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New York Giants: Is Ryan Connelly ready to claim a starting role on defense?

It is not often that an NFL team starts a fifth-round pick right out of the gate. For the New York Giants, they did just that with Ryan Connelly in 2019. The Wisconsin product was not the fastest, strongest, or highest rated linebacker coming out of the draft, but he did post elite grades in one specific category.

Despite being average in most facets, Connelly is one of the quickest linebackers to enter the NFL since 2010. According to PFF, he ran the third quickest 10-yard split (1.54 seconds) of any off-ball linebacker that weighed in at 240-plus pounds at the NFL combine since 2010.