WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. - Dalen Cambre didn’t make his name at Louisiana by stacking up catches. Ten receptions in 63 games is the kind of number that usually fades into the background.
That makes what he’s doing at Giants camp stand out even more.
The second-year wide receiver and special teams ace has been flashing all over practice in West Virginia, hauling in one tough grab after another and, in John Harbaugh’s words, “I see him make a circus catch every single day,” Harbaugh said. “And not just that, he’s doing all the other things.
He’s doing special teams. He knows what he’s doing.
He’s running great routes. I think he’s making a move.
I think he’s done a great job and he’s got our attention.”
Cambre, listed at 6-foot and 192 pounds, spent last season with the Giants after initially landing on the practice squad as an undrafted free agent. He appeared in seven games and handled 89 special teams snaps, while also logging 16 offensive snaps without drawing a target or recording a catch.
Now, with a new coaching staff in place, the 25-year-old says the whole thing feels like a reset.
“You go in as a rookie, and you’re like, I have to show these coaches who I am because, honestly, they didn’t know anything about me,” Cambre said on Thursday. “So I had to show them what I could do, who I am.
“And then I got a new coaching staff, so it basically just started over. I told my family back home, I said, it’s rookie year two for me because [of the] new coaching staff. I’ve got to show them who I am, what I can do, and what I’m made of.”
That message seems to be landing. Through camp, Cambre has been part of a receiver battle that also includes Odell Beckham Jr. and Braxton Berrios, with the three of them apparently separating themselves from the pack at the bottom of the depth chart.
Still, Cambre isn’t confusing attention with security.
“It means a lot, knowing that you have, like you said, I have their attention,” Cambre said. “But that’s not the end of the day. You have to keep putting days together, stacking them day after day after day.
“Because if I were to stop now, I mean, who knows? I’ve got to keep going, keep going each and every day and keep showing them what I can do, whether it be on special teams or in the receiver role.”
Part of what has gotten him here is the way he’s built himself into more than a specialist. Cambre said he’s had to approach every day like he’s still proving he belongs.
“It’s just been a grind each and every day. You really can’t see yourself as anything else.
You have to envision yourself making those plays whenever you’re not practicing,” Cambre said. “You have to think about it.
I go crazy sitting on the couch, and I’m thinking about, man, what if I do this, what if I do this? And then whenever I go to a workout, whether it be the offseason or on my own or something or before practice, and you have that opportunity, you already thought about it.
“So you’re going out there like, man, I already lived this in my mind. I can go do this in real life.”
The spectacular grabs that have turned heads in camp don’t happen by accident, either. Cambre said he works on making difficult catches feel routine by pushing himself into uncomfortable drills.
“It’s training harder than what it actually is because I do a lot of catching drills with tennis balls, one eye closed or behind a bag where you focus with one hand,” Cambre said. “You just put yourself in strenuous positions to be able to make the practices and the games easy because whenever a ball’s coming from way down the field, I mean, you have tons of time to move your body in ways to get to a better position to catch the ball.
“Whenever you’re practicing at a strenuous level, those catches may seem easy, but, I mean, you’ve done it. You’ve repped the hard thing, so it looks and feels easy whenever it comes to you.”
His best moment of camp came Monday in a torrential downpour, when he made a stunning grab on a deep 50-50 ball from Jameis Winston over Korie Black. It looked like a dead play until Cambre came down with it.
He described it this way:
“Honestly, I had a double move and ran a terrible route. Got a lot of correction on the route I ran itself. But when I turned around and looked for the ball, the ball was in the air.
“And I noticed it was a little bit short. And I was thinking, man, the number one rule of a receiver is if you can’t catch the ball, no one can. So I was honestly thinking, okay, I’m just going to bat the ball down, live to go to second down.
“And, honestly, I went to bat his hands down, hit the ball somehow, hit his hands down, and the ball just popped up. And it almost floated, like, right in my eye level.
And whenever I saw that, I was like, oh, grab it. So I just grabbed it and then landed on top of him.
And that’s just how it went.”
Even with Harbaugh’s attention, Cambre knows the work is nowhere near done. For him, camp has been about piling up days, making plays, and proving that the catches everyone keeps noticing are part of something bigger.
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