NEW YORK — It’s not Tim Tebow signing with the Jaguars to play tight end, but it might not be far off.
Veteran wideout Kelvin Benjamin will try out for the Giants during this weekend’s rookie minicamp, a source confirmed Thursday night.
NFL teams are allowed to host up to five veteran players for tryouts at their post-draft rookie minicamp.
Benjamin, 30, has not played in the league since 2018. He played for the three teams in five years after Dave Gettleman drafted him in 2014 for Carolina in the first round, 16 picks after the Giants took Odell Beckham Jr.
Benjamin’s promising talent was derailed by early injuries and conditioning issues.
His presence at this camp, first reported by ESPN, could be part of a dramatic over-correction by the Giants to upgrade their receiver position, which hasn’t been the same since Gettleman traded Beckham to the Cleveland Browns in March 2019.
Either that or they’re going to try out Benjamin at tight end, where some teams projected him coming out of Florida State. That might make the only sense if he wants to find a spot on the roster.
Joe Judge and Jason Garrett wanted bigger targets for Daniel Jones this offseason, which is why the Giants signed Kenny Golladay and Kyle Rudolph. Benjamin stands 6-foot-5 and checked in at 245 pounds with the Chiefs, his final stop in 2018 (he also played for the Bills).
But it should be extremely difficult for Benjamin to make this team at receiver considering the Kadarius Toney first-round pick, the Golladay and John Ross signings, and the presence of incumbents Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton.
Benjamin doesn’t play special teams, either, which wouldn’t help his cause competing with depth players C.J. Board, Austin Mack, Dante Pettis, David Sills, Alex Bachman and Derrick Dillon.
There is also still a chance the Giants could re-sign special teams ace wideout Cody Core.
Core was cut in March to save $2 million in cap space, avoid a $500,000 roster bonus as he rehabs last year’s torn Achilles, and enable the team to use the cheaper minimum salary benefit ($850,000 cap hit) on a reunion.
If he came back, he would be infinitely more useful to the Giants than a player like Benjamin.
If Benjamin played tight end, at least he’d get on the field on offense at times, maybe. The tight end depth chart for now features Rudolph, Evan Engram, Kaden Smith, Levine Toilolo, Cole Hikutini, Rysen John, Nakia Griffin-Stewart and Nate Wieting.
Rudolph is recovering from spring foot surgery. He expects to be ready for the season, but maybe the Giants are pursuing some insurance in the short term.
Regardless, seeing Benjamin on the field this weekend at Quest Diagnostics Training Center definitely will be a blast from the past.
