The New York Giants brass loved watching game film on 2019 rookie third-round draft pick Oshane Ximines so much that they created a nickname for him before drafting him.

Before he ever stepped onto the practice field for the Giants, head coach Pat Shurmur, defensive coordinator James Bettcher, and the rest of the Giants staff had decided they would refer to him as "X-man" and that's how they referred to him on the second night of the draft. At the time, most Giants fans figured that this was a nickname Ximines already had before the Giants picked him.

On Friday, during the first day of his rookie minicamp, Ximines told reporters the story of how "X-man" has now become his nickname and why he loves it.

"The nickname surfaced on draft day," Ximines told reporters on Friday. "That’s the first time anybody has ever called me X-Man, but I love the nickname actually, and I hope to keep that going. On the draft day phone call, that’s the first time I heard X-Man, and it kind of surfaced on the Internet. I got a few of my friends back home calling me that now, and I just feel like it’s going to keep going in the right direction."

Ximines is hoping to become the next small-school EDGE prospect to make the leap to the NFL level as a premier pass rusher. When interviewed at The Combine by Newsday's Tom Rock, Ximines pointed to former Giants draft picks Michael Strahan (Texas Southern) and Osi Umenyiora (Troy) as two small-school pass rushers who made it in the NFL and give him hope.

“Those guys give me hope,” Ximines told Rock. “It shows me that the teams are watching the small-school guys and I hope to show them that small-school pass-rushers are good too.”

The Giants have a strong track record locating mid-round defensive pass rushers from small schools and overall.

According to Pro Football Focus, Ximines was one of the most productive pass rushers on a per snap basis in 2018. Ximines recorded a ridiculously high 23.5% pass-rush win rate a season ago, per PFF. Ximines finished with an impressive 90.2 overall grade from Pro Football Focus and racked up 55 quarterback pressures in the regular season.

In addition to the advanced stats outlined by PFF, Ximines racked up the boxscore counting stats that fans will always get excited about during his four-year career at Old Dominion. Ximines finished with 33 career sacks in 43 games in the Conference USA at Old Dominion. What impressed us the most about Ximines is that he also racked up 11 forced fumbles. It was no surprise to hear Ximines tell Giants reporters on his draft night conference call that he models his game after Jacksonville Jaguars EDGE pass rusher Yanick Ngakoue who is one of the best strip-sack artists in the NFL.

Shortly after drafting Ximines, Shurmur told reporters that he has never completed a draft-day call with a player as excited to join the Giants as the X-man.

"He was probably as excited a player to hear he was gonna be a Giant as anyone I've called in the last couple of years," Shurmur said after the end of Day 2. "As we all get to know the X-Man better, I think everybody will see why we picked him."

Ximines' family roots in the New York area played a key role in his excitement about joining the Giants franchise.

"I was born in New York. I moved away when I was five years old," Ximines said. "But my grandma moved out to Queens. Being around grandma was always good. It’s always that loving feel. So being around her and having that love is definitely going to help me out here. I’m excited to be back home."

The Giants selected Ximines with the No. 95 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft -- one of the picks they acquired via trading wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns. According to the X-man, he has been able to tune out the noise and this will not be a distraction for him.

"I remember when I saw the Odell trade happen -- at the time, I didn’t think it was going to be me, but it is," Ximines said. "All I can be is myself. I can’t be anybody else but myself, and that’s what I plan on keep doing."

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The Giants are hoping he can become the next player in a long line of mid-round draft picks (Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, etc) used on pass rushers who have gone on to do big things for the franchise.