Philadelphia Eagles receiver Rueben Randle has an uphill battle to prove critics who labeled him a bust in his four-year career with the New York Giants, wrong.
Over the course of his NFL career, Philadelphia Eagles receiver Rueben Randle often said the right things when he was asked about stepping into a bigger role on the New York Giants receiving corps.
But as former Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, Randle’s first NFL head coach, used to like to say, “Talk is cheap; play the game.”
The lesson apparently hasn’t yet sunk in for the 25-year-old Randle, who is in his first season with the Eagles and who characterized his time in New York was an “unfortunate situation,” to Les Bowden of the Philly.com.
“Things happen, you’ve got to move on,” Randle told Bowen regarding his split with the Giants. “Miscommunication—they didn’t like my demeanor and some things. I was just judged wrong, read wrong. I gotta do better by that, learn from my mistakes.”
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If Randle’s words sound familiar, it’s because “doing better” and “learning from my mistakes” were often statements he made after some sort of miscommunication resulting in him being the intended target on an Eli Manning interception, or him missing a team meeting that would result in a disciplinary action handed down by Coughlin.
The unfortunate reality is that despite knowing that he had to do better, Randle ultimately got in his own way, both on and off the field.
Over his four-year career with the Giants, Randle was the intended target on 17 interceptions and just 20 touchdowns, according to Pro Football Focus, twice seeing his touchdown total be less than his interception total (2013 and 2014).
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To be fair to Randle, according to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, the former LSU star had been dealing with tendinitis in his knees, a condition the receiver would later confess during a media briefing was one he had been dealing with since high school.
While the tendonitis might explain some of Randle’s issues on the field, such as his 3.8 yards-after-catch average, it doesn’t explain the shortcomings in his preparation such as his inconsistent route running or his violating team rules twice in 2014, leading to disciplinary action by Coughlin.
When his contract expired, the Giants, according to Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ Advance Media, showed little interest in re-signing their second-round pick in 2012.
No wonder, either. Randle had failed to notch a 1,000-yard receiving season—he fell just short of that in 2014 when he finished with a career-high 938 yards on 71 receptions.
With the Eagles, who signed Randle to a one-year deal that, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, is worth more than $3 million with $500,000 guaranteed, Randle recognizes that he has a chance to show people it’s much too soon to write him off as a failure.
“Everyone has a fresh new start,” Randle said according to Shorr-Parks. “I’m excited for the opportunity to showcase my talents.”
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So far so good. Bowen reported that Eagles head coach Doug Pederson has praised Randle, calling him a “pleasant surprise” thus far.
“He’s a guy that’s a big, tall–sort of a smooth receiver that understands what we’re asking him to do,” Pederson said.
Whether Randle finally finds the success that eluded him during tenure with the Giants remains to be seen in what is truly a make-or-break season in his career.