Giants sign Thibodeaux, Neal; RB Corbin stands out
Giants sign Kayvon Thibodeaux, Evan Neal; RB Jashaun Corbin stands out
Giants first-round picks Kayvon Thibodeaux and Evan Neal both signed their rookie contracts on Saturday after rookie minicamp practice. Their deals are determined by their draft slots.
Thibodeaux gets four years and $31.3 million fully guaranteed as the No. 5 overall pick. Neal receives four years and $24.5 million fully guaranteed as the No. 7 overall pick. Both contracts come with a fifthyear team option for 2026.
This is much earlier than the Giants typically sign their first-round picks.
Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley and Andrew Thomas all signed in July of their respective draft years, and Kadarius Toney signed last June after a holdout.
Thibodeaux and Neal are represented by the same agency, Klutch Sports Group. First-year GM Joe Schoen and the Giants front office, together with Klutch agents Kelton Crenshaw and Damarius Bilbo, made sure the Giants’ blue-chip draft picks were locked in early.
This timeline may represent a new normal for the Giants under Schoen.
“It feels great,” Neal said Saturday of being on the field for the Giants. “To go out there and get back in the right tackle stance, I haven’t played right tackle since my sophomore year. So it brought back some pretty good nostalgia. It’s really good. Practicing on an NFL team? It don’t get better than that.”
The news of their agreements was reported by NFL Network while Thibodeaux and Neal both were still on the field taking team pictures, prepared to sign once they walked inside.
Corbin stands out: Giants coach Brian Daboll said undrafted free agent RB Jashaun Corbin (pronounced JAY-shawn) “kind of stood out a little bit” during Friday’s first rookie minicamp practice.
“Athletic, quick twitch, good in individuals,” Daboll said. “The individual drills, a lot of them, you’re almost going out there on pro days or individual workouts. Some of the drills that we even do out here are some of the drills that we do when we work guys out, so you get a good feel for them. You can compare kind of apples to apples.”
Football Gameplan’s Emory Hunt, a draft guru who also works for CBS Sports HQ, told the Daily News he thinks Corbin “will be RB2 behind Saquon” Barkley this fall.
“He has vision, elusiveness, footwork,” Hunt said. “He can be Daboll’s jet sweep guy.”
The Giants showed how much they valued Corbin when they gave him $110,000 guaranteed at signing, a significant amount for an undrafted free agent.
The 5-10, 203-pound back suffered a bad 2019 hamstring injury at Texas A&M. He recovered, transferred to Florida State, and led the Seminoles in rushing last fall in his second and final season with them: 887 rush yards (6.2 per carry), seven rushing TDs, 25 catches, 144 receiving yards and a receiving score.