kyle Rudolph, the agreement hit a snag due to the veteran tight end’s physical. While the Giants ended up finalizing the deal, Rudolph underwent a foot surgery that has required months of rehab.
Rudolph said he underwent the surgery shortly after his Giants contract became official in late March, and while the 11th-year pass catcher stopped short of saying he will be ready when Big Blue’s training camp begins, the plan remains for him to be available by Week 1.
“As far as football goes, I was extremely fortunate that the Giants organization and everyone involved [caught the injury during a physical], and how they were able to handle my situation, that I won’t miss any football,” Rudolph said, via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News.
The two-time Pro Bowler missed the final four games of last season due to a foot injury but did not expect to have additional issues with the ailment this offseason. Rudolph did not miss a game from 2015-19, but foot trouble has comprised a sizable chunk of his past year.
“I felt completely fine coming out of last season. After I rehabbed, I was anticipating coming back for the last game of the year and then playing through the playoffs,” Rudolph said. “Unfortunately that didn’t work out for us as a team last year in Minnesota, so there were no playoffs. Then I continued with my offseason as if I was completely healthy.
“So I was extremely fortunate the Giants medical staff was able to find this in March and it isn’t something where I came back here all fired up for OTAs in June and then hurt myself and put myself at risk for missing football games.”
The Giants loaded up on skill-position players this offseason. Rudolph joins Kenny Golladay, John Ross, Devontae Booker and first-round pick Kadarius Toney as new options this year. While it is unclear if Rudolph will have a full workload to start the season or if he will be eased into action like Saquon Barkley, the Giants may be set to use him in a part-time capacity anyway. Evan Engram remains the team’s starting tight end.
This guy has been hurt for a career
he played every game from 2016-2019…
Every game from the last game of the 2014 season through the first 12 games of the 2020 season, or 93 straight regular season games, plus five playoff games. He even started the last game of the 2019 season and played just one play to keep the streak going, and then joined most of the starters on the bench since the team had already clinched a playoff spot.
If memory serves, it was by far the longest streak of any tight end in the game over that period.
Being hurt is not the same as being injured. You’ve obviously never played the game if you don’t know the difference
Oh God. Please enlighten us oh great one….obviously. Schmuck.
Rudolph played 83% to 92% of all offensive snaps between 2015 and 2018, and only played 78% of 2019’s O snaps because after starting the last game of the season and playing one snap, he joined most of the starters on the bench since the team had already clinched a spot in the playoffs.
Rudy never recovered the speed he once had, that’s true, although I can’t remember whether he lost it in college or during the 2013 or 2014 seasons. And he admitted that he made a conscious effort after missing half of those two seasons to avoid injury by running out of bounds or not struggling for every yard if the situation didn’t really require it (playoff game, yes, early season game, no), because he figured he it was more important to be available and play than to risk missing time or ending his career.
Rudolph has been a very effective red zone receiver when healthy so now the Giants just have to figure out how to spend some time in the red zone.
He can move the chains, too. He was quite effective finding gaps in zone coverage last year, and turned several of them into gains of 20 or so yards.
Smart of Vikings to let him walk.
Though I’m a fan of his, I agree. His receiving talent was being wasted in their offensive system, especially since (a) they run a balanced offense that runs the ball almost as many times as they try to pass it, (b) the Kubiak scheme uses a fullback a lot more than most teams, (c) they paired him with another receiving tight end rather than a blocking specialist (which was good for Kirk Cousins, who had thrived with two pass catching TE’s in Washington), and (d) they have two top 10 wide receivers, one of whom, Adam Thielen, has developed over the last two years into quite a red zone threat, himself. There are only just so many targets to go around in the Vikes’ offense.
The team asked him to take a pay cut to free up cap space, and he refused if his role wasn’t going to change (i.e., be a blocker first, a receiver second). Hopefully he’ll get more receiving opportunities with the Giants. I think he is still fully capable of catching 50-70 passes and 6-10 touchdowns if given the chance.
When did he actually have the surgery? I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard a date.