Wheatley Could Turn Into a Giant in New York

There were times during his first 1 1/2 seasons as a pro that it appeared Tyrone Wheatley never would harness the combination of size and speed that led the New York Giants to draft him in the first round in 1995.

On the sporadic occasions he carried the ball, he was tentative, often juking needlessly before hitting the hole. Off the field, he isolated himself from many veteran teammates and frustrated coaches with his lackluster approach.

Now, all that has changed, and in the nick of time.

With Rodney Hampton, the team’s all-time leading rusher, in a drastic career decline, Wheatley has emerged as the tailback of the immediate future. Coach Dan Reeves finally has confidence in him, and Wheatley finally is showing he deserves it. In Sunday’s upset of the Dallas Cowboys, he had career highs of 21 rushes and 69 yards.

“He’s learning from Rodney, he’s hearing it from us,” said running backs coach George Sefcik, a veteran of 24 seasons in the National Football League. “The fanciness comes out of this game after a certain point. It’s north and south. You have to get it upfield and make first downs. ... He used to be upright and took shots in chest. Now his pads are down under people, and you’re seeing the pile move a little bit more.”

Reeves, who preferred Rashaan Salaam on draft day, said of Wheatley: “He’s got an awful lot of power. He gets those shoulder pads down and he’s hard to bring down. He’s been working hard in practice to try to go the extra yards.”

The beauty of the 6-foot, 228-pound Wheatley is he can run up the middle, but also has more big-play and outside running ability than Hampton. Wheatley has another thing the Giants need: star power. He is among their few colorful talkers, and is bluntly confident, bordering on cocky.

“I’m just getting more reps; I’m getting to run the ball a little more,” he said. “Hell, I’ve been confident from Day 1, I’ll never lose that. It’s just a point of me having the feel, the flow. That’s what I’m getting now. To some it might be, ‘He has his confidence back,’ but I never lost it.”