MADISON, Wis. -- Considering most of us have never been rookies in the NFL, we can’t say with complete, 100 percent certainty that it’s hard, but…

...I’m going to go ahead and guess that being a rookie in the NFL is pretty dang hard.

Like coming in as a college freshman, the competition is suddenly bigger, faster, stronger, and, in the NFL, potentially 10 or more years older. Coaches, that just a month or so earlier called you on the phone to praise you and tell you how excited they were to be drafting you to their franchise, are now yelling and blowing whistles and expecting perfection.

Oh, and if you’re Michael Deiter, Andrew Van Ginkel, or David Edwards, you’re dealing with all of that plus some blistering heat--hello Miami and L.A.

And yet, even facing a whole bunch of difficult elements to work through, all reports out of New York say Ryan Connelly is crushing it as a Giant. In fact, word on the street is that the former Wisconsin linebacker did so well in a certain drill, that he made defensive coordinator James Bettcher break one of his time-honored rules: Don’t give rookies too much credit too soon.

According to an article by Ryan Dunleavy on NJ.com, Bettcher was trying to show some vets an example of a properly executed technique, and the best one he had on tape was one of Connelly’s.

“You try not to show a rookie to the vets too early,” Bettcher said (via NJ.com). “But I was showing the cut-up to the vets. This is a guy (Connelly) from the rookie minicamp, and it was a concept and a route and he played it exactly the right way. It was a great example. Smart and tough.”

This should come as no surprise to Badger fans. Though his senior season didn’t play out as the team might have hoped record-wise, Connelly never stopped leading by example.

“What Ryan's been able to do this year has really been impressive," said Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard toward the end of Wisconsin’s 2018 season. "For the three years that I've been here, watching him grow as a player, watching him grow as a leader, it's been really unbelievable to see how far he's come.”

"But I think leadership-wise is number one where he took a step. He was always just kind of in the shadows, doing his thing, playing well, making plays. With a younger team around him, he really stepped up."

It appears, though, that despite now finding himself part of the “younger team,” Connelly hasn’t lost that set-the-tone mentality.

It’s what’s earned him, at least according to the media’s analysis, a shot at getting some time on the field in year one. Dunleavy wrote that Connelly could be a “dark horse” in the starter race, especially considering New York is “desperate for a linebacker who can play pass coverage.” And Art Stapleton, Giants beat reporter for The Record Sports, reported via Twitter that Connelly got some work on the second team at inside linebacker last week.

It also hasn’t gone unnoticed by his new coaches.

“There is something to be said about a guy that walks on to a new team and is willing to stick it out from the beginning--earned the respect of all of his teammates, became a starter and had the career that he did,” Giants linebackers coach Bill McGovern said (via NJ.com). “It obviously speaks volumes.”