Rueben Randle-The little girl with the curl.

I would have him watch tapes of Steve Smith Sr. so
he can see what it takes to get to the next level.
Its Heart Passion and hard work .
I think he lacks all three .

With Beckham, the speed is obvious and it looks like his hands are too
With Cruz, the quickness and change of direction skills are unbelievable
With Nicks, his catch radius and ability to make tough catches was elite
With Steve Smith, he was ridiculously quick and got open with ease on short routes
With Plax, his size and ball skills made him unfair at times
With Toomer, it was his great route running and reliability plus he had awesome footwork on the sidelines

There's nothing about Randle's game that looks even close to elite. He has good size, he has good speed, he has pretty good hands, he has ok quickness, he's a below-average route runner, he's not great at the sideline toe drags, etc.

Amani Toomer is the closest recent Giant I can think of, but even Amani was a better physical specimen than Randle. Amani made up for his lack of special athletic skills by doing all the little things really well. So far in his career, Randle has done the little things really poorly. Unless that changes, he's just a pretty good #3WR in the NFL.

Which isn't the end of the world since we have Cruz and Beckham. But I'm slightly disappointed in Randle as a draft choice. He's not a bust by any means and should be a solid player for a long time especially if he improves his consistency, but I expected more out of him when he was drafted.

but Randle is very similar to fellow LSU WR Brandon LeFell.

Randle's a decent receiver. He's hardly a bad player, but he seems like a less-than-the-sum-of-the-parts kind of guy.

In comment 11902896 chris r said:

Quote:

In comment 11902885 UConn4523 said: Quote: but to only focus on the negatives is still pretty ignorant (not anyone specifically). Randle didn't play an awful game. He had 1 glaring mistake, but still made some tough catches. This is one thread. There are plenty of positive threads. Randle is a frustrating player.

Please, don't give me this "it's one thread", as if it takes a thread about Randle for posters to trash him. This is a common theme around here. Fans need at least one player they can take their frustration out on no matter what, and as of late that player happens to be Randle and the length it goes is undeserving.

It was the same with Mario Manningham, not matter what he did some ass always had to bring up how "stupid" he is.

who's standout skill was his ability to get open deep.

chris, I think the LaFell comparison is pretty accurate at this point. Although I'm still holding out hope that he finally gets on the same page as Eli and takes his game to another level.

In comment 11902946 Greg from LI said:

Quote:

Randle's a decent receiver. He's hardly a bad player, but he seems like a less-than-the-sum-of-the-parts kind of guy.

Do you remember how lost Toomer often appeared to be his first few seasons? Randle is still maturing as a player. For some guys it just takes a little more time. Still very likely that he may improve greatly from what we currently see from him.

But, in general, career arcs like Toomer's are the exception.

if Eli's not force feeding him the ball concept. So, he was a head case against Detroit because Eli didn't force feed him the ball? How are we arriving at this conclusion?

most concerning is that on 23 completions on 40 targets averaging 6.22 yards downfield, he is only averaging 2.0 yards after each catch. As a result, while being tied for 34th in receptions, he is only for 54th with 11 first downs.

In 2012, Randle had 19 catches on 32 targets, averaging 15.7 yards/catch. In 2013, he had 41 catches on 80 targets, averaging 14.9 yards/catch. This year it's down to 8.2 yards/catch.

This is a quicker strike offense so he won't be as far downfield when he catches the ball, but without showing the ability to break tackles or split through gaps, he is going to continue a role of a high targeted guy who only moves the chains if he runs to the marker.

Larry Donnell has a better YPC than Randle, and that's discouraging.

Randle's targets count has been 3, 7, 10, 10, 10. With the O-line improving since week 1, it can't just be the result of Randle running the shortest routes while Eli throws under duress. With his increasing targets (while Cruz is 6, 10, 6, 10, 6 oddly enough), my takeaway is that Randle might be the best player on the Giants at getting separation right off the line of scrimmage. And with his lack of blazing top-end speed and limited YAC, I can't imagine that it's because DBs are playing far off of him.

if they keep throwing the quick sideline throw to him. Hard to blame him for that when that is the design and focus of this style of offense.

It appears that McAdoo will often be just as happy to settle for a quick three to four yard pass as he would a three or four yard run. Not that there is anything wrong with it, just comparing stats from this season to past is almost irrelevant in some cases. McAdoo clearly want to keep the ball moving forward and with a quick pace. If the defense is giving room for a quick short reception he and Eli seem willing to take it.

In comment 11903145 PaulBlakeTSU said:

Quote:

Randle's targets count has been 3, 7, 10, 10, 10. With the O-line improving since week 1, it can't just be the result of Randle running the shortest routes while Eli throws under duress. With his increasing targets (while Cruz is 6, 10, 6, 10, 6 oddly enough), my takeaway is that Randle might be the best player on the Giants at getting separation right off the line of scrimmage. And with his lack of blazing top-end speed and limited YAC, I can't imagine that it's because DBs are playing far off of him.

I have a different interpretation. Teams are daring the Giants to beat them with Randle and rather than forcing the ball to other guys especially Cruz, Eli is trying to make them pay by throwing to Randle.

He runs in almost a plodding fashion. He gets almost no YAC.

he's a long-strider. He's not the guy that should be getting the 1-step quick out and expecting to take it 10 yards.

being outside WR in 3 wr sets prior to Beckham's arrival, I believe he's been being matched up with the oppositions top CB. Certainly was the case in the Detroit and Arizona games. Unsure how often he drew Joseph in the Houston game, against the Falcons although Alford is a good young prospect, he was outperformed by Trufant in 2013, and I believe Randle was also matched up with Trufant more often than not(although I've heard Falcons preferred Alford on quicker receivers and Trufant on the bigger WRs). As Beckham emerges it should shift the pecking order and Randle could see some better match ups(which also depends on the defenses and how the Giants align the wideouts).

about Eli getting the ball to RR early due RR's laid back personality. I'm giving him the benfefit of the doubt and see what he does the rest of the seasn.

Broken hand - cant type