Oshane Ximines Eyes Big Jump in Year 2
Giants edge rusher Oshane Ximines wasn’t supposed to make it to the NFL.
He excelled in basketball in high school and then took his talents to Old Dominion University, a program that’s not exactly known for pumping out NFL talent.
Ximines, through sheer hard work and determination, managed to become the school’s first student-athlete to be drafted by an NFL team, that being the Giants who plucked him in the third round of last year’s draft.
Ximines came into East Rutherford last year, where for a while, he winged it while trying to figure out the nuances of succeeding against the higher level of competition. Along the way, he recorded 4.5 sacks, the same number as teammate Lorenzo Carter, an edge rusher out of Georgia.
Ximines also recorded 25 tackles, including five for a loss, and nine quarterback hits on 28 blitz attempts.
Not bad for a kid who didn’t have any plan or understanding about what it takes to be a successful pass rusher at the NFL level.
In Year 2, expect to see a much more productive and focused Ximines.
“This point last year, I was a rookie who had never done it at this level, and I thought, ‘Just do what you did in college to get here and you’ll be fine,’” Ximines told Giants Country by phone.
“I learned that you can’t do that and that you have to really fine-tune what you do if you want to be successful. So I have a routine now and I feel a lot calmer out there and more ready to compete than I did this time last year.”
The Giants can certainly use a more polished Ximines for their pass rush this year. Last season, the Giants, per Pro Football Focus, only recorded 280 total pressures and 36 sacks for just 246 yards lost.
Ximines, who tied with Lorenzo Carter for second-most sacks (4.5) on the team behind Markus Golden, finished second in total yards lost, costing opponents 35 of those yards lost.
To get ready for the new season, the 23-year-old focused on improving his strength to better anchor and trimmed some body fat off his 6’4”, 252-pound frame.
He also connected with Giants pass-rushing legend Osi Umenyiora, who, like Ximines, came from a small program (Troy), but who, unlike Ximines, wasn’t quite as productive as a rookie until he learned all the little tricks that he’s been passing along to Ximines.
Ximines said that he's been soaking up every last bit of Umenyiora's advice, but one of the biggest things that has made a difference this summer had to do with how to develop a pass rush plan by watching film of other NFL pass rushers.
“Yeah, that was great advice from him,” Ximines said, declining to name those pass rushers he studied whom he might try to emulate parts of their game into his own.
“There are a lot of guys I like from around the league, and I’ve tried to take whatever I can from different people, and just put it into my game to make it my own. It’s good because you can always learn from somebody, not just people you know or your teammates. So that’s really been helpful.”
What’s also been helpful is his work on his weaknesses. Besides adding strength, which should allow him to better hold up against the run, Ximines sought to enhance his get-off, which already was something special given his explosiveness from his high school basketball days.
He’s been working on his footwork to eliminate any wasted motion and to expedite his get-off. The other thing Ximines has been trying to train himself to do is to use his eyes better to read his keys. Last year he would often fire out of his stance, head down, and if he got within the vicinity of the passer or a ball carrier, great.
This year, however, he’s been trying to find little hints to help make his get-offs more efficient and productive.
Whether that’s identifying how a running back is leaning or watching a quarterback’s eyes or an offensive lineman’s set-up, Ximines is learning to process a lot more information that he hopes will make him a more complete edge player.
“I’m just kind of trying to stay in the moment ,” Ximines said of his goals for growth this season. “You have to kind of trust your preparation and what the coaches are asking you to do, go to practice and just make sure you’re doing everything possible to be better for this year.”
