Big Blue Kickoff Live 12/16 | Commanders Wrap Up

Lance Medow and Howard Cross wrap up the Giants vs Commanders game, talk about Wan’Dale Robinson, and take calls from fans. 

0:00 - Commanders wrap up

30:00 - Calls

39:20 - Roster chat

46:40 - Youtube questions

51:00 - Wan’Dale Robinson

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's time for a Big Blue kickoff line.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Nobody can ever tell you that you couldn't do it
because you're.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
On giants dot Com. You know what I saw New
York Giant Crack and the Giants mobile apps.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
One tuck down.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
We all, we're all tamper, part of the Giants podcast Network.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Let's go on Dogs and welcome to Tuesday's edition a
Big Blue Kickoff live here on giants dot com YouTube
as well as the mobile app. He's Howard Cross, I'm
Lance Metal with you in the next sixty minutes. Multiple
ways you can interact with us here on the program.
You give us a ring to zero one nine three
nine four five one three. He could also interact with
the two of us on social media using hashtag Giants Chat.

(00:45):
He is at Howard Cross eighty seven. I'm at Lance Metal.
One word, last name Emdow. It is presented by Cadillac,
the official luxury vehicle of the New York Giants, and
we are broadcasting from the Giants Podcast Studio presented by
Hackett zach Bridian Health. Keep getting Better. As the Giants
fell to the Commanders twenty nine to twenty one at
home on Sunday, so we'll provide some takeaways from that

(01:06):
front and also look ahead to the next matchup against
the Minnesota Vikings. As we knew coming off of the
Buy the Giants we could get three of those four
at home with the Cowboys in the final week, the
trip to Las Vegas the only game away from MetLife Stadium,
and unfortunately Howard for the Giants. It really was a
continuation of the theme we saw against New England, where

(01:27):
special teams mishaps came back to bite them. You had
the two missfield goals, you had the sixty three yard
return by Jalen Lane, and then also there was a
penalty that wiped out a Devin Singletary thirty plus yard run.
So once again we saw it in bits and pieces
across the board.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
You know, they're having a hard time like being consistent.
I know, the only thing they're consistent in right now
is making mistakes, and you know, little mistakes here and there,
And I think it's so hard when you're struggling as
a team. You've got to pull on everybody. Everybody's got
to kind of hang in there. The special teams thing,
I just don't understand it. They were a great cover
team early in the year, a lot of guys got hurt.

(02:03):
They had to mix some guys in and out, and
then they kind of got everybody back. Now it seems
like almost everybody's back and fully healthy, so they should
be picking it up where they left off. And you know,
maybe it was the cold that they kind of played
with him as well. So it's a lot of different things.
You can blame it them. The thing that bothers me
most is their a building not to stop the run.
It seems like everybody's running on them and we don't

(02:25):
have an answer for it.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
And also teams are running on them that also have
not had a great success and track record this season,
right exactly. I mean, Washington was not pounded the football
this season. Now, they dealt with some injuries, but Jacory
Krosky Merritt, who they call Bill the rookie running back
late pick, who had actually been phased out a little bit.
But Chris Rodriguez was inactive. He ran for ninety six yards,
He averaged over five yards of carry, and then he

(02:48):
had that touchdown where it parted like the red sea
and he ran up the gut for sixteen yards. So
I know we've used this term a lot, Howard. But
it's almost as if the Giants are becoming the get
right game for all of opponents.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
In fairness, yeah, I mean, unfortunately they are to get
right team. The defense seems like they look like they're
gonna come out. They like they're fired up, and I
don't know, the teams start running at them. And when
you start running that team, it kind of takes the
win out of yourselves. And if you can't stop them,
you know, and they're running outside, they're running inside, it's
like a pick them. So they gotta find a way

(03:21):
to you know, consistently, you know, be the picket fence
maybe two yards, maybe three yards, but not five yards
will pop. You can't do it because every time you
run the ball, it's like two plays in your first
down started over.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Well, and also you're not putting pressure. Not to say
that Marcus Mariot is a young quarterback. He's a veteran,
but you'd want him to throw right. He only threw
nineteen pass attempts. If you include the sacks, that means
he dropped back twenty one times in a game that
was at least within striking distance late. But I don't
think they put enough pressure on Mario And I'm not
talking about sacks. I'm just talking about the flow of

(03:53):
the game. Howard to put it on his shoulders to
have to win well.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Once you're running the ball, like the play action pass
becomes like very easy. He was able to, you know,
manipulate the linebackers a little bit because everybody had to
come up to try to stop the run, and every
time they did, you know, he stand up throw the
ball to be nobody like within five yards of receiver
sometime because they're all like up at the line of
scrimmage trying to make sure they can get a hand
on the running back and they weren't stopping them anyway.

(04:19):
So I'm not really sure how that was working.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
And then on top of that, the other thing that
is popped up or retort Tuckley head is the mistackling
the Terry McLaurin play right over the middle and then
two guys in the vicinity, including Dane Belton, and it
was a one on one opportunity on the safety for McLaurin.
He even talked about this after the game that it
was designed to get into that scenario. But you bring
him down at least within the five make them earn

(04:42):
it in the red zone as opposed to getting an
explosive touchdown there.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, it's like I said, mistackles, guys are just I
don't really have an answer for it. I wish I
had an answer for it. I wish I could say, well,
this is what they should be doing and it would
get better. But you just got to hope that and pray.
You know, each guy has to figure out a way
do you want to be here next year? Because you're
going to evaluate it through this, through this process, and

(05:06):
they're gonna have any there. If they're having to pick
early in the draft, like in the top four or
five picks, they're gonna be a lot of players that
they're gonna come in here and go to take some jobs.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Everybody's replaceable in the NFL. Now, would you know that
very well in terms of your playing days. And that's why,
even though it may not be meaningful from a standings perspective,
there's gonna be a lot of evaluation to determine whether
or not these guys will be in the mix next
year or if they have to look and address some
of these positions. Now, I want to piggyback over your
point about the special teams unit and the fluctuation because

(05:38):
of injuries. It's interesting when Thomas McGahee was the special
team's coordinator, however, he'd always use the term gumbo. You're
making the gumbo every week, nic you're using different ingredients,
which I think is a beautiful analogy and holds true
to this day. But as you mentioned, they're getting reinforcements back,
so you would think continuity would help their cause, though

(05:59):
we're not seeing much of that. And even though I
would say more of the injuries were on the return front, right,
they were down their return guys. What hurt them more
in this game was the coverage exactly, more so than
the return game.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
And all it takes is one guy to get blocked,
especially you know, one guy to get blocked, you open.
It's kind of we call it the red sea. You
split it right there, right down the middle, and if
you can't, you got to stay in your lanes. You
got to be very disciplined about it. If you let
a guy get even with you, he's gone. And it's
just used to be. I used to be terrified when

(06:31):
I used to recover a punts and kicks. I'm like,
this is not what I want to be doing out here.
I don't want to be chasing anybody, so I'm trying
to always stay in my lane, make sure the guys
are like, Okay, I want to run into that big guy.
Let's get over there somewhere. So they were trying to
protect themselves. But you watch these guys over and over
and over again, they look like they're in position and
if you miss, if you throw, and I think that's
again product of being cold. They're throwing at the guys

(06:54):
and they're not trying to tackle the guys. They're not
they're not wrapping up. And you miss tackles when you're
cold because you're throwing your body at somebody instead of
trying to wrap them up.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, even on the miss with McLaurin, you guys just
trying to sort.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Of sholder it down. You got to wrap them up.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Yeah. And Jalen Lane, who's a wide receiver who is
their main return guy. He's a slippery player by definition
because of the routes that he runs and him having
that offensive perspective. And by the way, it wasn't just
the sixty three yard return in which he scored a touchdown.
He had a twenty yard return. If you recall, that
set up another commander's touchdown, which meant that if you

(07:30):
looked at starting field positioning, Washington was not put in
a situation where they had to go eighty some odd
yards continuously.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
No, they had, they had, they had a good, good
field position for most of the game. I think one
or two times the Giants put them back. But even
when they put him back, they ran the ball very well,
got across the midfield, changed you know, changed field position,
and one time even scored. So it's like the Giants
got a lot of issues right now.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
The other thing that I think proved costly is we're
highlighting a few different areas. Was the John Michael Schmidz penalty.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
Yeah. I couldn't understand, like what was going on. I watched,
you know, John blocks a guy. Smitty blocked him like
five six seven yards down Phield and the guy's chirping,
and Smitty and him are arguing back and forth, and
then Running comes over to try to like you know,
get involved with like to protect this guy, and then
when Running kind of moves away, Schmitty bumps him again.
I'm like, dude, it's over.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Let it.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Let it go and he's gonna look back at that
and be like, oh what am I doing? So those
are penalties that you just can't have.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, because they always get the last guy that responds. Yes,
they did for the penalty and the reason why that
proved to be costly And I went over this the
other day. They got to the Washington twenty five yard
line after that play, then the penalty okay, backs them up,
and then what happens It was a miss coup field goal. Yes,
so those fifteen yards proved to be extremely costly because

(08:50):
now it's a lost possession. You know, I have any
points to show.

Speaker 3 (08:53):
From that, Yeah, And I think that, you know, as
they're looking back and starting to think about it, I
would expect or hope that the Giant are like going
over to the stadium in practicing more because the wind
is blowing sideways in the stadium and it's really weird. Uh,
not making an excuse for coude, but it's it is
weird if you hadn't kicked in the stadium and win
on one end is blowing one way and it's blowing

(09:14):
the other way the opposite. In the I was watching
the pregame, I'm like that's it. I hope they don't
have to kick the ball. It's going to be ugly
out here.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
They could play mind games with you and the other
thing that was in play. They had a new holder
in Cameron Johnston because Jamie Gillen was out. But I
look back, there were no issues with the process.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
He caught the ball, got it down quickly. It's just
like I said, that wind. I remember when we used
to when we when I played in the old in
the old Stadium, they would leave the doors open and
we'd come in and practice and the wind just to
see what it looked like the ball when they throw
the passes tea sometimes they'll dip really fast, or they'll
rise right before they get you because the wind is
blowing so hard, and I'm like, what in the world.

(09:53):
I'm like, how is this even possible? Like we were
like laugh because it was so funny, and we watched
teams come in and they couldn't catch the ball because
the ball they moving all over the place and you
can't simulate it. It's just something that's going on. And
the kickers, the punters, the kickers, they would have to
be out there. They we're going to the stadium. All right,
let's go guys, and then they go in and kick
for the day. They would wouldn't come back, they wouldn't

(10:14):
kick in practice because they're kicking in the stadium. So
it was something that was a big difference. And I
don't think, you know, I haven't seen it. Maybe they
they're are doing it right now, but I haven't seen
them do it yet. And I mean, it's it's very
helpful for them to get accustomed to the wind.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
And the Giants have a luxury because you're right by
the stadium right Most teams rite the facilities miles away,
so you got to hop in the vehicle or whatever
it may be. You just walk across the parky and
then all of a sudden, you take your fair share
of opportunities to be able to once again duplicate the field,
and the opponent doesn't have that lucky exactly. So it's
an advantage.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
It's a big thing to do. And they should, you know,
they should have incorporated, especially later here in this year,
because it's it's gonna be windy and it's gonna be
cold for the rest of the season.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, and you got two of the next three at home,
so the Vikings and the Cowboys. What's the common element.

Speaker 3 (11:01):
They're indoor teams, yep, exactly. So if it's really cold
on the Vikings, that will be interesting to see how
they how they handle that being outside, even though they're
from Minnesota. The Cowboys, I don't know what they're gonna do.
I mean, they're kind of in it, they're kind of
out of it. They might be out of it by
the time they get to us. And yeah, you know,
they won't have anything to play for.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well, Philadelphia if they win Saturday, actually it's over. So
Dallas then doesn't have anything to play for at least
in terms of the stand these guys' jobs evaluations, as
we talked about, that's a whole other story. And Brandon
Aubrey is one of the best kickers in the NFL,
though he did miss two kicks which was really out
of character for him Sunday night against Minnesota. But you
just never know, like you said, to win the elements

(11:41):
snow precipitation.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
I'm not boot on my expect and already be trying
to kick off a sixty yard or outside in the cold.
That's that's over with well.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Because you don't have the luxury of once again being indoors,
so it changes Schaannenheimer's decision making and so forth. But Ku,
you know, does have the ability to at least get
a little bit more act made it. But I guess
my concern going in was new holder. You know, cup
is relatively new. But that actually that went seamless. There
were really no problems.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
I don't think that's I don't think that's a big deal.
Like they practiced the holding pretty much every day, several
times a day. That's all they're doing in practice basically
like a snap catch down, snap catch down, and the
other time he's punting, So you know, it's not that
big of a deal for him.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
I think the only thing that we learned from the
two misses is that every single yard is of utmost
importance because of what you're talking about with the win factors.
So whether or not you decide to run or pass
on third down prior to the field goal, that could
come back to bite you a penalty when you're in
great field positioning on the field, that could all of
a sudden come back to haunt you. The Giants and

(12:44):
this goes back to your main point, Howard, They're not
the type of team that can overcome digging themselves in
a hole. It's if they're not built that way.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
They haven't done it. They haven't done it yet either,
so once they do it, it's going to be interesting
to say. I just think that, you know, they have
a lot of good parts and they're missing they're they're
missing neighbors. Definitely, Uh that, but that's offense. They're still
scoring points. What what what their what their problem is
is how are they going to get better on the defense?
And what's what's gonna make them better on the defense

(13:11):
is It's gonna be the big question.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
And even though Kavon Tibo, though has been sidelined for
four straight games, teams are running the football even when
k was on the field.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yes, they have.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
So you can't tell me that he's going to be
the savior alone.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
But but and you know, on the plus side, abduw
Carter had a breakout game. He did. He got a
lot of tackles for loss, he caused fumbles, he even
recovered the fumble. Mean he he really got after him,
got his own, got his first sack of the season. Uh,
played like a played like he played like a pro.
That's what we wanted. That's what we're hoping for the

(13:44):
whole season. And they had a chance to move him
in a couple of spots, so you know, he he
came from the outside. He did Okay, he got he
got they got another defensive ending there and they put
him in the middle to see what happened. He got,
he got pressure there. So he's going to become, you know,
more and more of the player that we expect to be.
I mean, I think they've taken some time from coaches
have watched tape with him to help him. You know,

(14:06):
sometimes you don't know what you don't know, so someone
needs to sit there and show you by you know,
go through every clip. This is why, this is what
we're trying to get. This is what you're looking for
that you should think about this when this happens, that
kind of thing. And it just it showed that they've
been working with him and trying to get him, trying
to get him up to speed. It seems like it's

(14:26):
taken a long time, but I'm happy to see the
kid to have a great game like that.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
He was a disruptive force from start to finish in
that game. What you just hit on Howard Interestingly, Charlie Bullen,
the new defensive coordinator who took over Shane Bowen. One
of the things he mentioned, because there was a lot
of talk that Carter had his best week of practice
also getting into the game, and he mentioned that they
sat him down and they explained Brian Burns is not

(14:50):
having a breakout career year. Also, if you want to
least label it that way, by just luck, he's picking
up tendencies, yes, from the opposition, which is what you're
talking about, from studying film. So they're trying to instill
in Carder. If you go through that extra film work,
you're gonna pick up what the offensive linemen are doing
and what the opposition doesn't. That may give you an

(15:11):
extra step, which is the difference between getting maybe a
swipe of the hand versus you hit the hand, you
force the fumble and you recover it, which is what
we saw late in the game.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well, it's it's you know, I think for a lot
of young players, you have to learn to watch film.
Like I started out and probably in college learning to
watch film. I learned with Mike Shuler was my was
my quarterback, So you know, I'm listening to Shuler He'd
go in and walk by the room, like why is
he watching film? And I'd go in and sit down
wad and he goes, hey, Cross, what's up? So what's up?
And he starts showing me, Hey, check this guy out

(15:43):
watch watch Detin cause I'm like, oh, interesting, So I
started watching it religiously. At that point, once I got
to the league, I already knew what I was doing,
what I was looking for. The scouting reports were so
thorough that we knew you know which guy what, Oh,
this guy got a bad pinky, this, this is what
you know, anything you could think of, they had it
in the scouting report. We study him religiously. And then

(16:05):
on top of that, you know, Coach Pope and Coach
Raybaum would give me a test on the scouty report
and the game plan, and we'd have to like, you know,
you know, testing to see what would happen that they
test me with. Okay, you're playing the why the whole game. Okay,
now you're playing the guy, the move guy the whole game. Like,
I'm not playing the move gut where you are now?
Now you're playing the third down package. What are you
supposed to be doing here? I'm like, okay, all right,

(16:26):
I got it. So it was pretty interesting to go
through it in the study.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Like that you're reminding me, and I just looked it
up to recall in the film Invincible, you saw that
with the Vince Papal story for the Eagles, there's a
scene where they're in training camp and he's rooming with
an offensive lineman and the offensive lineman was explaining to him.
When the offensive lineman's hands are bent, you see the
coloration of the finger, and that should sort of like

(16:50):
give you a heads up. So you were reminded me
of when you're studying film with Shula, the little things.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
How why the guy's feet are like how you was standing.
It was.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
It was crazy, and that's I think what once again
registered in the mind of abdual Carter. And I think
like any player, I'm sure you saw this when you
played from teammates, when you all of a sudden get
the results on game day, I think it gives you
more ammunition to want to delve into the film.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well, I think that, you know. The way I look
at it is that's part of the job. It's the
big part of the job. Preparation is what you're looking
to do. Most like the game is just the game
is fun, but the preparation, the practice, they're going through,
the drills, they're going through the steps to do the
maniacal over and over and over thing again things is

(17:38):
the thing that you really really want to, you know,
lean into. And if guys aren't doing it, you know,
if they're not watching film, if they're not taking film home,
if they're not you know, on their iPads or what
our windows of they are, they're they're cheating themselves. And
that's the easiest way to get out of the league
is to not study and not pay attention to your

(17:59):
to your driving.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Your And that's why I love to listen to the
opponent pressers after the game for the very reason you're
talking about, Because Terry McLaurin one of the things he
was breaking down and that's why reference they designed that
play when he scored the touchdown. He said they ran
that play multiple times during practice. It wasn't working. They
just were not getting the execution. Then they had a

(18:21):
film session on Saturday, the night before the game where
all of the offensive personnel sits in again and they
go over a lot of the practice film and McLaurin.
He said, the reason why things are not working is
because of how I'm running the route. I'm not getting
the right push and taking the right lane to get
a one on one matchup with the safety. They got

(18:42):
the look they wanted. He ran a better route, Mariota
threw a perfect pass, and the rest is history. You
get the touchdown.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
You know, it's the old tight end play with films
through It to me a thousand times felt like the
out and up. It's just that's all. It's all it was.
You run it out and up. The safety is watching you.
Once you turn out, he's start to break out up,
come down, and then when you come back up, his
feet are in the wrong position and you're you're bound
to get a touchdown. That is probably the you know,
pattented red zone play that that every team runs and

(19:11):
every receiver wants to be a part of it because
you're you're open almost any there's no coverage that can
stop it.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Basically, because Belton went to the left mcmoran's middle of
the field, then all of a sudden he could take
an angle to the opposite side and once again he
was able to bounce off two defenders and get in
for a touchdown. But even though once again it may
be a popular play, it's still a timing situation.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Absolutely. Absolutely the idea that when you get up the
field you have to know how far up to go
before you make your breakout got it. And you got
to turn your head and everything and look like you're
going out. So the guy will totally like turn turn
his eyes to the quarterback, and then when you turn
back up, he's not not looking at you. By the
time he looks at you, you're even with him or
past him.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Speaking of offense, one other thing I want to hit
on from this last game is the Giants offense. When
we talked a lot about the defense and special teams
before we open up the phone lines and look on
some reaction from social media, I thought this was one
of the roughest performances, and I'm curious your perspective, Howard.
For the Giants offensive line, they didn't give up a
lot of sacks, but Washington got pressure on Jackson Dart.

(20:15):
They had eight quarterback hits. It just felt like he
was under duress a lot more than what we saw
in recent games. And the unit overall. I'm talking about
the Giants offensive line clearly is having a strong season.

Speaker 3 (20:26):
I think that's a product of von Miller. I mean,
you can say what you want, high he's an old guy.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Whatever, he's played a high level.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
He's playing at a really high level, and I think
our guys are like, okay, So he was just picking
and choosing wherever he was there was you know, there
wasn't a lot of he stayed away from Andrew Thomas.
He's like, I'm not going over there, I'm I messed
with him, which is why. Yeah, but Luminar did a
pretty good job on him. But when it was time
for him to like cranking up another level, he would
crank it up another level, and it was hard for
those guys to contain them.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
Well, the other guy that I thought at a Monster
game was Preston Smith Press also getting up in the interior.
And Smith is somebody who left the Commander's returned. Yes,
it's almost like, you know, these guys are having a
late renaissance. Between von Miller and Preston Smith. It's the
old school meeting the new school.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah, absolutely, prest the Smith for you know, he did
a lot with over over Smithy and and that's you know,
that's kind of where all the punching. And that's true extracurriculum,
like everybody a little like if I get my hands
on you, dude, you're gonna get it.

Speaker 5 (21:25):
Like.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
So that was pretty much where all that came from.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
And I don't think the interception, which was rare it
was only darts fourth was a product of the pressure.
It was more of you know him and it seemed
as if Hyatt were not on the same page and
Mike Saine was still made the lane to get the pick.
But it proved to be another costly area of the
game because what happened is they had ten seconds left,
he went out and they got another field goal to

(21:51):
pay their leader as a result. So that was a
gift of three points right at the end of the
first half.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Well, you have to you have to remember that that
ball was thrown to the to the sideline of the
posing team. I'm telling you, the wind is blowing real
like if you' and if you haven't been in the
stadium throwing the ball or getting learning you need to
put more zip on it. On this side, some of
the balls are rising up. You can see both both
quarterbacks when every throwing over there, the balls getting up
out of their hands. You got to spin it to

(22:16):
throw it into the wind.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Speaking of old schoolers, the player that I thought made
quite the name for himself during the course of this game,
former Giant Antonio Hamilton Senior, right, and his coverage.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Was he did.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
He did a real job, and they put him just
about everywhere. But he was getting his hands in passing lanes.
He was wreaking a lot of havoc against the Giants.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
You got you gotta get separation and can't be like
you can't have a guy that's standing beside you. I
know you're you're you love the fifty to fifty ball thing,
but you can see who with fifty fifty gets you, right,
I tell you, if you're not open, you're not open.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
No. Without with more like sixty forty. It favored the opposition,
but they were down. The reason I'm bringing him up is,
you know, he's not one of their starting corners even
when he was here with the Giants, but he was
on the practice squad and Jonathan Jones was banged up.
He got his number called and he played lights out.
You know, whether or not it was him going up
against his former team or where they placed him, But

(23:12):
I thought like every time Dart seemed to maybe feed
it down the field, Hamilton was there to knock the
ball away.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Well, he's practiced against these guys, you know for a while.
He had training camp with these guys, and when you
have that much time with them, you get to know
them to when you go somewhere else and play against him,
you're like, okay, like I know what they're going to do.
I know what he looks like when he's running his route.
I know he looks like when he's going to break.
I even know some of the routes because you know,
I practiced against him every day, so you know that's

(23:38):
that's kind of what you know what they're looking at you.
You're looking at guys that know if they know the
routes already, you're you're gonna have a hard time getting
away from them.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
One other thing I want to hit on with respect
to the offense before we wrap up our takeaways here
from the game against the Commanders. The Giants didn't lose
this game because of one facet, as you and I
have been talking about. But when you get the ball
first and goal at the one, okay, and you don't
wind up scoring. That's problematic, and that has been an

(24:06):
issue with the red zone shortcomings. I would argue it's
a bit of a bit of a microcosm for this season,
and that was when Dark came out of the game.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, that's pretty much. That changes everything. If it would
have been me, I would have just ran quarterbacks making.
I would have just like, okay, let's get under center,
let's gold run quarterbacks making. And I'm not the second
guessing the play calls at all. I'm just saying your
quarterback just went out of the game and they went
out of the game because like he went down and
one of the officive lineman returned around and is that, like,

(24:34):
you know, come and they ran out to get him,
and Dart's like, what are you guys doing? Yeah, I'm
not hurt. Because he was laying down and he was mad.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Because he didn't well, he's always mad the game.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
He's like he's laying down. No, he was laying down
because he's like you can see him like cursking basically
because he had a chance to let if he hands
the ball off, they might score, sure, So he pulls
it out and then tries to go and he was
like he's like he's like, oh my god, let you
you could tell that the little option thing they are

(25:10):
doing there it didn't work out the way he wanted
it to. And he's like, oh man, so now he's
like taking a second to get up. And then he
gets up and you know, like hey, he's like everybody
runs out like oh no, no, no, no, guys, I'm okay.
He goes no, I'm okay, Like, well, now you gotta
come off the field, and you could tell he's in
for twenty five thirty seconds.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, it wasn't very long because I mean he wound
up once again coming back out for that fourth and goal, but.

Speaker 3 (25:36):
It's too late then. But you know, so for me,
I would have just like I said, with Jamis in there,
I'd like, what guys, we're gonna go. We're gonna go. Uh,
We're gonna quarterback sneak you ready, like because I'm not
I'm not handing the ball off because I don't want
to like fumble it. I'm just gonna tuck it and
you get behind me and shove me in. Let's go. Yeah,

(25:57):
That's what I would have tried to do because I
have been a little nervous because I don't think people
realize how cold it is. You're sitting on the sideline,
your hands are aren't ready for the ball. The ball's freezing. Like, Yeah,
I'm gonna make as few, you know, adjustments as possible.
I'm gonna take the ball. I'm gonna try to push
it in. And James is a big, strong guy. He

(26:18):
may have been able to do it.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, he's got the front even on second and goal
from the tomb. Yeah, he's got a big enough friend.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
So that was the play when they pitched out to Singletary.
He then winds up losing two. Now it's third and
goal from the four and incomplete pass to Wandel Robinson
and then Dark comes back in. They intend to go
to Robinson again and Kwan Martin. You got to give
him credit. I mean he nearly actually picked it off,
but he was able to make a recovery, got his
hand in that window, and all of a sudden, now

(26:44):
you have nothing to show for what was a golden
opportunity in a drive that was seven play sixty three
yards and would have given you a little bit of
steam because it was twenty nine to fourteen and this
is still early in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
How we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
You know, you get in there, it's twenty nine to
twenty one. Now you got a lot more time on
the clock to determine how maybe you're going to tackle
the final seven or eight minutes regulation.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
I mean, only other thing you get it done is
just kick a field goal, which would have not helped
you win the game. But you're down on you're that close.
You really want to get the ball, and I think
the rhythm just got really thrown off from Dart one
out of the game, and I mean it's just no
offense to him, but you know he goes out of
the game and it has nothing to do with him.
He just, like I said, gets up a little slow.
When he gets up a little slow because he's frustrated.

(27:30):
Then they're running out thinking he's hurt. He's like like
yelling at him and he's going out the field cos
there's nothing wrong. He's like this too late. Now you
got to come out of the game. And so that
you know, that's just part of it.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
And one thing goes wrong on the first play, it's
a snowball effect right now. The second play you lose
yardage and once again you're digging yourself in a hole
and now you're not in those favorable areas.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
You're still two yards away.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
No, which is not overwhelming. No, I'm with you, but
I guess the thing is, if you're not comfortable to
your point giving Winston the ball for a QB sneak,
you're now making it a little bit more challenging for
yourself because that's no longer an option on the play.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Absolutely why it's just hard, I don't know, like in
the interior line to like Schmidt's and the two guards.
They got to figure out a way to be able
to be stout in there and give give the guy
a chance when he gets the ball. That the pressure
came inside out for the tackle on the Signaltari.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
And that was the problematic area. That's why we were
talking about von Miller and Preston Smith all game long. Yep,
that interior pressure which is what killed them. And maybe
that was part of the thought process why Kafka elected
not to go with that hour. I mean, you may
have just answered it.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, might have been the thing, but again, you can't
unless all three guys are covered. That's that's the play.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
No, and I'm with you, it's the sensible move. Also,
because I say this all the time. When it comes
to red zone plays, the defense is on top of you.
You have to be able to run the football because
the space to throw the ball all of a sudden
to find it in half, it shrivels up. So the
good teams who finish in the red zone can pound
the football on the ground.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
Yeah. And the other thing is you got to if
you're able to run the ball just a little bit,
then their play action really works for you when you
when you drop back. That's because you have everybody like
trying to get close to the line of scrimmage to
make sure that you don't get in the end zone.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
They have to respect it.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
They have no reason to respect it if you haven't
proven that you can be effective from that standpoint. I
know we're getting some good questions from YouTube. We're going
to answer that as we move forward. Let's open up
the phone lines here first at two zero one nine
three nine four five one three, Lance Meado Howard Cross
with you here on Big Blue Kickoff Live. He's at
Howard Cross eighty seven. I'm Atlance Metal one word, last
name heavy do o W. Let's check in with Logan

(29:46):
in New Jersey joining us here on BBKL. What's happening Logan, It's.

Speaker 6 (29:54):
Clear this season with a complete failure. It started when
they gave us that schedule. Where do we go for
the future to be trade back?

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Do we keep that.

Speaker 6 (30:04):
First, that number and overall pick, like I said, to
be trade back to get to your assets. Do we
look to trade Dexter Lawrence?

Speaker 3 (30:09):
What do we look to do trade Dexter Lawrence? That
was brutal?

Speaker 6 (30:13):
How do we make it the next season? Giants? Giants
fans have an enjoyable season.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
Well, I think that if you do get the first
pick in the draft, and I think there are teams
like the Raiders and other teams that need quarterbacks, are
going to be really like chumming at the bit trying
to get him. They're going to say that, well, the
Giants aren't going to take a quarterback, so what what
do we have to give up? I think they could
get you know, a later later first round pick plus
a plus maybe a second round pick this year if

(30:40):
their quarterback spent like Fernandez. I think it is the
guy who's probably gonna be the one that's gonna go
number one out of the quarterback men. Yeah, Mendoza. And
if he's the guy, I think that you know, he's
a pretty solid quarterback. He's you know, he could he
can run, he can he can throw the ball. He's
pretty smart. So I think that would be be The
big question is is he that big of a you know,

(31:03):
prospect that teams want him so bad that they're willing to,
you know, give up more for him. If he is,
and the Giants have the number one pick, then you'll
get a couple extra picks out of it. And that's
that's the only real thing to do as far as
trading guys away. And if he was like Riggid it
really really high, like like rated like twice as high
as Dark, they would draft him and trade Dark. But

(31:23):
they'll do anything they can at this point. And I'm
not suggesting that the draft draft a quarterback and trade
Dart at all, But I'm just saying they'll do anything
they can at this point to get more bodies, you know,
on the on the field. And I think what they're
gonna need is is gonna be a receiver that can
you know, stand to the other side of neighbors and
and and cause a problem. I think they're gonna need

(31:44):
another dB believe it or not, just in case, and
I think they're gonna need, you know, somebody to stand
beside Dexter or somebody else that can bring pressure on
the quarterback because you got to stop the run. They
need a run stopper in the middle. That there's a.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
Problem they do.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
And then Dexter only having you know, I think he
was self point five sacks. Sure that that hurts.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
Yeah, I mean Dexter's coming off that injury. Uh, I'm
not sure he's fully healthy because I can tell like
some games, like when he gets angry, he'll throw a
guy around him. But he's not able to do it
every time because whatever he injured last year was it
was it is elbow. The elbow, Yeah, that that is.
I don't and I don't think he had surgery. So
he's like trying to play through it. And I'm like,

(32:30):
it's just that's just not the same thing. When you
have an injury, especially at your elbow, when you're pushing somebody,
that's a problem. So he'll be taking a real serious
look at that in this offseason.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
And LOO can appreciate the phone call. I also think
I'm not saying that the caller was insinuating this. He
is on the low side in terms of what he's
done in recent years. But you can't bank on Dexter
getting nine sacks a season. I just don't think that's
who he is.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
I think that I think that is exactly who he is.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
You really think he's a nine sack guy.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
I think he's a nine sack guy. If you, if you,
if you watch him, and like I said, if if
was healthy, if if Burns is healthy, next year and
Dexter is healthy, and now you can add Carter into
the mix, you're gonna see him get nine or ten sacks.
You might see him get more than that because there're
gonna have to be some really good interior offensive linemen
to stop him. And if you've got if you've got

(33:15):
to try to stop you know, Carter or Burns or
somebody in the middle too, then it becomes a big problem.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Well, and that's I think what they envision. I just
I look at even when Dexter was here, before they
brought in some of these young guys, I just think
maybe the ceiling is more in that six region for Dexter,
regardless of who's around them. I thought the nine was
more of an outlier than the norm. I guess is
where I'm coming from.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
I think he can get nine or ten sacks a year.
I think there are gonna be some guys that you
can just go go after and you can get double
sacks just in that game. So it's that's where I
see him. That's how I you know, that's how I
envisioned him. I envisioned him being in tip top shape.
You know, he didn't play as much this year as
he did in last year.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Yeah, well they were taking him off the field.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Pitch count, Yeah, the pitch count. Still he's still on
the pitch, so not as many opportunities to get sacks either.
So that's that's the other thing. But I think he's
going to get probably you know, probably took double digits
going forward because I think with the way the Office
is going to be playing, I think that they're going
to be able to do that going forward.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Well that would be I think music to the Giant's ears. Yes,
if Dexter can get back into that vicinity. I just
I'm bringing up his numbers throughout his career, you know,
just to provide some perspective here. So he had the
nine sacks of twenty twenty four. Prior to that, he
had one seven and a half season, and then everything
was in the four and a half region and he

(34:36):
was playing consistently sixteen games, So there really wasn't a
year where you could say, oh, well, if he played
four more games, and the year he had nine, he
only played twelve games, which was once again to me,
more of an outlier. But you know, if you think
everybody healthy, that he'd get that everybody. That would be
a pleasant surprise.

Speaker 3 (34:52):
Because you can't triple team him when everybody's healthy. Right now,
there's like two or three guys taking shots at just.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
Wanted to take you back off of the first question,
and I know you delved into what the Giants should do.
And by the way, the number one pick is still
up for grabs. The Raiders game actually against the Giants
is probably gonna indicate who would be in the driver's seat.
Tennessee also is in the mix as well, so there's
still a little bit of movement to make sense of it.
But even if they got a top three pick, I
think your philosophy holds true where the Giants have several

(35:23):
needs that they would be in a position assuming once
again the new coach and whoever is steering the front
office is on board with Jackson Dart that there's not
a need to maybe go in a different direction. Then
it would make sense. Hey, collect as many picks as
you can.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
That's you need bodies, you need and you need young
bodies to go out and get some stuff done. I mean,
who knows, Like if you could be in a position
where you if you trade back far enough, you could
take Julian Love from from Notre Dame, you know, And
I know people are like, why would you take a
running back. I'm like, because Ctabey is coming off an injury. Like,
you gotta have you gotta have guys.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
And also, by the way, it doesn't even mean collecting
picks for this year, collecting picks for twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Absolutely, and you get future assets. Remember this is not
a one year, one shot deal where only the guys
you're bringing in twenty six are gonna help you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
And again, if if the guy, like if he's the guy,
the quarterback is the guy. If they if everyone loves him,
you know, after they're scouting him and going out and
see him, then they're gonna be teams that are gonna
want them, like, Okay, we gotta have him, you know,
and we definitely got him. Like the Raiders need a quarterback,
you know, not Cleveland. I think Cleveland's gonna wind up
sticking with Sodor. But I think there are other teams

(36:31):
that definitely definitely need quarterbacks. Like they're in trouble right now.
I'm thinking, you know, you're looking at Cincinnati. Will Joe
Burrow be there next year? They might need a quarterback,
Like it's gonna be It's gonna be interesting. I mean,
I hate to say it. Minnesota needs a quarterback.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I don't see them necessarily only going with JJ
McCarthy next season. I think they're gonna want another option. Now,
they could go to the veteran route, bring in somebody.
But yeah, there's gonna be always teams. I mean, it happens.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Arizona's gonna need a quarterback. I mean, the Kyle Murray
is an interesting little project, but they need a quarterback.
So it's some teams going to need guys. Forget it.
The other team that plays in the stadium, the Jets,
need a quarterback. So yeah, there are teams that need them,
and there are teams with picks that can get them.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Which is why it's valuable for the Giants to be
in the position they are. But you know, once again,
I also don't guaranteed well because you also don't know
if they fall in love with a player too, that is,
maybe a non quarterback. If they're in the top three.
I'm not saying if that. If they're the third overall
pick and they love a wide receiver, they love somebody else,

(37:38):
that the separation, Howard, is dramatic. They may sell themselves
on we want to use the pick and we don't
want to move out. Remember you have to prepare yourself
for that too. That's why the unknown of who the
coach is because you know, once again, I'm not saying
the Giants are going to go in this direction. It's
interesting you brought up Arizona here. Remember a few years
back they had drafted Josh Rosen Cliff Kingsbury. He becomes

(38:00):
the head coach and he now wants to reunite with
Kyler Murray because they had and they did it. I'm
not saying that's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
How did that go?

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Well, that's why we're talking about. But the point is
when you change the x'es and o's and the head
coach or whoever it may be. It also could change
the thinking of what the current roster looks like. You
have to at least prepare yourself.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Well, this is what I know. I know that there's
still need the guys they need, So whoever becomes the coach,
he's not gonna stray too far from Hey, if I
can get if I can get a big time, you know,
a hunker down guy in the middle of that defense
that I know I can count on, you know, play
in and play out upside dexter, I'm gonna get that.
If I can get a top receiver, I'm gonna go

(38:47):
get somebody, really get some separation and I can throw
them the ball and not worry about him not catching
it every time I want that. You know, they're gonna
be guys that you can get that are gonna be like, oh, well,
that's what they're gonna be looking for.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
Let's head back to the phone line. Bobby is in
New Orleans joining us here on BBKL. What's happened to Bobby?

Speaker 7 (39:05):
Hi, good afternoon, Thank you for taking my call. Guys,
longtime Giants fan. I grew up in the state of
Rhode Island. I remember watching the Giants every week on
National TV from Yankee Stadium. Anyway, I love Johnson Dodd.
He's basically the face of the fan Fancra franchise right now,

(39:28):
and his style of play kind of reminds me of
a quarterback back in the eighties who was a good quarterback,
but his style of play, his longevity of his career
wasn't as long, and that was Jim McMahon. I just
hope that Dodd takes better care of himself. I know
he can make plays running the ball, but he is

(39:52):
the face of the franchise and he's he was a
number one pick, so yeah, I just I'm just hoping
that because he's being watched, he's already been checked I
think five out of ten times for concussions. But then
general the way, like the previous call said, you know,

(40:17):
the season is gone where they can't finish, they can't
They got some talent on his team, burns NDO Robinson dot.
They do definitely have some talent. It's just that they
just don't know how to close games and play sixty
minutes together as a unit. And they've been in several

(40:38):
games where they just blown leads in the in the
fourth quarter. I do a card of stepped up this week.
He had a real, real good game. And I do
have two questions for each of you. What is the
timetable to hire a new coach with the Senior Bowl
coming up in February and then of course he obviously

(41:00):
after an April, So what's a timetable for hiring a coach?
And if they do have the number one pick, guys,
would they take Mendoza from Indiana?

Speaker 2 (41:10):
All right, gloryeh, fair questions. Well, we'll let you go
on that note. The Mendoza goes back to what we
were talking about right before we took Bobby's call, and
I was explaining the Cardinals scenario of what they did.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
And when there's a new coach or a new member
of the front office, you never know what their decision
making process is. But I think assuming that they're sold
on Dart, and I would say this during the coaching
interview process, and this goes to his second question. They're
going to bring in coaching candidates, one of the first
questions I ask is what do you think of Jackson
Dart and how do you think you'd utilize him, and

(41:43):
who would be your offensive coordinator If the coaching candidate says,
I'm not a fan of Dart and I don't envision
him being the guy that's going to give them some
thought as to whether or not that coaching candidate makes
sense for them to ultimately hire him.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
Well, yes and no. And I'll say it this way.
I think Jackson Darts a pretty good quarterback. I think
he does a does a good job, you know, taking
care of the ball. Uh. The problem he has is
that he hasn't learned it since college. He takes on
too much contact.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
And that's something you got, That's something he's gonna have
to do. And now that they're quote unquote watching him
so closely, he's gonna have to figure out in his
own way. And he has in the in the in
the last game, the last two games I've seen him play,
he got down, he slid. Uh, he gave himself up
early when he had to, especially when he when he
dives forward, he's even diving. I'm like, what he's got
to remember? He should watched some Eli taper. You can

(42:35):
fumble the ball diving forward back here and they'll still
call it a fumble. If you drop it when you
hit the ground. So I think that's pretty interesting. But uh,
he's taking better care of himself, so that would you know.
So a coach coming in is gonna look at that
and say like, hey, this kid's got some he's got
some ability. Do I trust him enough to uh take

(42:57):
care of himself? Is what the coach is going to
have to answer. And that's gonna be the big thing
because you can't take it out of him. You're not
gonna coach it out of him. And he'll be around
either ten years or fifteen years or five years, because
if he keeps getting hit and he keeps getting up slow,
they're gonna start question he'll go down the path of
tour almost and you don't want that now, you don't
want that for the young man.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Yeah, where all of a sudden you're losing your quarterback
for five to six games per season. That adds up. Now,
that's it. Now.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
The other question he add was like, when do you
start to stop the process of looking at a coach.
They're probably doing it now.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Sure well, they have the ability to have a little
bit of a head start, but remember you can only
talk to or have preliminary conversations with individuals that are
not currently employed by NFL teams. You can't talk to
anybody within the NFL circle. And you're also limited to
talk to playoff team coaches too once the playoffs starts,
so because the NFL, remember, doesn't want that to become

(43:51):
an interrupted phase of the postseason. So the process will
begin for the Giants immediately once the season ends, but
they're gonna be limited who they can speak to, especially
if they're interested in a candidate from a team that
is going to make a deep postseason run. That's why.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Well, if the teams are going to make a deep
potseason run, that first week is a bye week. The
two times those two teams, correct, you could talk to
that coaching staff, But the teams.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
That are playing the wild card. Yeah, so it's gonna vary.
And also, once again, the NFL has put rules in
place because of announcements and so forth, where you know,
it just goes to show you Arizona, we're bringing up
we're using the Cardinals as a lot of an example.
Jonathan Gannon, who's the current coach. Remember he got hired
after the Eagles finished the Super Bowl yep, so you

(44:38):
know you may have to wait if indeed you are
going after a candidate from a Super Bowl team. But
they can have to Howard's point, they can talk to
a Mike McCarthy, for example, right now, because McCarthy's no
longer with an NFL team, so they could get feelers
out there, but the true heavy lifting would start once
the season ends, and then it's going to be a
matter of navigating the postseason schedule and who exactly they're

(45:00):
going after. So I mean to give you a ballpark figure,
you're probably looking at mid to late January before the
process is fully fine.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
They do the process better than college. So that's that's
the problem without a college is colleges they leave high
and dry in the still of the night. Whatever they're
they're gone, man, so and and and then they're in.
They're actively negotiating contracts and people are looking at you like, okay,
you yeah, you gotta go in every day like hey guys,

(45:30):
how are we doing? Yea, al right, coach whatever, I
see you later. Ready.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
Can you imagine if ling Kiffen was the head coach
of an NFL team and then in week seventeen he
leaves to get hired by another team and then leaves
to go to college. Well, that could very all have it.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yeah, I will say it. I love Saban, but Saban
did it to the Dolphins. Yeahs like, hey, holla, see
you later.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Yeah, absolutely no, But I'm a whole hard the inagreement.
There's no reason why college football can't make a tweak.
But we'll have to save that for another show. In
terms of the inner rookies, but no, the NFL does
it the best. To your point, they take care of it.
They basically say, the season ends, then the process begins.

(46:17):
We're not all of a sudden allowing guys to move
when the season is still being played out the job.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
And the front office did a good job of making
sure that never happens.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
I want to mix in some social media questions that
we're getting to and appreciate those who may not have
an opportunity to call in. And these are too interesting
questions regarding the active rosters. So Bruce asks, what's going
on with Turbo Dante Miller? Why has he not gotten
in a chance? And then combined with this, Tom writs,
why isn't Smith Marsett returning kicks punts? And this came

(46:47):
up because once again there were injuries to their returnment.
Gunneral Chefsky specifically was inactive because of the concussion he
suffered against New England, and the Giants elected to stick
with the personnel that they had been you utilizing in
his absence, so you had Javon Holland returning punts, Singletary
and Deontay Banks on kickoffs. And I got a lot
of questions on social media pertaining to this. First of all,

(47:10):
Smith Marsett has not been active all season long, so
I don't think it should stun anyone, Howard that they
elected not to call him up when we're this laid
into the season. In week fifteen, Turbo also was not
called up when Tracy got banged up and when Scataboo,
who you were referencing, got hurt. So also not stunning
that now we're moving the calendar to week fifteen and

(47:32):
you don't see them move those players up. Well, if
it didn't happen earlier, when there were legitimate injuries where
they could have played a role, then don't be stunned
or surprised. I think the reason why these guys are
not getting opportunities is more of the game of math.
Howard that goes on on game days. It may be
easy to the naked eye to say, Okay, a return
man is down, so we're going to call up a

(47:53):
return man. A running back is down, so we're going
to call up a running back. But the coaching staff
and the front office can't think like that. For example,
Dexter Lawrence was on the injury report this week, so
they may have said to themselves, we may need an
extra defensive lineman because what happens if Dex reaggravates the injury. Also,
Nunez Road chests out, Okay, so you were down one guy,

(48:14):
but the other guy was sort of iffy, so you
have to prioritize.

Speaker 8 (48:18):
Do we call up Smith Marsett and Thibodaux? Correct, So
do we call up Smith Marsett who only is gonna
play specialties for us? Right, We're not gonna give him
offensive opportunities. He's gonna be a one trick individual for
the lack of a better phrase. Whereas if we call
up a defensive lineman, he may be utilized everywhere on

(48:39):
special teams. On defense and Holland can already kill two
birds with one stone.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
He's gonna be our safety. So now we're just gonna
tell him all right, fair catch it and don't try
to mix things out. And he's returned before he does
he have experience. It was maybe two three years ago,
but he does have experience.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
And the other thing is that you have to use
one of those one of those call ups for a kicker,
you know, a punter, so you had you have to
have that guy. You can't just say all right, a
dark punt. If you could, that'd be much easier, but
you can't do that. You're using one of your guys
you're bringing up as a kicker. You're bringing them up
and that as a punter, and that kind of steals

(49:18):
away from it. Also.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, so it really is for those of you. And
I've received a lot of questions and they're all valid questions,
But I think what gets missing from this conversation is
what Howard and I are talking about. There's other positions
unrelated to the running back in the return game that
they have to prioritize. God forbid, there's injuries and they're
losing integral pieces, whereas a return man is only going

(49:42):
to be one role in a game, and you don't
even know how many times you're going to feel the
punt right based on the flow of the game. So
you're putting a lot of priority in that, whereas Singletary,
Banks and Holland are already on the roster playing their
primary positions, and you could just throw them out there
and one of the things I wanted to throw Howard.
Then there's the debate about, well do you want to

(50:02):
expose them to injury. My comeback is Antonio Brown for
the Steelers. He returned punts religiously and I didn't hear
anyone go to Mike Tomlin, Mike, what are you doing
when he was one of their most dynamic returnment.

Speaker 3 (50:15):
It's football. I always tell people that it's football. Stop
stop complaining about should he be he's going to get hurt.
It's football. Yeah, you can get hurt, but you're playing
not to You're playing to, you know, win games and
try to get the best out of your.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
Players without a doubt. So I hope that answered a
few of the questions that we had up on social media.
Please bring that to the table because we certainly love
answering some of those questions pertaining to the x's and
o's and the ins and outs of the decision making
process for game day management. All right, let's head back
to the phone lines. We got Todd and Hackettstown joining
us here on at BBKO. Yeah, what's happened to Todd?

Speaker 9 (50:49):
Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen. Thanks for taking a call.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
I really appreciate absolutely well. Thanks for giving us a ring.

Speaker 9 (50:56):
So my question today is what are we doing with
Wandale Chris. For the first time that I've been expecting
to see what he's been bringing to the table is
actually manifesting right now. He's able to take the top
off the defenses, and I want him back on the
team next year, but I think we're gonna have to
pay too much of a price now. So just kind
of wanted to get your thoughts on where we're headed

(51:16):
with that and you know what we can do about that.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Yeah, one Dell a two year country.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
One Dell is a scheduled free agent.

Speaker 3 (51:24):
Wow, that's gonna be That's gonna be tough. That's gonna
be tough, man. I have no idea how they're going to,
you know, incorporate one deal into into the thing if
one Dell wants to stay. But you got to also
remember they will be guys like they might be leaving
the receiving room that make sure they might need him
even more so they might they may be able to exactly,
So I have no idea how they go.

Speaker 9 (51:46):
I can't see howatt coming back at this point. So
I feel like we're gonna need something, especially like you
guys were talking about earlier, where drafting a second receiver.
We may have the guy already in one dale as might.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Feel like, well, you know that you can't have enough
of them like that, you can't have enough of him,
And he's out there right now by himself. Once neighbors
come back, if he comes back as himself, he will
you know, demand the ball a lot, not not demand
like in him demanding it personally, but just this ability
alone will demand the ball. People will be like looking

(52:17):
out for him, and one day we'll have more of
an opportunity. And under that circumstances, where would he go
if he left? That's the question. Who's going to pay
him that kind of money? Because people have to evaluate
you on what they see. If they see him, you know,
a thousand yards receiving, maybe they do want him. But
one day is a small guy.

Speaker 9 (52:34):
Do you trust he's going to command some money because
he's balling now and he's picking the right time to
do it. Yeah, we see what we have in him,
and he's very valuable piece going forward.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
I think, ok, well, all it takes is one team.
So I mean, right, all you need is one team.
I think you got to protect yourself with Neighbors coming
off an injury. I don't think you could take that
for granted. So you know that perhaps could swing the
Giants more towards valuing Wandel Robinson. But Todd, well, and
that gets to my next point, Howard, I'm glad you
went there. I mean, I think Todd the other way

(53:07):
that you have to look at it is and I
use this phrase all the time, it takes two to tango.
So you know, Wandel Robinson is scheduled did free agency
for the first time. A lot of these players don't
have that luxury. They may say, listen, I want to return,
but I also want to get some feelers and see
what the market has to offer. And the Giants can't
deprive him from doing that. He has every right to
do that as a free agent, unless, of course, they

(53:28):
give him the franchise tag. But it's pretty costly for
a wide receiver. So I be a little bit surprised
if they go down that road. And remember we also
don't know, you know, what the decision making process is
going to be like once this season ends, so you know,
there's a little bit of the unknown in terms of
the direction of this franchise.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
From that standp, I can see the franchise tag, but.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
Remember for wide receivers it's a little bit up there.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
Let's see what's the other one. Now, what's the other one?
Not franchise? What's the other tag they can put on you.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
The transition tag, where then you allow the player to
go out and he can see what the market it's like,
the best of both worlds. And then there's the exclusive
and non exclusive franchise tex where also you allow them
to negotiate with other teams. But remember, if a team's
got to give up two first rounders, highly unlikely they're
going to do that exactly. So yeah, I mean there's

(54:17):
a lot of things that the Giants could go. I
would agree with you. I think they certainly need to
value his contributions in the wake of neighbors injury. But
you know, at the other side of the thing is,
as Howard mentioned, if they get a top three pick
and I was saying, you know, they moved out or
they love a wide receiver, They're going to be in
a position where they could bring in a pretty high
wide receiver into the roster who would then be on

(54:40):
a rookie contract and not be his cost effective in
re signing a veteran free agent who's Wandell Robinson in
that regard.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Hill. They'll know more about that probably mid February. Come by. Yeah,
they'll see and see who's out there, who came out,
who's really really show who's really showing him something. Somebody
comes out and run of you know, four three forty
and he's six four and runs the great routes. That'd
be a hard guy to pass up.

Speaker 9 (55:07):
All right, God, Yeah, well that's that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
I appreciate technical, absolutely appreciate the full call. And I
think a big reason why one Dell Robinson also is
having a breakout year is just how they're utilizing this year.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Howard. Well, they've used a lot of them the same
way all the time. It's just that, again, Neighbors is
not on the field. So when Neighbors is not on
the field, you need somebody to be that go to guy.
And he's been very dependable catching the ball. He hadn't
had a lot of drops, and he's When you're that dependable,
you know they're gonna be looking for you the whole time.
And it's hard to cover a guy that size, I

(55:39):
believe it or not, because he once he goes in
motions and starts up to feel you have to get
to him and be close to him. And if you're
not bumping him off the line, you're gonna have a
hard time covering him.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
One other things that I just wanted to clarify the
caller brought up Jalen Hyatt. Hyatt is not in the
expiring year of his rookie contract, just so that everybody
understands he still has one year left. He was a
third round pick at twenty three. Doesn't mean that you're
guaranteed a roster spot, But the point is they don't
have to do anything to his contract. He still has
that last year depending on where they want to go.
I just wanted our audience to understand that because it

(56:10):
sounded as if he was also a scheduled free agent.
Mike is in Florida and he joins us here on BBKL.
What's happened to Mike.

Speaker 5 (56:18):
Hey, afternoon, gentlemen. This is a defensive oriented question. But
our defense has had three different defensive coordinators and let's
say the last year or so, what Howard is probably
the best one to answer this? What impact does that
have on the learning curve of our second and third

(56:40):
year players because each one of the coaches has a
slightly different bent, you know, philosophy orientation. Do you think
that's been a real negative influence on the way our
defense has played? And I'll take that off the line, guys, all.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
Right, I think yes, it could affect the first, second
and third year guys. But the deal is that the
guys that are played for three years. Once Wink left,
there was a new there was a new new defensive
coordinator and Shane. And when Shane comes in, he's running
a system. Now the new guy.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Is basically running the same Yes, you're not changing and you're.

Speaker 3 (57:21):
Not you're not changing anything, so that that's not an
excuse for the guys. And like guys like like Tyler
Newman and the young guys that are that are playing,
they're still playing at a high level. So I don't
think it's really affected him. I think that again, the
biggest problem that the Giants have had is they're having
a hard time stopping to run and they're running up
the middle right at them. So it's you know, they'll

(57:43):
get to the edge sometimes and test the edge to
see if they can catch it. Like you know, Tiptoe's
not out there, so we're going to try to test cards.
We can get him to come inside, we can get
outside of him, but that's not the case. They're running
up the middle mostly and if they go outside, it's
just sparingly.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Yeah, I think you hit it right on the nose
in excellent point point. I think to answer Mike's question
if this question was posed last year, I think there's
more to talk about because you went to a completely
new scheme. You went from Wink to Shane Howard. As
he mentioned, Charlie Bullen's a new defensive coordinator. Yes, in title,
but Charlie has not revamped the scheme. He may be
calling the game a little bit differently here or there,

(58:18):
but he's not all of a sudden instilling a three
to four as opposed to a four to three or
whatever it may be.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
Simply it's not like they're changing coverages and everything you know,
he does blitz a little bit more. I think that's
one of the things that you can see him doing.
You see a lot more of Bobby. He's coming up
the field, coming through the middle. You see the guys.
You see Burns rushing in the middle, some trying to
Carter rushing in the middle of them. So he has
a few more toys to play with. But outside of that,

(58:45):
they're still running the same places they've always been, running
the same coverages, the same the defenses in it. It
works for most of the game. Is just when it
doesn't work, it really doesn't work.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
Yeah, So that's why I would not tie in. It's
detrimental to the personnel at this stage. Once again, last
year early in the season, based on more man to man,
more zone, or whatever it may be. You could argue,
you know, it's an adjustment period, right for the secondary players.
But at this point, I don't know, Mike if I
would say the game of revolving door at the defensive
coordinator has been that problematic for the personnel. Let's squeeze

(59:18):
in one more caller here before we wrap up. Wilson
is in Roxbury with us. What's happening Wilson what do
you got for us?

Speaker 4 (59:25):
Hey, Lands, Hey, Howard Man, long time to talk many
I'm all right, man, Hey, listen real quick. If the
Giants have the number one pick, right and they don't
pick this kid Fernando Mendoza, don't regretted the rest of their.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Lives, really think he's that much better than Wait wait,
I were listening.

Speaker 4 (59:44):
This kid, Jackson Dark has Danny Canell written all over him,
all over him, all over him, Howard. I have been watching
football a long time, man. I'm not going to tell
you obviously you know you know more than me. But
this kid, if they just they've been shoving this kid
down every giants friend's throat because they have nothing else

(01:00:07):
to sell. If they think that this kid is your
friend as you face the franchise, they're out of their minds.
And another thing real quick before I go. If somehow
they're contemplating keeping Joe Shane as as the GM, they
are also out of their minds when the season is over.
When the season is over, right against Dallas, they have
to call the biggest pest company in the world and

(01:00:30):
they have to fumigate from their rootstop all the way down, Howard,
there's no other way, Man, No, no, no, no, assistant
head coaches, how are you can't patch the wall anymore?
How are you got to build a new wall? You
know what I'm talking about? Man, This this, you know, Howard?
Come on, I mean, I don't want to sound pessimistic, man,

(01:00:50):
but you can't do that. You let this this general
manager and this head coach draft a quarterback after a
three win season. They had no business being here from
the beginning. So everything has been done backwards. It's got
to you got to draw line and say, look, we
can't do this anymore than what we're doing. You have
to build a new wall, Howard. No more patching the wall, Howard,

(01:01:12):
or we're gonna have the same conversation next year, Howard,
and I don't want to go through that anymore. Man,
Giants fans, you know we need a little break man.
And again, Uhry, Merry Christmas to you, to you, to you, lands,
to you, Howard, to Johnny, to Polly, to everybody. And
that's it, man, I will let's go. Giants, make the
right move this time, please please make the right move.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
All right, Well, we'll let you go. On that note,
keep in mind, normally when a new coach comes in,
they tend to turn over the step. I mean, I
want to think Brian Dable kept Thomas McGee, he Howard.
Outside of that, he brought in pretty much all new assistance.
So I mean that tends to be the nature of
the Beast. Why because a head coach is going to
bring in guys he trusts and knows. He's not going

(01:01:54):
to inherit individuals that he hasn't worked together with. There
are some exceptions.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Leicester is a guy like the offensive line coach.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Carmen Brisilla you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Boy, he's a good he's a good offensive line coach.
He really really coaches those guys up. Now, that would
be a guy that if somebody came in. And I'm
not saying all the other coaches are bad, but like
Carmen has, his group has shown the greatest improvement. That's
how I would look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
And that's also another reason why you should listen to
some recommendations from maybe the previous regime and members in
the front office to at least interview those guys. Doesn't
mean you got to hire them, but you should at
least talk to them. I know Pat Shermer had done
that a few other previous head coaches. It's natural to
at least listen, to speak to them.

Speaker 3 (01:02:36):
Hear what they're doing and how they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Absolutely especially if the production, to Howard's point, has been consistent.
All Right, That is going to wrap up Tuesday's edition
of Big Blue Kickoff Live. We appreciate everybody tuning in.
As always, it is presented by Cadillac, the official luxury
vehicle of the New York Giants. We are broadcasting for
the Giants Podcast Studio presented by Hackett Zach Murdy in health,
Keep getting Better, Howard. Always a pleasure going back and forth.

(01:03:00):
Absolutely look forward to doing it again shortly. We appreciate
everybody tuning in. Stay locked to giants dot com for
all the latest is The entire podcast network is on
giants dot com, the mobile app podcast platforms everywhere and
at giants dot com, Slash podcast for Howard Cross on
Lance Metow. Signing off here, we'll speak to you on
Wednesday right here on BBKL. Have a good one