Big Blue Kickoff Live 6/26 | Giants vs Broncos Preview

John Schmeelk and Paul Dottino talk to Andrew Mason, who covers the Broncos for DenverSports.com, about the Giants matchup in week 7 against Denver. The guys also talk about the Giants cornerbacks and take calls from fans.

:00 - Cornerback chat

14:50 - Broncos preview with Andrew Mason

27:00 - Broncos run game

31:20 - Broncos defense

43:30 - Calls

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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

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

Speaker 1 (00:09):
It because you're on Giants dot com.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Do you know what I saw?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
New York Giant Track.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
And the Giants Mobile Final One time down.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
We are part of the Giants Podcast Network. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Hello everybody, and Happy Thursday and welcome to the Big
Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle
of the New York Football Giants. I am John schmel
Key is Paul Latino in the Giants Podcast Studio presented
by Hacking Sack Bridie in health, Keep getting Better, Paul
Chipper today. Do you know why I'm Chipper today?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Because the Yankees won?

Speaker 1 (00:44):
No? Not so much that well that works for me
last night.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I will preface this by saying, as much as
I love doing the show, and I do love doing
the show, this will be the last time I will
be here until July fourteenth. Oh vacation, Yes, there you go,
little vacation. I know you don't like vacation. I do
like vacation. I like getting away a little bit. We'll
be doing the family trip back to Iowa. Got a

(01:09):
couple other things in the hopper, taking care of stuff
at home, a couple of day trips. It should be
a lot of fun and I'm excited about it.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
That is that is very good.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Recharge the batteries, and then we come back on the fourteenth.
You basically have ten days until the first practice. The
rookies come back a couple of days after we return,
and we'll be rocking and rolling.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
And if I understand correctly, there'll be something coming up
on the website at about two o'clock today. Huh, there'll
be some information.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Oh, okay, training camp for Lane. I'm assuming you.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Mean I'm just trying to keep people a breast that
they let's stay tuned to your I was stay tuned
to your internets.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
I was not aware of that. That's good to know.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes, okay, so make sure you stay tuned to that
as well. Please do so that that's also it's not
just me. The show is going dark for the next
two weeks. We always go dark the week of the
fourth of July. The last couple of years, we've gone
dark the week either before or after this week. This
year we're doing the week after. Pearson said he needs
vacation and time away, which you know we will. We

(02:13):
will accommodate him, which is you know that's fine because
you want to come in right, Paul did. I still
would have taken off. He could have been hitting side
tackled for a week. It would have been me.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
You know, I was fully prepared to actually bring my
daughter in to run the board if I had to,
but they wouldn't let me in the building. What are
you gonna do?

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, well that wasn't gonna happen. So, like I said,
the show's dark for the next two weeks, or we're not
gonna be any big little kickoff for you, But we
are gonna have a ton of giant huddle podcasts going up.
Person's been working his rear end off getting all these
things edited. For the next couple of weeks, we have
our player interview series. By the time we come back,
all the offensive positions will be done right. Running back
and wide receiver went up this week. Next week is

(02:56):
gonna be tight ends and offensive line and then and
edge right yep. The following week yep. So all those
are going up, folks, go check them out. We'll clip
out some individual ones too that will go separately on YouTube.
They'll all be together on the audio feed on the
Giants Little Podcast feed, and they get Duel Carter's Penn
State coach. Oh, yes, the Dion Barnes coming up next
week as well. He was the Giant. He was Abdul

(03:18):
Carter's defensive line coach at Penn State. In his one
year in the room, we got some really good stuff
out of him, So a lot of good stuff coming
your way. We have assistant coaches with Sean o'hawarre going
up on YouTube. Those are going to audio format on
the Giants Little Podcast, so make sure you go check
all of that out. There will be plenty of Giants content,
don't you worry. And then we'll be back with big.
We'll kickoff live at twelve thirty as usual back on

(03:42):
the fourteenth, so and then the following week, it looks
like we're gonna be going to two o'clock for training camp.
I've seen the schedule in terms of when practices during
the day. Most days it's gonna be ten to twelve,
so that'll give us time to do media after practice,
get a little bit of lunch, and then we'll go
live at to every day'llive us a litt bit of a
buffer zone in case we have to do stuff with
players things come up. So that's what's going on for

(04:04):
the next couple of weeks. We thank you guys for
being with us. You can also always check out the
archive of past shows on the YouTube channel. We've had
some fun ones, our season preview drafts, our NFC East
shows where we rank the position groups. Stuff that's evergreen.
That'll still work for you. If you're a Giant fan
and maybe you miss some of those shows, go back
on the YouTube channel, go into the archive, or go

(04:24):
into your podcast platform, find some shows you think you'll
enjoy and check those out. All right, today, we're gonna
continue our team preview series Opponent preview series. Specifically, we'll
go Denver Broncos today. That guests will be joining us
in about ten minutes, so I will try to squeeze
in a call or two before we get there at
two O one nine three nine four five one three Again,
I'll say this. I said it before, I'll say it again.

(04:46):
Since we've gone live on YouTube, you know, the variety
of callers has I think gotten better. We've gotten some
new calls and frankly a lot of really smart and
intelligent calls. You guys have done a really nice job.
So I'm so happy that they decide to put us
live on YouTube. I think the it was a really
really smart move, genius in fact, and now that we're there,
I think it's really really working out well for us.

(05:08):
Here kick off Live. I'm sorry, I can't help myself.
I know, all right, two one three, die four five
one three Paul anything. By the way, Sidetak was supposed
to be on today, but my understanding, he's busy upstairs
trying to figure out how to pronounce the names of
the players the Nets drafted last night.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I don't know if he needs to because they'll all
be out of the league in a year.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Anyway, WHOA You didn't even know you Hold on a second,
just to give you an idea of how ridiculous Paul
de Tino is. He walked into the cafeteria today and
he said, Hey, didn't Nets make all their picks last night?
Who they pick? He didn't even know who they picked.
And he still comes on to say they'll be out
of the league in a year. Just to show you

(05:50):
how Paul's emotional feelings about things and get in the way.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Of I am. It was a joke that I knew
you would understand. I don't know how many people out
there would. But being in an all in New York
Knicks guy, the Brooklyn Nets are of little existence to me.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Who's your second favorite team, Paul? If you had to
pick one.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
In the NBA? If I had to pick a second
favorite team, wow?

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Or do you just hate everybody? No?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
I don't hate everybody. There's only a handful of teams
that I actually hate.

Speaker 1 (06:21):
I don't know if I would I have a second
favorite NBA team. Mine's the Warriors, just because I love
Steph Curry. All right, I'll buy that.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
That's okay, it makes sense.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
I mean, I love Giannis, so I would have no
problem rooting for the Bucks. Giannis is awesome. He's great.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, y'll get you.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Like the Nuggets are fine. I got no problem with
the Nuggets. I like that They're fine.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
I mean I have teams I significantly or seriously dislike
with a passion. There's about four or five of those teams.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Only four or five. Yeah, that's all. I feel like.
There's more than that.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
No Celtics, Pacers.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
How many NFL teams do you hate? With the passion.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
There's about seven or eight of those.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I think more than that.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Not really okay, not really.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
Anyway anyway, two oh one nine three, nine, four five
one three, let's get to the calls. Jam in Atlanta
will try to squeeze you in and maybe one or
two others before we get our guest on at twelve
forty five, and then we'll take calls after our Broncos
guest as well. Uh, what's going on, Jam? How are you?

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Guys?

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Good, We're doing great? How you doing all right?

Speaker 5 (07:21):
Hey, we wanted to talk about our corners. So, from
what you guys have seen so far in OTA's in
mini camp, do you guys believe it's going to be
a true camp battle for the CB two job between
Cordell Flatt and Deontay Banks Or do you think that
Deontay Banks is the true front runner for that CB
two job.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
I think Paul and I might disagree on this, so
my answer is going to be yes. I do believe
it's going to be an open competition. This team in
coaching staffs knows that they can't mess around this year. Yeah,
you're still trying to develop players. That's fine, but look
at who they brought into the quarterback room. Look at
the money they've used in free agency. They're gonna win games,

(08:00):
need to do everything they can to win football games.
So look, Deonte Banks has been the league for one
year longer than Quardo Flott. They're both young players, right,
Flat's coming up to a contract year. I don't see
why you wouldn't have them have it even competition. Now.
The problem is that Quarto Flatt can't stay healthy, so
you're probably gonna need the ante Banks at some point anyway,

(08:21):
But I believe this team wants to put the best
players on the field. It's not like Cordo Flot's some
thirty two year old veteran that they have on the roster.
So he's only a year or two older than Banks.
So in my opinion, JM and Paul will give you
the counterpoint here. I believe it is a true, legit,
wide open competition. Let the best man win.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, I think this is clearly Banks' job to lose.
I think what they're doing is kind of like they're
taking a fork and they're prodding him.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Now, and I agree, by the way, if best case scenario,
Banks wins the job, and I think that's the way
they think about it, too.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Sure, how much why he was a number one pick?

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Yea?

Speaker 1 (08:58):
How much of a leg up do you give him?

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Though?

Speaker 2 (09:00):
My question, well, I think he's penciled in as the starter,
and I think what they've done is psychologically made him
believe that this is a much closer competition than it
is by giving Flowed a number of first team raps
ter in the spring. This is a this is to me,
it's it's psychological gamesmanship because they don't want Tay Banks

(09:21):
to feel comfortable at all. They want him to believe
that this is a spot where he could lose his position.
I don't think that they're planning to do it, but
I think they want him to think that this is.
To me, this is a facade.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
What if it's both? What if it's both? Because I
think the way you're talking about it, and Jim, we'll
get back to you just hands of us here. Yep.
I think you're right in that they want Deontay Banks
to fuel the pressure, push it so he focuses in,
gets pushed, plays his best football as he wants to

(09:57):
earn the job. But I think if you get to
the end of camp and Cordo Flott has been clearly
better than Deontay Banks.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
He'll take the job.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
I think he takes the job. I agree, I agree, Okay,
we'll how about this. What if he's a little better
than Deontay Banks. Probably not, Okay. See that's where we're different.
I think if Flat is even a little bit better
than Banks, it'll be at worst a time share at
the position. I don't think they will play Deontay Banks

(10:30):
one hundred percent of the snaps over Flot if they
think Flat right now is the better player.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah. You know the problem with Banks right now is
that he has been so inconsistent and so up and
down in his first two seasons.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
I think that was better than him last year.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, well, I think, And you know I'm a huge
Cordell Frank fan. You know that I love Cordell Flott.
But the problem here is that if you look at
the two players side by side and you look at
the upside, Banks has a higher upside. That's just not
that's not up for debate.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
No, he's he's he's more gifted physically correct. I still
said the toolbox is better, and I agree with all that.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
So if you're the Giants. You want to push proud
and extrapolate all of that talent out of Tay Banks,
and the best way to do that is to give
him a prod. That's what I think is happening.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
With the bottom line question.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
But if he does get out played in summer camp,
I think you have to let Flott have the job.
But so that it's a competition, then well I don't
think it's a true competition though. I think Flot has
to absolutely blow him away.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
So he has to blow him away to win it.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
That's how I see it.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
I got you go ahead, jam.

Speaker 5 (11:42):
Yeah, John, I'm con more with you on that. I
think you know, if Flott is shown that he's going
to be a better option there, I think the Giants
want to play whoever their better option is going to be.
But I'm excited to hear with what that competition ends
up unfolding to be.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
Really, Giants will win either way, right, They'll win all right,
because if Banks holds him off, that means he deserves
to keep the job. If he doesn't, then that means Flot.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Was better unless there's an injury and then they have
to go with the game. Well, we're not putting injuries
into this. You said, they win no matter what, they
don't win no matter what.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Okay, that's fair, that's fair. Yeah, and Lord knows Cordell's
had a bunch of them, and that's why I brought
that up.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
I know, go ahead, Jim, it's on a similar note.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (12:25):
So obviously, when Deontay Banks is drafted, he was brought
in to play pressman corner in Wink Martindale's system. Yep,
So a lot of his year two struggles have been
chalked up to the fact that Shane Bone ran a
different type of system, asks them to do a lot
more zone. He wasn't quite as comfortable with that. And
so now they've brought in Pauls in the DEVO to

(12:46):
play on the other side.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
So let me ask you this.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
If it turns out being Pauls in the DEVO and
Tay Banks is two corners on the boundaries, do you
believe that Shane Bone is going to be adapting his
system to allow both of those guys to play more
press men. And have you guys seen anything in OTA's
in mini camps that might give us a clue one
where the others as far as what kind of system

(13:09):
he's going to be running.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
You can't know, Ja. I appreciate the call man good stuff.
You can't play press man in the spring because there's
no contact. So in terms of what we've seen in
the spring, have we seen that? My answer is no,
from what I got and Pearson, you listened to these
interviews too, talking to all the corners in the safeties
and even the linebackers when I did my interviews for

(13:31):
Me to Day, those all the interviews that are going
up with the Johnsontle podcast. My feeling is that you
are going to see more pressman this year because they
feel like they have the personnel that can do it.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
There will be tweaks and adjustments made, and as we
have discussed now for how many months, John, the Giants
not only added talent on the defensive side of the ball,
but they also added versatility and they added a wider
range of abilities within the playbook, which gives them more
options to choose from.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
And again, I think when you talk about seeing more
press man, I don't think you can see a lot
of it on early downs that I don't think is
gonna be what the DNA is.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, probably not.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
But teams don't play press man a ton of early
downs anyway, even the team's team guys, the teams that
play the most press man play it like forty percent
of the time. Yes, I had to double check it,
but I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
That's that's usually the high end number.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
So you're looking at less than half the steps, and
I guarantee you most of those are coming on second, long, third,
and long, and especially with the Giants pass rush up
front now where you feel like you can get home quickly.
It gives you more freedom to play more press man
because you guys are not gonna be sitting back there
on coverage forever, and man to man defense because you
got such a good pass rush getting after the quarter

(14:46):
exactly you put all that together. I do think you
are going to see more of them. All right, let's
continue our opponent preview series. We welcome in Andrew Mason.
He covers the Broncos for the Fan one oh four
to three in Denver. Andrew, you got John Shmilch and
Paul Tatino here in East Brother for New Jersey.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
How are you today doing great? How you fellas doing so?

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Did you guys get hammered in Denver? With the heat
wave like we did out here too, or was it at
least a little temperate up there in the mountains via.

Speaker 4 (15:14):
Slightly tempered? But uh, you know, we're also kind of
we're also kind of used to it as well. I mean,
like in training camp most years out here, we're dealing
with at least a few days where we've got temperatures
that are soaring up into the mid to upper nineties.
I mean, it's obviously it's a drier heat out in Colorado,

(15:34):
but it's something that it's a little more closer to
normal here than when you guys are dealing with it
out there. And also we didn't have it with the
same humidity you guys have been dealing with that. I've
seen some of the Braves Mets games this week on television.
Makes just looks it looks, it looks awful. Nobody looks
like they want to be on the field those last

(15:56):
couple of days.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
It is basically playing baseball in a swamp or forest
has not been fun, absolutely all right, Andie, let's get
to it here, Broncos. I think one of the surprise
teams in the league last year. You started a rookie quarterback.
You know they came off a couple of years where
they didn't quite get where they wanted to go Sean
Payne heading into year two, But I think the season

(16:17):
turned out as well as anyone could have hoped. And
I here's why I want to start. I think a
ton of it. I do do the offensive line the Broncos.
You can argue, depending on what metric you want to
look at, Andrew you might have had the best pass
protecting offensive want and all football last year. Not enough
people talk about it, but I think that made life
a lot easier on your rookie quarterback bon Nicks, and
it really helped make that whole offense go.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Yeah, and you go by ESPN analytics in terms of
not only pass block win rate but run block win rate,
the broncoszer line was number one in both of them
last year. I think it's really a credit to how
the Broncos and Sean Payton started attacking this thing really
from the moment go when he came in in that

(16:59):
first off season in twenty twenty three. When they went
in the free agency that year, two of their three
first big free agent pickups were Mike McGlinchey at right
tackle and pardon. He bent powers over at left guard,
and that stabilized a couple of positions, particularly right tackle.

(17:22):
Right tackle had been a revolving door for the Broncos
for about a decade, and McGlinchey came in and offered
stability there that had not been seen in a while.
Now they didn't heer it.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
He did in hear it.

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Garrett Bowles, who'd had some solid seasons after a rough
start to his career, and Quinn Miners, who'd the first
couple of years had shown some potential but was still
pretty wrong. Now Bowles has had a couple of good
seasons since then and got a nice contract extension this
past year, and then Miners just got better and better

(17:57):
and then was an All Pro the last couple of years.
But I think it really starts from that first off season,
consciously coming in and saying, we're going to make sure
we get this offensive line right and make sure that
no matter what happens, we're not going to be able. Well,

(18:17):
we're not going to be able to have to sit
there and say, okay, well the quarterback you know, was
running for his life because this, that and the other.
They got the line fixed. It was pretty it was
pretty good in twenty twenty three, went to the next
level in twenty twenty four, and I think that gave
bo Nicks the kind of stability and the fighting chance

(18:39):
to succeed last year that frankly, a lot of young
quarterbacks don't have. How many times we talk about a
young quarterback thrown into the fire and saying, oh, they're
running for their life, and Bo didn't have that, And
so really it's kind of a you look at it
and it's like almost like there was some foresight that

(19:00):
to what they were doing. Get the line built first,
and kind of live with whatever you live with with
Russell Wilson twenty twenty three. And then if you know
you're gonna move on from Wilson, if you figure out, Okay,
he's not the guy, then you get the young quarterback in,
but you've built that offensive line in front of them,
so you can get a true evaluation on whether that
young guy has some potential. And with that O line,

(19:22):
you found out that Boonick certainly has some capability to
perhaps be the long term answer.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
So then based on what you just said, I'm going
to guess that you think the arrow continues to point
up on Bonnicks and that he does not suffer a
second year's sophomore slump as many quarterbacks, including most recently CJ.
Stroud just did in Houston. And of course they also
did add a pass catching tight end and Evan Ingram,

(19:50):
the former Giant who they just picked up from Jacksonville,
who will provide him with another pretty nice target.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
Yeah, and I think part of it is right there
what you mentioned with Ingram coming in as that interior
target that they were missing last year from the tight
end position. Now, he doesn't stretch the field in the
way that you guys remember with the Giants back early
in his career. He's a different type of pass catcher

(20:20):
now than he was in those first two three seasons.
He's not quite as dynamic. He's going to be a
guy who's going to get you, you know, bits and pieces,
dinks and dunks down the field and occasionally get you
that get you that catch run. Not doing what he
did earlier in his career, But that's fine. You're not

(20:43):
signing him for what he was in twenty seventeen eighteen.
You're signing him for what he is right now. The
whole hope is keep him healthy. Because of course, he
had a couple of injuries last year and he missed
eight games and he's still working his way back, so
his work in OTA's in mini camp was limited. They're
they're looking to have him back full go for training camp.

(21:03):
But it's not just ingram that. That's the reason why
I'm expecting Bowenick's not just to not have a sophomore slump.
You've got some young pass catchers that you're hoping can take.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
The next step.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Devon Valley had a solid season last year's seventh round pick.
He had forty plus catches. They have Troy Franklin, who
they picked in the fourth round last year that had
a touchdown catch in the playoff game, and he has
he had some good work in the offseason. Pat Bryant
third round pick this year, he had pretty good work
in OTAs in mini camp. Marvin Mins Junior, who's an

(21:39):
All Pro as a punt returner last year, they started
figuring out how to use him as a gadget type
of target the back half of the season. In the
last seven games of the year, finally unlock how to
get him involved. They actually started handing him the ball
from a backfield position. Just to make sure they got

(22:00):
him some opportunities, and it seemed to kind of unlock
his confidence, and they started passing. They started getting in
the ball more in the passing game. In the last
seven games of the season, he was actually on a
thousand yard receiving pace. So they continue I think they'll
continue pushing that forward as well. And then of course
they draft RJ. Harvey and they signed JK. Dobbins, so
the running back position appears to be more dynamic and fortified.

(22:23):
You're expecting some steps forward from those young receivers, and
you bring in Evan Ingram, so you've got a better
what you expect to be a better collection of targets
round bon Nicks. All that is why I expect you
won't see a sophomore slump, because he should have better
weapons around him, in addition to just being a bit
more mature, more seasoned, more settled, because remember he went

(22:45):
through a pretty rough first month last year where he
took those lumps, and then the last three months of
the season was at was mid to upper mid tier
the starting quarterback in getting the Broncos to the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, and look, you gotta let me to my next question. Boonix.
To your point, he really improved a lot over the
course of the year. I thought he did hold the
ball a little bit, but when you have a great
offensive line, guess what, you can hold the ball a
little bit. His tools, I saw him live at the
Senior Bowl. I was unimpressed watching him on TV through
in the year. I thought his tools were really good.
Where did you think Nicks took the biggest steps over

(23:19):
the course of the year. Where you saw the most
improvement that allowed him to take those steps you're talking about,
And is there anything as the second part that they've
talked about where they wanted to take that next step
in year number two?

Speaker 4 (23:32):
What you mentioned the Senior Ball? And yeah, he did
not have a good Senior Bowl week last year. I
mean he looked very unsettled, and frankly, some of that
unsettled nature kind of came. It really was evident those
first four weeks of the season where I saw the
greatest improvement was in terms of his footwork. The first
four weeks of the season, it was a mess, and

(23:54):
you could see that he was trying to break some
bad habits early on the season, and he alluded to
this just a few weeks ago, and he said one
of the problems early on in the season was he
was thinking about all the things he had to do
as a pro quarterback. He's thinking about he's got to

(24:17):
get his base day, he's thinking about his drop, he's
thinking even about getting the play call out and the huddle,
and as a result, he's not thinking about what he's
facing in terms of the defense in front of him.
And that what happened as the season went on is
that those things, those corrections started to become habit, and
then he wasn't thinking about him. He was just doing

(24:39):
them properly to where now he goes out there and
when he's not thinking about these things, he's made these
things into ingrained behaviors and now he's just thinking about
the defense in front of him. So I think just
the fact that he's now able to folk to get
past all the stuff that really can be daunting for
a young quarterback in terms of unlearning old habits and

(25:04):
learning new ones to succeed at this level, I think
that's probably a big thing that's going to allow him
to kind of take that next to take the next
step forward, and then allow him to allow some of
the things that he's always had to reveal themselves here
at this level because he is an accurate quarterback short
to intermediate. I think that's I think you'll probably see

(25:27):
more of that natural skill set come to bear here
this year. I think you'll probably see that completion percentage
tick up to sixty seven, sixty eight, sixty nine, seventy percent,
much like it started to look when he was in
those couple of years at Oregon, in particular, because once

(25:47):
you kind of broke it, once you've started to kind
of get past, get past those early stages of unlearning
old habits and doing things in a proper fundamental way
as you have to do him in the NFL, then
your natural strengths kind of come to bear more. And
I think we're going to see Bo look a bit
more like he did in college, where it was kind

(26:08):
of that metronomic accuracy and efficiency. And in Champagne's offense,
which usually sets things up to where somebody's always open,
if he's on, if he's on rhythm, on time, on target,
and finding the open man, it's gonna this offense could
look prede dynamic.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Well, every quarterback loves to have a solid running game.
You briefly mentioned some of the running backs before, But
they draft Harvey in the second round, so they obviously
put collateral into him. They're going to want him to
be a big part of this attack. But they also
signed Dobbins, who's actually done some nice things in the
NFL over his career and I was a huge Audrick

(26:45):
estime fan when he came out in the draft last season.
So how do you think this running back corps is
going to sort itself out and usage in terms of
how will they fit into the game plan to help Nicks.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Right now, it's looking like one A, one B with
Dobbins and Harvey. With RJ. Harvey, it's not that he
isn't going to have a prominent role. JK. Dobbins coming
in isn't a negative on RJ. Harvey. It's not like
they looked at him and said, oh wow, he's not ready.
It's more that, Okay, RJ. Harvey is a rookie, and

(27:25):
it takes rookies time to get the pass protection aspect
of the game down. And so it's third down or
it's the end of the half, and you're asking a
little more from a running back in terms of staying
in and being involved in past pro that maybe is
something that RJ. Harvey isn't there at at this point,

(27:48):
and you can probably trust JK. Dobbins for those situations
more than you can trust RJ. Harvey. Now, Harvey looks
incredibly dynamic. Will obviously get a little bit more of
a of a feel when the pads golawn, but the vision,
the burst is there, and we only saw this in
Spurts at UCF, but really looking dynamic as a pass catcher.

(28:11):
They ran some wheel routes during OTAs and you can
see like there's there's a net. There's a real natural
ability to him as a pass catcher out of the backfield,
and I think you're going to see the Broncos explore
that with him and get him involved more in a
way that we didn't see a lot of in college.

(28:31):
Now to go to Audric Estimay, the big problem with
him was fumbles. He fumbled in the preseason last year,
he had he had a fumbler two in training camp.
He gets out there in the regular season opener in
Seattle and he fumbles, and then he's injured. He gets
back against New Orleans and October he fumbles again to
the point where they have him carry a football around

(28:57):
the Broncos facility. Every one try to knock it out
of his hands.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
I have a scarlet letter, That's what it's like. It's
like a scarlet letter for a player.

Speaker 4 (29:07):
Yes, and and when that happens, when you get tagged
as a fumbler, man, Yeah, the customer lose trust in
you to.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Put up with that man. Chanpayne's old school of parcels man,
he is not gonna put up with.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
And Peyton needs to win as many games as he
can now he's not getting any younger.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Yeah, I mean, they're not gonna have patience for a fumbler.
They're just not. And so Aldrick estimey, I mean, he's
got some nice ability as a power runner, but the
fumbling is an issue and it can create confidence problems
as well. And Aldrick estime right now is very much
on the roster bubble. He's not the only he's not

(29:47):
the only second year back they have because they've got
Blake Watson, an undrafted guy who played a bit later
on in the season who's, you know, a pretty good
pass catcher as well. They have Aderbadet who's been on
the practice squad most of his career, but he had
he had a he had a he had some. He
had a big run against Tampa Bay in Week three,

(30:10):
injured his back against the Jets in Week four was
on ir but they actually activated him for the playoff
game in Buffalo ahead of estimate. And so he's in
the mix as well as as a potential rotational back.
So you've got these other running backs around there as well,
and then Chelil McLaughlin. He's kind of in his own category.

(30:33):
He's a small, five to seven, one hundred eighty seven
pound guy. He's got a lot of speed. He's more,
you know, more kind of a gadget type of back
who could potentially be involved as that second guy back
on kickoff returns as well, along with Marvin Mims Junior.
So he's kind of his own category. Maybe they they
had to involve him a little bit more last year

(30:54):
because of their issues at running back with Deavonte Williams struggling.
But I think he ends up being in the mix
the guy who gets three to five touches a game
as a change of pace. But he's kind of his
own position almost. But really you're looking at Dobbins and
you're looking at Harvey and then who's that third running
back going to be. I think they'd like it to
be Estimate, But Estimate's probably got to earn the trust

(31:18):
back and hang on to the football if he's going
to have that job.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
That's a great answer. All right. A couple on the
defense quick before we say goodbye again. We're joining we're
doing our opponent preview. We're joined by Andrew Mason, who
covers the Broncos for the fan one oh four to
three in Denver. All right, let's go to the defense here,
and man, the Bronco's already at a pretty talented secondary,
but they went along and they added to it this offseason.

(31:43):
They draft John Ay Barron early in the draft. They
bring over Talano Hufanga, who's when he's healthy, he's an
excellent football player. Pastors are Tan's ready there. They use
the draft back on Riley Moss. They're really building the
secondary to try to be one of the strengths of
the team. And I guess you kind of have to
when you're in a when you're rocking in a division
with Patrick Maholmes, Justin Herbert and Gino Smith.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Right, no doubt. I mean it's not a vision that
offers you any any chance to catch your breast with
those quarterbacks. When when those other three quarterbacks, Geno Smith
is the is the least of them. I mean, that's
pretty tough. I mean every you could say, every quarterback
in the division is in the top half of the
NFL in terms of what we've seen the last few years.

(32:26):
And so you bring each today, Baron there with a
number twenty overall pick, and they weren't expecting him to
be there, So it was a nice surprise and probably
really did change how they were going to attack the
entire draft when he fell to number twenty. But you
don't pass up a premium player at a premium position,

(32:50):
and they were going to add to the cornerback room
at some point in the draft anyway, because Riley Moss
a very good season is the number two corner on
the outside, but he's had injuries that have cost him
multiple weeks in each of his first two seasons. He
missed time during his first training camp early in the
season in twenty three, and then he missed time in

(33:12):
December and twenty four, and the Broncos defense when he
went down, they really struggled in December of last year,
they were dead last in that month in total defense
with Riley Moss injured and then coming back against the
Bengals but not being his old self. So they wanted
to make sure they were a bit better fortified at minimum,

(33:34):
and so Baron comes in. Now you're feeling pretty good
about your depth at cornerback. The question is does he
take time from Jakwan McMillan at the soft corner? Does
he take time from Ray Moss pardon me? On the outside?
Does he take time from both? During OTA's in mini camp,
he was working both outside and at slot, so he

(33:57):
might end up being a guy who bounces outside, bounced inside.
Baron has that flexibility because at Texas they would move
him all around. They worked him as a star before
he settled in as a cornerback, and the star is
a versatile position where they move him all around the secondary.
So he brings an awful lot of versatility, a chess
piece type of defender that really could open some things up.

(34:19):
And if Barren ends up succeeding, then it really ends
up setting up the situation where you can't simply say, oh, well,
we're just not going to throw in pats Ter Tan's direction,
because that means you might be throwing at Jaday barn
and so this could really create a pick your poison
equation on the back end for the Broncos when you're
facing that secondary. So they're pretty excited about the long

(34:42):
term possibilities there.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
All right, But I'm going to ask you about the
front seven now, and I think we're kind of run
out of time, but I want to go to Dre
Greenlaw comes over from San Francisco to give him a
decent contract. Had the Achilles missed most of last year.
How important is it for him to be the old
green Law for this Broncos defense to be effective massively?

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Him and Alex Singleton because Singleton, the other inside backer,
he's working from a torn acl So you've got two
guys at the core of the defense coming off of injuries,
and they need them both to be their old selves
and they should work well skill set wise. You know,
green Law can cover a lot of the field. They

(35:25):
want him to be able to go sideline to sideline,
like you say, be the old Greenlaw who can precavoc
pretty much anywhere. And then Singleton is that guy who
kind of cleans things up. You know, you can debate
the value of tackle numbers, but he sort of make
sure that things don't get at minimum, things don't get worse.

(35:48):
You know, sometimes there's gonna be some drag tackling with
him from behind, but over the years he's sometimes prevented
things from getting exacerbated at minimum, and then sometimes he's
made the play by being aggressive. So these guys have
a have skill set, they should mesh well together, but
they're both coming off of injuries, and then the depth

(36:10):
behind them. Justin Sternad started last year and he's he's
a good special teamer but sort of got exposed down
the stretch. And then there's a young player Drew Sanders,
who they're counting on him developing. But it's a little
bit shaky behind those two. So both of those guys

(36:30):
they need to get back to what they were before
their significant injuries. Because as we saw in that playoff
game in Buffalo, when the Bills got to the second level,
they feasted. Buffalo had a time of possession that game
that the Broncos have not had against them in forty
one years. Absolutely owned that game. That's why the Broncos

(36:52):
brought in Green locks why they brought in Hufonga to
prevent teams from just annihilating them on the ground in
the way that the Bills and then a few weeks
earlier the Colts had down the stretch.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, especially with the lack of size at outside linebacker, right,
the Coopers, the Benitos, these guys are not big players.
So you're gonna need those guys inside and your guys
up front the certainly get it done. Our final question
before we say goodbye, I would like to ask this expectations,
and I'll split it into part A and part B.
The fan base. What would they be happy with this year?
Like ten and seven? Another playoff berth? Is that good enough?

(37:24):
Do you need to win a playoff round? Do you
need to go further than that? What's that feeling kind
of what are you getting from the organization in terms
of where they are in their build, second year of
rookie quarterback, what their expectations are for the team this year.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
I'll go straight to the organization because I had a
conversation with their owner, Craig Tennor back at the league
meetings in late March, and he said point blank that
if they have a season like the one they had
last year where they get in and they get to
the wildcard round and they lose. That will not be

(37:59):
said factor that they felt pretty good about going to
the wildcard round and losing. I mean, you're obviously unhappy
in the moment after the loss, but they felt pretty
good about that. And when you've missed the playoffs for
eight consecutive years, you didn't feel like that's a step
in the right direction. But a season like the one

(38:20):
they just had is not considered acceptable. They expect further progress,
So I'd say what they are expecting internally, and I'd
say the fan base as well, is to go at
least one round further into the playoffs. So at least

(38:42):
to the divisional round, I think is what everybody in
Broncos Country is expecting and is the only thing that
will be satisfactory for this season. So if they go
ten and seven and they go marching out in the
wildcard round, I don't think people in Broncos Country are
gonna be happy with that.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
And they better get to go to regular season record
and avoid that set, you know, six and seven seed
in the conference, because otherwise you might get Josh Allen
again and then you know all bets are off. That's
not good, No, it is not. And your good stuff,
my friend, really appreciate the time. Do you want to
tell the folks anything about what you're doing, what you
up to. Where they can find all your great work.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
Hey, you can find my stuff at denversports dot com
and and also on the Denver Sports YouTube channel that's
at Denver Sports on YouTube. Myself and my friend c Silami,
we've got a show called Orange and Blue Today, which
is five days a week all but right now, right now,
we're three days a week during this brief little downtime

(39:39):
here between late June early July, but right now, if
you want to get the insight on on what the
Broncos are doing and what the roster looks like, we've
got a series of previews breaking down the entire roster.
You can check that out on the Denver Sports YouTube
channel that's at Denver Sports on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
And your good stuff, my friend, enjoy your little over here.
For the next few weeks, we will do the same
and then it all get started about a month man.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Thank you, Thanks Andrew.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
All right, take care fellas, good talking.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Awesome stuff there as we get some insight on the
Broncos from Andrew Mason again covers the Denver Broncos for
their flagship out their one oh four to three the
fan in Denver, Boy Paul I will say this, I
am happy the Giants are on the AFC.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Oh, it's a tough conference.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
I think I'm not sure if to have this conversation
with you or Si Tac. When we did our LEASBNI
it was Lance. But man, you know you figure that
three top teams in the conference are gonna be once
again the Bills, the Chiefs, and the Ravens. So if
you're automatically the sixth or the seventh seed in that division,
I hate to say it, you're not getting out of
the first round. Good luck, you're not in that conference.

(40:46):
You're not You're not getting out of it, which means
you have to be the top wildcard team. And last
year in the AFC, the top wildcard team won eleven games,
Los Angeles Chargers. That's not easy.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Well, look at their division. Start with the division, don't
even go to the conference.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
No, I know, it's not this.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
This is why, folks, Okay, this is why the Giants
have such a rough schedule because it's not just the
NFC East, right, which can be difficult, But look at
this AFC West.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
This is nasty. It is. And just to give you
an idea of what the Broncos schedule looks like, I'm
gonna bring it up here real quick. So they've obviously
played the NFC East. The other AFC division they are
playing is the South, so they do catch your break there.
The AFC South is the weakest AFC division, so they

(41:42):
do catch your break in the AFC South. I guess
you know what you could argue besides the Bills, the
AFC East isn't exactly you know, you know, Dolphins is
still pretty good of to his southeast. I would in
AFC South is it's still the weakest division. And you
know they start the year with Tennessee and Indianapolis, so
not tough out of the out of the gate. But
then here we go, man, Chargers, Bengals, Eagles back to

(42:04):
back to back. Then they get the Jets and the Giants.
All right, little reprieve, Dallas, Houston, Raiders, Chiefs, Commanders, Raiders, Packers, Jaguars,
Chiefs Chargers. That is not a fun end of the schedule, man.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
But by the way, that is Giants Broncos Week seven
in Denver.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
By the way, Yes, just to make sure we got that,
that would be October the nineteenth, just so we have
the date squared.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Away four All five kickoff here in New York.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
So Giants will be coming off a home game against
Philadelphia on Thursday Night Football the previous.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
So little extra time to get ready for that one,
which will be nice.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Hey, I'm telling you, there are players and coaches who
still swear that going to Denver is a physical issue
because of the air in the altitude altitude for so
some guys say it's not that big a deal. It's
really not, and then other guys say it is a
major deal.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I think it affects different players physiology differently, to be
on sure, I think it's a player to player deal.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Well, we're all different, right, We're all different, every one
of us science with within the makeup of our bodies.
Everybody's different. So who's to say any player should not
have a difficult time dealing with that atmosphere. I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna call anybody a liar or say
it's it's useless. No, I'm not gonna do that.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
We are all certainly different. Yes, we are some more
different than others. Yes, all right, let's go to the
phones here two on one nine three nine four five
one three, let's go to Sosa out in California. So, so,
what's up, pal, what's going on?

Speaker 3 (43:42):
How y'all doing today?

Speaker 1 (43:43):
We're good? Man?

Speaker 3 (43:43):
I all right, So I have one big point and
in two smaller points, and I'll make everything fast.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
You're fine, man, Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
I'm gonna start with acting your question, just a quick
response off the top of your head. Who would y'all
say the most electrifying player the Giants has been the
last ten years.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
The last ten years. Yes, it's either Saquon or Odell. Yeah,
I agree. I think it's probably Beckham. I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah, So that that that goes into my major point.
I know he's had injuries, and I know there's been
some friction with some of the stuff he said and
the stuff with Eli. But I'm a big proponent and
bringing Odell and and I have a couple of reasons why.
So the first one, we really don't have anybody that

(44:42):
really would scare defense other than Malik Neighbors. I'm a
real big fan at a running game, and I'm gonna
touch on that later. But I think if you put
Odell in the room to kind of mentor hyat, I
think he will even put up Darius Slayton type numbers. Now,
the money thing, I don't know how that would go,

(45:05):
but I feel like if we could make a push
for him with the fan base, I think it'll get
the fan base really invigorated. And I also feel like
it'd be good for the receiver room in general room.
So I want to get your thoughts on that first.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Sure, no problem, all right, we had a call about
this on Wednesday. I will give my brief spiel and
then I'll let Paul give his spiel. Number One, you
need to find out what Odell Bell Beckham Junior wants
right now out of his NFL career. If he still
wants to play a ton of snaps, this is not
going to be a spot for him. You already have
four guys you want to play. You can't add a fifth.
That's number one. Number two, I don't know what he

(45:43):
has left. If he was even close to being recognizable
to the player that he was when he was here,
it's a completely different conversation. I don't know if he
can run anymore. It's kind of important for a wide receiver.
I will just give you his numbers, then I'll hand
it over to Paul. He has not had seventy catches
or one thousand yards since twenty nineteen. In twenty twenty,

(46:07):
in seven games, he had twenty three catches for three
hundred and nineteen yards. In twenty twenty one, he had
forty four catches for five hundred and thirty seven yards,
and fourteen games twenty twenty two he had the ACL.
He did not play in twenty twenty three thirty five
catches in fourteen games for five hundred and sixty five yards.
Last year, in nine games for the Dolphins, nine catches

(46:29):
for fifty five yards. I just, quite frankly, don't think
he has it in his body anymore to do this,
which is why I would be an on that. Paul,
what's your take?

Speaker 2 (46:42):
I echo everything you just said, but I'm also going
to throw something else onto the fire. He doesn't play
special teams, and he's a depth wide receiver at this point.
If he even is good enough to make an NFL team,
depth wide receivers have to be able to give you
something else.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
And the other thing too, I'll Paul ask you this question,
what evidence do we have that he's someone that's gonna
ment their younger players?

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Well, that was going to be the next part of
what I was going to say. His mentality, his attitude,
And it's not even about his money, ask It's about
what does he want? And I don't know that Oldell
Beckham Junior wants to come into this team or anybody
else's team on the back end of a depth chart
seeing fifteen snaps a game and is going to be

(47:31):
satisfied with that and maybe getting three targets a game?

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Oh if that?

Speaker 2 (47:35):
If that, I don't think that's going to make him
very happy. And as you just said, part of that
as well is how good a teammate is he going
to be? Will he be a plus in the locker room?
Or is he irrelevant in the locker room? Or is
he a negative in the locker room? There are a

(47:55):
lot of variables here that could turn out in the
negative direction.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
My inclination in fantas when he was here, as teammates
all love them.

Speaker 3 (48:06):
About because I'm like, when you talk to the teammates,
everybody usually says good things about him. I mean, like
I said the thing with Lil Wayne in the interview.
For sure, you know, like I wasn't in agreement with that.
But I do feel like even with like because you
a lot of the stuff you were you guys were saying,
it was like, I really don't know. It's not like

(48:27):
I'm saying, like, bring this guy in for a workout
and see where he's at. That's that's kind of what
I'm saying. Like, And I feel like even with Slayton
and Hyatt and Wandell the last season that you brought
up with the stats where he was actually really playing
the year before, not this most recent year, but the
year before, those numbers rival Wandell's honestly, I mean other

(48:51):
than the catches and Wandelle was just getting short catches.
But that that that's kind of my my push for it.
But I do get where y'all coming.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
From real real quick, and then you can finish real fast.
I would just say this, I don't want Hiatt to
lose snaps to a thirty year old veteran. It's gonna
be hard to get higa At to snaps you want
him to get anyway, I don't want to take snaps
away from Hyatt and give him to a guy that's
gonna be thirty three this year. That's number one and
number two. I agree with you as teammates, Oh universally

(49:21):
loved him. I don't. And this is a question that
we got on Wednesday. To your point, I did not
love a lot of the extracurricular, non football stuff that
we constantly had to deal with. Oodell was here as
a rookie, and does he realize that maybe he handled
some of that stuff incorrectly? Would neighbors benefit from that?

(49:43):
Would it not be great for neighbors if he tells
them not to handle things certain ways? Like I don't
know how Oldell views how he handled his five or
six years with the Giants. I don't know what his
thought process is there. That's another part of it, not
just the workout. Right, you have the conversation with him
about what he would teach neighbors, right, Would it be
a positive influence? I would hope it would be. But

(50:05):
that's a conversation you would have to have with him
and almost be like, yo Odell straight up, do you
have any regrets from your four or five years with
the Giants? Would you handle anything differently now looking back
at it, maybe he would give you a great answer there.
I don't know what he thinks about that. To be
honest with you, I.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
Would like to cap the conversation about him by saying this,
when he was really respected and appreciated as a teammate
because of his competitive nature and his talent. He was
also the number one receiver on the team. It's much
easier to be that guy and to be liked by

(50:42):
your other teammates when you are the man, especially when
you like being the man.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Now he would not be the man, and in the
last couple of years too, so soon I'll all and
then here he didn't exactly really want to show up
week one and help the team right away. He kind
of purposely waited to sign until after camp, So I
don't know what his feeling in terms of when he'd
want to report, when he'd want to get involved in
stuff like that, either. So I don't to your point,
it's a lot of questions that we don't have answers to.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
I would make this concession to close it out if
I were a team in the Giant situation. I'm not
speaking for the Giants, and I'm not telling Joe Shane
what to do. But if I were a team, a
GM in the giant situation, what I would do is
probably put him down as a short list. If I
had an injury in training camp or an injury early

(51:30):
in September, I would probably make a phone call and
at least want to talk to him. Sit him down
and talk to him. Answer some of these questions, find
out then give him a physical, give him a workout,
and i'd have to get the entire diagnostic on him.
He'd be on my short list. I would do that.
I'd put him on the short list, give him a diagnostic,

(51:51):
and then at that point, if the situation warn't it,
I might consider signing him. But that's as far as
I go.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
What are the other two points? Sosa?

Speaker 3 (51:59):
Yes, I agree with y'all for sure. You got to
get him in there and see what his mindset is.
I'll say one last thing about this. I think I
was a different man when I was twenty two to
twenty three for thirty something with you on that too.
That's fair, sure, all right? The last two quick points,
I don't know if you'll remember I called you guys
during when it was the wildfires out in California, and

(52:22):
I brought up a point about Cam Scattable back then,
and I'm really excited for him to be on this team.
I think he's gonna make such a profound impact, especially
because we were really not so good on third downs
and those short yarded situations, especially in the end zone.
So I feel like he's gonna get a lot of
those attempts, and I'm hoping he gets a lot of them.

(52:45):
The last point I'm gonna make I think Russell Wilson.
Everybody's saying like, oh, he's a one year guy because
of the contract and stuff, and I get that, but
I think easily he's the best quarterback we've had in
recent memory, and I think he's going to surprise a
lot of people. I think he's going to do a
lot better than what the general public is thinking that

(53:06):
even Giants fans like I'm realizing a lot of people
don't think Russell Wilson is going to have a good year.
I really think he is. So I'll let it go
on that. Thank y'all so much, and I hope you'll
have a blessed say thank you, hey you too.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
So it's a great call. Thank you, And look I
know a lot of young, younger Giant fans, so I
guess probably not as young now now, probably in their twenties.
Right that love Odell Beckham junior when he was here
would be excited to have him back. I get it,
But you just have to get into all those questions.
He's right, Oh don't might come back and say, yeah,
look I learned from I screwed this up, I this wrong.
I really like to, you know, talk to Malik about

(53:38):
how he handles this stuff, and it could be great.
But yeah, that's the conversation you have to have. I
just don't know what that would look like.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
One thing I will say, if the Giants maximize the
production they can get out of the top four receivers
on their depth trot right now, they would be extremely
happy and satisfied with that room.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
Yeah. I just and that to me is the bottom
line point for me, regardless of Beckham as a specific
player in person, I don't want to take steps away
from highat.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Not the way Russell Wilson's talking about.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Oh no, absolutely not. Well, they used the third round
pick on the guy you get, not playing them for
some thirty two year old thirty three.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
And this is it.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
This is hiatz make or break. If he doesn't show anything, now,
chances are he's not on the team. Sure seems that way, right,
so you know, if they're gonna salvage that pick and
they're gonna make something out of him, Russell Wilson sounds
like he's the guy who might be able to bring
it out. Let it happen.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
I'm with you, all right. Let me give you his
thing on Russell Wilson. Two things. I wrote one for
Cover three on Monday, and then right before camp, we're
doing our twenty five Questions in twenty five Days feature
that we do every year leading up to camp. The
final question is basically like, what's the most important factor
for the Giants this season? And the Cover three question
was what's your biggest question sitting for the Giants? And

(54:53):
my answers to both was quarterback play right, That to
me is what this is to be. And I did,
I'll you know all the time here, So I gotta
be quick and I'll go through this again when we
get back heading into the season. I'll bring these numbers
up before. So I went back. I looked at two numbers. Paul.
I looked at EPA per drop back, and I looked
back at quarterback rating. Okay, two very generic quarterbacks stats

(55:15):
that an overall performance. Okay, So I went back to
twenty eleven. How many times, including the twenty eleven season,
have the Giants had a quarterback finish in either the
top ten of EPA per drop back or the top
ten in quarterback rating since twenty eleven. That's fifteen seasons.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
No more than twice once you know what year it
was probably sixteen eleven, starting in eleven start the Super
Bowl season only.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Year, yeah, only year. The only times that the Giants
had a quarterback finish better than the top twenty so
nineteen or better twenty twelve, e LIE twenty fourteen, e
LIE twenty fifteen and then twenty twenty two Daniel Jones
every other year bottom third of the league. In the

(56:09):
last five years, one two, three, six years, pardon me,
the Giants have not had a quarterback finish with a
quarterback rating higher than eighty eight, except for Daniel Jones
in twenty twenty two. Four out of the last five
years they finished either thirtieth or thirty first in offense.

(56:29):
It's hard to win with those numbers if you're constantly
in the bottom third in terms of quarterback efficiency and
quarterback production. It's a hard way to live if you
want to make the playoffs big time. And it's no
surprise that the one year the Giants had success in
in recent memory was the one year that the quarterback
played well. Now, and I pointed this out in the stories.

(56:53):
I don't quarterbacks are not on an island.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
No, they're not so and I'm not a big fan
of quarterback waiting.

Speaker 1 (56:59):
To be honest with am, I that's why I took
two metrics though.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Okay, that's why I took two metrics. ELI did well
in sixteen.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
No, it was the defense in sixteen.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Paul wasn't the offense, No, No, but he played very efficiently.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
He had eighty six quarterback rating. His quarterback rating in
fifteen and fourteen were much higher. His EPA was also
much higher those two years. So was the Giants yards
in points per game.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Oh, I don't disagree that they were more explosive, but
I thought he was very efficient and ran in terms
of game flow. I thought he played very well in sixteen.
But again, that's why I I get real wishy washy
when when I hear some stats. But I understand what
you mean. Well, point still holds, yes, because you're talking
about a time span of over twenty years fifteen.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Right, it's a big sample side. I did not take
a sauce.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
No, no, no, which is why I'm not disputing your point.
But I thought Eli had a pretty nice year in sixteen.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Well yeah, yeah, you know, sixty three percent, four thousand yards,
twenty six touchdowns, sixteen picks. That was his year. The
two years before he had over thirty touchdowns and just
fourteen picks. That's why I think understood it better either way.
They're in the same neighborhood. But yes, but the bottom
line is they just haven't gotten the quarterback play that
they need, and specifically to this year. This is coming
out on cover three. The one thing that I'm worried

(58:17):
about that we have no way to know about in
the spring is that, look, you're gonna have to get
in some way, shape or form, and this is some
Some of this is on the quarterback, some of it's
on the offensive line, some of it's on the play caller.
You have to get Russell Wilson's sack rate down. His
quarterback right in the last two years was good, top ten,

(58:38):
I know, top twelve, I know. But his EPA per
drop back we're in the twenties both year. Because EPA
takes sacks taken into consideration, be as sacks killed drives right,
quarterback rating does not get impacted by sacks taken. So
I did a quick look at the numbers, Paul, and
I'll be really fast. So last year, Russell Wilson had

(58:59):
an eight point nine percent sack rate, fifth highest in
the NFL. The only four players that were worse were
Jalen Hyatt, Jalen Hyatt, Jalen Hurts, Yes, and then three
young quarterbacks, Will Levis, Caleb Williams, Drake May. And then
I did I found an engine that allowed me to
do for the last five years together. So cumulative cumulator

(59:22):
all the quarterbacks in the last five years. But I
want a bigger sample size, right, So Russell Wilson's number
almost identical. It came out to a point seven percent,
I believe. And then over those five years, if I
can actually, if they let me scroll down here in
my preview, there we go. Over those five years, he

(59:47):
was eighth in terms of sack rate, eighth worst, tied
exactly with Daniel Jones. Believe it or not, they were
both exactly eight point seven percent, and the only players
with a higher sack rate. Some of the names will
identical to what we just talked about were Justin Fields,
Will Levis, Caleb Williams, Zach Wilson, Drake May, Bryce Young,

(01:00:08):
Jaden Daniels. Now last year this is the beauty of it.
Right below him in terms of those sack numbers were
Jayden Daniels and CJ. Stroud. In fact, it was like
hundreds of a point difference. Those both guys made the
playoffs last year with that sack rate, yes, and about
one percent lower you had CJ. Stroud and Sam Darnold.
If you can just get Wilson from that eight point

(01:00:30):
seven percent area to like seven to seven and a
half percent, which is it's only a one to one
and a half percent drop, then you're in justin Herbert
Joe Burrow, Dak Prescott neighborhood. It's a much better neighborhood
to be in. So I think we saw in the
spring they were getting rid of the ball quicker, a
lot of screens, a lot of RPOs, a lot of
quick checkdowns. If the first readown in the field's not there.

(01:00:52):
So my guess is that Brian Dable knows this and
he's going to try to affect the offense to make
that better. The offensive line has to protect and Russell
Wilison has to get rid of the ball, and I
think if when he throws it he's efficient, he just
takes too many sacks. If you can't solve that problem
to the Coolers point, I think you will get a
higher level of quarterback play than you've seen from a

(01:01:13):
Giant's quarterback, probably since Eli Manning in twenty sixteen did
not discounting the Daniel Jones you're in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
The easiest way to accomplish what you're asking for John
is to run the ball very well and efficiently. Because
once you do that, you allow Russell Wilson, who was
an outstanding play action quarterback, you will allow him to
do that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
It helps, it does. The problem is that helps. The
Steelers ran the ball pretty well last year too, and
it didn't help.

Speaker 2 (01:01:41):
I know, I know, I understand. He also didn't have
a wide receiver room Pickens was and the rest of
the wide receiver room didn't help.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Him, and the offensive line didn't play particularly well from
last year every year. No, And that's why I made
sure I said it's quarterback play. It's a spider wab,
everything connected.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Always connected, the strands. Never we can stop.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
We can dig more into those numbers as we after
we get back from vacation and we start getting ready
for the season and stuff like that. But look, if
you want to make the playoffs, you gotta have a
good quarterback play, all right. Giants Season tickets, folks, you
want to become a Giant Season tic member, Giants dot com,
slash tickets, check it out. You can find us on
the Giants YouTube channel and Giants tv, which is our
streaming app. You can find it on your phones. You

(01:02:22):
can find it on all your smart TVs. Giants dot Com.
Make sure you go check that out. And I mentioned
it earlier, but in case you joined us late, Giants
Total podcast is in my last show until we come
back from our two break two week hiatus on July fourteenth.
That's a Monday, right July fourteenth. Until then, no Big
Blue kickoffs. But we're gonna have a ton of Giant huddles,

(01:02:43):
all of our player interviews, all the offensive groups, wide receiver,
running backs, and quarterbacks already up there. YouTube channel, Giant
Total Podcast, Giants Podcast network Feed on your favorite podcast platform,
Giants dot Com, Slash Podcast, Giants app. I talked to
almost fifty players on Media Day weeks ago, so check
those out. Those will be coming out along with Dion Barnes,

(01:03:04):
Abdul Carter's defensive line coach, a couple assistant coach interviews
as well with Sean O'Hara, that a whole lot more.
Stay tuned to the Johnstittle Podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:03:11):
And tomorrow we're back to preview the San Francisco forty
nine ers.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Yes, it'll be Paul and Matt and they're gonna have
Jennifer lee Chan, who we've had on before. She's excellent. Yes,
she covers the Niners for NBC Sports in San Francisco.
For Paul Latino. I am John Schmelk. I will see
you guys in about seven eighteen days. Whatever it is,
I'll miss you a little bit. Enjoy it. We'll see

(01:03:35):
happy four the July. I'll see in a few weeks,
and stay tuned to Paul on Matt tomorrow. Audios