September 19, 2025 • 45 mins
Paul Dottino and Matt Citak preview the Giants vs Chiefs game on Sunday Night Football, talk about the Giants offensive line, and take calls from fans.
0:00 - Chiefs preview
13:00 - Keys to the game
20:00 - Calls
28:00 - Offensive line
39:00 - Giants offense
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Episode Transcript
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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.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're on Giants dot Com.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Do you know what I saw New York Giant.
Speaker 4 (00:14):
Cry and the Giants Mobile at seventeen the Riinals one Tundown.
Speaker 5 (00:19):
We are.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
We're all taffril it the.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well appart of the Giants podcast network.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
That's going on.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The Dogs hasn't run.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
Hello again, everybody, and welcome to Friday's edition of Big
Blue Kickoff Live, presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle
of the New York Football Giants that is always coming
to you from the Hackensack Meridian Health podcast studio.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Keep getting Better.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
Paul Tatino, Matt Sietek, We're here for the next hour
to talk Giants football with you as they get ready
for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night football. It's
the home opener this season at Metlive Stadium. Now, we
already heard from coach Brian Dable this morning, and Matt,
I'm gonna let you do the honors because there is
a bit of a headline coming out of it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yes, I would say maybe half of the press conference
this morning or just an hour ago was about one
player in particular. Surprise, surprise, it was about Andrew Thomas.
Coach started off the press conference basically saying that Andrew
came out of yesterday's practice. He practiced two days in
a row, something he did do last week. But Coach
(01:22):
Dabel said at the beginning of the week that they've
been increasing his reps at practice.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
So with this increased workload.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
In practice on Wednesday and Thursday, Andrew came out of
it positive.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Coach said that he had a good day yesterday following
a good day on Wednesday. He's set to be out
there again, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
The team's practicing at this moment, so all that is
good now. Coach Dabel did say that this is a
situation that is likely going to be taken all the
way up until inactives are announced ninety minutes before kickoff,
so we're not going to get one hundred percent clarity
on whether or not he's playing. My guess is he
will be listed as questionable on the injury report this afternoon.
(02:02):
Remains to be seen, but we'll see he's going to
be questionable. I would say we are trending in the
right direction. But a lot obviously can change in you know,
forty eight plus hours, but as of right now, it
sounds like arrow pointing up for Andrew Thomas. Now. Coach Dable,
(02:23):
when asked, did say that they're working through sort of
like strategies in terms of if he is clear to go,
is he going to play every single snap? You know,
he seemed to He was asked if there's possible a
rotation they could use, especially given how good Marcus Bow
looked last week. He did not close the door on that.
(02:44):
He didn't say yes, he didn't say no. He said,
we're still figuring things out, working through things. So it
seems like that is at least a possibility if Andrew
is given the green light, but maybe they don't want
to give him, you know, a full you know, how
many have sixty seventy snap in the first week. So
it sounds like there's at least a possibility that if
Andrew is cleared, they could do some sort of rotation
(03:08):
with Marcus. I guess potentially with James Hudson. You know,
he didn't specifically say it had to be Marcus, but
all in all, trending in the right direction for Andrew Thomas.
He also said that they were gonna scale back on
rakeem Nutnia's ROACHEZ today. That doesn't mean he's necessarily out
for Sunday, obviously, He's a veteran who was coming off
(03:31):
an injury. He did not he was inactive last week, right, Yeah,
inactive last week.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
So I think they're just trying to be a little
smart with him.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It sounded like everyone else would be the same as
the practice status says of yesterday. It was a long
list of limited players.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Coach did say that Demetrius Flannigan Fouls would be out
there again today. He also missed last week's game due
to a calf injury that he I believe suffered in practice. Obviously,
with Mike and McFadden and Chris Board both on injured reserve,
Giants need as many middle linebacker inside linebackers and Mouis
(04:11):
out in concussion protocol so and he is still yet
to practice, so Giants need as many bodies as they
can get at the at the linebacker position. Having flan
again Fouls, even though primarily special teams player or only
special team snaps in Week one, having him out there
would provide that, you know, second level of the defense
a little bit of a boost.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I do see Swayzee Bozeman and as the next.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Man up to be honest, yeah, he likely will.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
He got a couple of only I believe five defensive
snaps this past week. Again, you know, the Giants lost
Darius Moussou and Chris Board during the game, which led
to Swayze Boseman, who had been elevated from the practice
squad for a last week's game, led to him playing
defensive snaps. He started off the game only playing special teams,
got thrust into that role. He could be looking at
(04:58):
a expanded role this weekend. Obviously, as I'm sure you
guys spoke about earlier in the week, the Giants made
some moves on the practice squad to add a couple
of more bodies to linebacker position, the headliner being nevill Hewitt,
who's an NFL veteran, been around for.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Years now, proven guy you know.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Remains to be seen who gets elevated from the practice
squad if obviously, if Lewis that doesn't clear concussion protocol
and flanning and fouls is unable to go. I'd say
there's a good chance that one of these new linebackers
that were just signed, Yeah, could be making their Giants'
debut this Sunday night.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, they're not calling me.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
I promise you that I don't have the bulk for it.
I will tell you this. The good news about Bozeman
is that he was part of the Kansas City Chiefs
in twenty twenty four. He kind of pinballed between the
practice squad and the regular roster. Primarily a special teams guy.
(05:56):
Came out of the Southern miss last year, was an
undrafted rookie free agent, had a pit stop during this
year with the Bears, got cut, Giants picked him up.
The reason they picked him up is because he's got
an incredible relative athletics score rating of well over nine
points on a ten point scale. He's only about six
(06:17):
one and two fifteen, so he's kind of like safety size,
but his athleticism is ridiculous. If you looked at his
pro day, all of his testing numbers would have put
him in the top four in every category of the
linebackers at the twenty twenty four combine. So they're looking
(06:38):
at him as a tools guy or a traits guy,
if you will. How much does he play well? He's
a strong side linebacker by design, that's what he was
at Southern Miss. So with Okara Kea as the quote
middle linebacker so to speak, he may draw some snaps
against Travis Kelcey. I also would suppose that you'll see
Dan Belton draw snaps against Kelsey and you probably will
(07:00):
see them bracket him some too. To be quite honest
with you, Uh, it's an important matchup in the game.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I mean, you know, say what you want about Travis
Kelcey through two weeks, he doesn't quite look like, you know,
the vintage Travis kelce that we have seen in the
NFL for so many years now. But making no mistake,
especially given you the situation that the Chiefs have at
wide receiver between injuries ra Shei Rice's suspension, Travis Kelcey
(07:28):
is still Patrick Mahomes's go to guy. That is the
guy that Patrick is going to look towards in key
situations on third downs, He's gonna be looking for Travis Kelcey.
So yeah, it's it's gonna be tough matchup defending Travis
kelce Just given all of the injuries that the Giants
have at the linebacker position, I see one comment already
(07:49):
in YouTube saying that there's no linebacker depth. I mean,
who could have thought two weeks into the season that
the Giants would lose one of their starting middle linebackers,
the primary backup middle lineback, and then one of the
veterans they signed to be depth at the linebacker position
and also contribute on special teams. You lose three guys
in the first two weeks of the season, two of
(08:09):
which are uninjured reserve. I don't see how you could
prepare for that. There's only so many linebackers you can
have on your active roster. I don't think the depth
was an issue. It's just Giants have had very unfortunate
injury luck in terms of the linebacker position to start
the season.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Good news in that you know Carter Abdul Carter will
see more snaps in this game. As they get him
more snaps each and every week, he will still be
in different spots. Trust me, They're not just gonna line
him up and say you be the backup middle linebacker
or inside backer and you take that spot. They're not
gonna do that. They value Carter's ability to play all
(08:45):
over the field too much to just stick him in
one spot Man.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah, but I mean, as you said, we did see
Abdul Carter.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I think it was only one or two snaps last
week played it off ball linebacker, and I believe it's
the same with Brian Burns. Like the Giants are gonna
find create ways to fill that position. That's not just
you know, Swayze Boseman playing every single snap next to
Bobby Karake. They're going to try to find ways to
get their best players out there as often as possible
(09:12):
and just.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Real quick Spacey.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Boseman's got to be one of the best football names
I've ever heard. This is a quickly little aside.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I didn't expect that.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
It's a pretty great football name. I'm just saying, well,
hopefully the production on field will match his name, but yeah,
I just have to quickly.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
The word from Kansas City media this morning is that
Xavier Worthy is not wearing a brace on his separated shoulder,
and so that's the video that they have posted, and
so m with that, it's looking more and more like
maybe there's an opportunity for him to try to play.
(09:53):
They've got Juju Smith Schuster and Hollywood Brown as they're
two guys who are their primary receivers, and Worthy is
very critical to them because he's a speed demon. He
is a burner. He is a guy who can take
the top off of a defense and is their best
deep play threat. Now he's got a separated shoulder. He
(10:15):
played three snaps in the opening game against the Chargers
and that was it. Just talked to Dannan Hughes, the Bayonne,
New Jersey native, former Chiefs wide receiver who does radio
work for them, talked to him about an hour ago,
and he said, it looks like they're going to try
to get him in there, so we will see.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I don't know how effective he can be. I don't
know about him having the ability to take.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Hits on a shoulder that is not structurally really sound
right now, that's that's quite a chore for him to
be able to play effectively. Certainly, I don't know how
he's going to block in a running game that was
a separated shoulder.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, I mean, from everything I've all the reports I've
seen throughout the week, didn't look like he doesn't sound well.
From even what like Andy Reid told the media back
on Wednesday, is he was basically saying that Xavier Worthy
at least in practice has no limitations, so they clearly
have at least some level of confidence that that shoulder
(11:17):
is okay enough for him to play and okay enough
for him to hold up, you know, when he does
get hit. Now, XAVI, you're worthy even putting the shoulder
injury aside. He is not the biggest guy in the
end of the biggest wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
He's listed at one hundred and sixty five pounds.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
His his attribute, his biggest attribute is his speed.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
He has the ability to take the top off of
any defense.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
However, I mean even before the injury, any any big hit,
you'd have to like hold your breath and wait for
him to, you know, get back up, because he's just
not He's very very you know, I don't want to
say fragile with thin, but just one hundred and sixty
five pounds, there's not a ton of muscle on that frame.
So if I were the chiefs, I would certainly be
(12:03):
a little Again, we don't have any you know, actual information,
medical information on the injury besides what's been reported, but
it seems to me like one hit, as you mentioned,
one hit could knock that shoulder out of you know,
dislocate it once again, and if it gets dislocated again,
that then he's gonna have to I would think, have
(12:24):
to get surgery. That's season over.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
That's it. Look, they are just for sure that you
go oh and three.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I don't know we know the percentage because we've unfortunately
smoken a lot the last couple of years on chances
of making the playoffs. If you start oh and two,
it's it's pretty tough to overcome that. I don't know
the numbers at oh and three, but it's obviously even
more difficult to overcome that.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So so they do need to win, but.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I would be it's tough for me to see him.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I mean, as you said, it's like he's.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Going to play well only because of what Hughes told
me this morning.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
And just based on the reports I've seen out of
Kansas City, it certainly seems like it. But boy, I
would be scared. One hit and that could be it
for the season for him.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
All right, So for me, the biggest key in this game,
and I'll get one from you, Matt, and then we're
going to take to your phone calls, because you guys
want to talk about this game. Two on one nine three, nine, four, five,
one three. It's obvious for me, if the Giants are
going to win this game, or have any chance to
win this game, the thing that must happen, an end
(13:35):
of story period, must happen. Defensive coordinator Steve Smagnolo, we
know him well, won a Super Bowl here, two stints
with the Giants. Basically next to Bill Belichick. Those guys
are my two favorite coordinators of all time. Okay, quite frankly,
he has been going crazy. He's sending the blitz because
(13:58):
he knows that his front four does not have the
teeth that it needs. He does not have the Giants
front four of Super Bowl vintage. He does not, so
what is he doing. He is sending everybody else on
the field. Safeties, corners, linebackers, They're all part of his
(14:18):
blitz package. His blitz percentage is the second most in
the league, just about fifty percent, only behind the Denver Broncos.
They are going hogwild crazy, you think with Martin Dale
blitzed a lot two years ago when he was the
Giants DC, he was only in the forty percent tile. Okay,
Spags is up right there at fifty percent. He is
(14:42):
going to send the kitchen sink and then some we
saw what happened against Washington when Russell Wilson had to
run for his life for four quarters and he was
suffocating back there because the pressure was so enveloping to him.
If the Giants do not pick up those blitzes, John
(15:03):
Michael Schmidz making the line calls at center, Russell Wilson
deciphering things and calling out audibles and hot reads, making
sure the tight ends and making sure the wide receivers
get the communication and run the hot routes. If they
do not handle the Chiefs blitz, they will lose this game.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
End of story.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
There is no other key that matters in this game
that must be taken care of.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, I mean that is definitely priority number one. And
I know that's obviously only focusing on one side of
the ball, but you nailed it in that Spags is
gonna blitz, and he's gonna blitz early, he's gonna blitz often.
And we saw the difference of the Giants offense when
Russell Wilson has some time to operate in the pocket
and when he does it, and they are two very
(15:54):
drastically different results. In the first two weeks of the season,
That's why to me, Wandell Robinson I think is one
of the biggest keys to this game. I mean, we
saw what he did last week deep. I mean he
basically matched or beat his career deep receiving numbers in
one game. So and he spoke about it in the
(16:15):
offseason about how he had been starting to line up,
you know, kind of all over the offense, not just
in the slot, run more routes, Expando's rout tree. We
saw it, and you know, last week was the first
time we got to see it in a game.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
That is priority number one, and I would say priority number.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Two is basically the same thing.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But on the other side of the ball, Patrick mahomes
is you know, you look at his numbers this year,
to be honest, they're not great.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
His passing numbers are not great.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
He's had a lot of production with his legs, more
than he's ever had through two games of his career.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
In two games of a season in his.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Career, he's on pace to shatter all of his previous
rushing numbers, all of that from scrambles, though he's had
zero designed runs. All of his production on the ground
has been scrambles because he too has somewhat been running
for his life the first two games, and that is
priority number two.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
And there's no balance because their running game hasn't gotten
going either.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
They have had You know, people have spoken about how
the Giants run game has struggled so far, and it has.
Kansas City's run game has struggled just as much. With
Isaiah Pacheco Kareem Hunt, They've been unable to get the
run game going outside of Mahomes. I mean, Mahomes, similar
to Russell Wilson, leads the Chiefs and rushing guards. I
don't think either team is happy with their quarterbacks leading
the team in rushing but on the defensive side of
(17:32):
the ball, Mahomes despite his limited passing efficiency this so
far this season, I don't think I'm going out of
the limb by saying we all know he is one
of the best, if not the best quarterbacks in the
NFL period. He's done it for enough years now we
all know this to be true. His numbers so far
this season when he's been blitzed are quite bad. So
(17:54):
when he's been blitzed, he has completed only six of
eighteen passes for eighty five five yards, one touchdown and
one interception. That thirty three point three completion completion percentage
second lowest in the NFL when blitzed. His forty four
point nine passer rating against the blitz is the fourth
lowest in the NFL. So he's going to get his
(18:16):
because he's Patrick Mahomes. The way to somewhat contain him
is he gotta blitz him, just like Spags is going
to do to Russell Wilson. You gotta get after Patrick Mahomes. Now,
he has tried to mitigate the blitzes he's been facing
by getting rid of the ball quickly. He's averaged two
point four second two point four to seven seconds average
(18:37):
time to throw this year, the fastest mark of his
entire career. However, he's only had a thirty nine percent
success rate, which is the fourth lowest in the NFL.
So getting rid of the ball quickly has not been
helping him. I mean, Dak Prescott we spoke last week.
He's amazing at getting the ball out quickly and he
has a ton of success doing it. Mahomes has not
had that same level of success this year. Well, it's
(19:00):
only been two games.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
The receiving corps is not as good as it used
to be. Rashi Rice is suspended, and that's a big
blow to them.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
No, no, for sure, but they're likely going to have
the same receiving corps this week that they had last week.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Oh yeah, and for pretty much the whole game Week one.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I mean, we'll see about Worthy, but that's gonna be
the same group of receivers. So he's gonna face if
the Giants can get after him and blitz him and
pressure him as much as he's been pressured the first
two weeks. Hopefully the Giants defense will get the same
success that the Chargers and Eagles defense has got in
terms of Mahomes's throwing passing abilities. Obviously, the you know,
(19:35):
to counter that, he's probably gonna run the ball just
like he has the last two weeks. He's probably gonna
run the ball. He's gonna have some production on the ground.
I think as a defense, you can take Patrick Mahomes
running for fifty plus yards if it means he's only complete,
if he's completing, you know, under sixty percent of his throws.
I think we would take that trade off.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
No argument for me. Two oh one, nine three, nine,
four five one three years. Our phone number here on
Big Blue Kickoff Live And as a reminder, if you
do not catch the show live, always catch it on
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and all of your platforms.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
The show is available.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Everywhere on the archive all the way up until game time.
All right, let's go to the phones and see who
we've got up first on the program today. We will
go to Ryan from Illinois, your first on the show.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Hello, Hey guys, how are we doing today?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Verry? Good sir, how are you right?
Speaker 6 (20:32):
I'm well. I think that Sunday's game is going to
be really intriguing because, you know, some of the major
players that we've got, I think we know what they bring,
you know, offensively, I think Malik is going to be
doubled quite a bit. And I wonder if if some
of the unsung heroes that are you going to have
to really emerge and you know, in a community kind
of sense, make plays, you know, the the cam Tyrone combo.
(20:58):
I think it's gonna have to be big. I think
Theo Johnson. You know, it's like, do these guys play
like week one or like Week two? And I just
hope that that energy of you know, seeing first downs,
touchdowns being scored. I just hope that energy is maintained.
And I think that this is a step in the
right direction, having those guys on, you know, everyone kind
(21:18):
of doing their part and just staying really focused in
you know, does THEO have a couple drops like Week one,
or does he maybe score his first touchdown of the season.
I think that that could be absolutely huge. And then defensively,
you know, pressuring Mahomes like you were saying, Matt, But
I think bigger than that is. Can we rely on
a Cordel flot on a or even a debo like
(21:40):
we need a couple of plays on the back end
made when they get those opportunities, like like week one,
cordellflot could have had a pick six. I know it
was a tough play, but he legitimately could have had
a pick six and turned that game around. Can we
get one or two big plays by the defense to
really give this offense a chance to, like you know,
you know what I'm saying, score enough points and then
the defense and maybe comes through with a couple of
(22:01):
really big plays. All Right, That's all I got, guys,
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Case is one in turnover ratio so far. Unfortunately, Ryan,
your philosophy on the other side of the ball is
actually exactly the opposite of what the Chiefs will do.
At least during the first two weeks of the season.
They have because they've been a heavy blitz team. They've
been playing man to man. They have not doubled any receivers.
And let's not forget they played the Chargers and the
(22:26):
Eagles and they've got some potent weapons on the outside,
and Spagnolo has been saying, the heck with that, we're
not doubling anybody. We're going to send the blitz packages
and we are going to tell our dbs, specifically Trent mcduffee,
pro Bowl player, Okay, terrific, terrific player, very physical player,
(22:47):
going to tell the DBS to beat up the wide receivers.
Play man to man, play physical, beat them up, throw
out they're timing, and rush the heck out of the
quarterback so that he's got to get rid of the
ball quick. And what do we always say about quarterbacks
who want to get rid of the ball, Well, you
screw up the timing on the other side of the
(23:08):
passes so that the routes get all screwed up and
readjust it. That's how you break the rhythm of a
quarterback who wants to get rid of it quickly. That
is the mantra that Spags has lived on for two weeks.
Talking to Dandan Hughes again, the Chiefs color guy, this morning,
I asked him about, do you think against Neighbors and
(23:29):
Robinson after what they did last week? Maybe does something else.
He's like, no, no, no, you know, Spags, I do.
He's aggressive. He's always going to want to come after
the quarterback. So these receivers in terms of your comment
about focus, oh yeah, they better be focused, they better
be on top of their hot reads, and they better
(23:51):
be up for a black and blue style game because
the Chiefs tdbs will try to beat them up. That's
the bottom line, Spags will. He's not into disguising and
fooling on this. The only fooling he's gonna do is
when he's sent in his pressures. Who's coming on the pressure.
That is where he's playing his head games. He's not
(24:14):
playing head games with the secondary.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Ye're playing straight up.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, I do.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I do wonder if maybe Malik sees a little bit
of double coverage just because the first two weeks of
the season, the Chiefs played teams that have multiple proven,
very talented pass catchers. The Chargers obviously Lad McConkie, Keenan
Allen who's been doing it for a long time now,
even Quintin Johnston who obviously scored two touchdowns against them
(24:42):
in Week one, and then last week the combo of
AJ Brown and Devonte Smith, one of the best in
the league. I think Wandell obviously opened some eyes last
week with his performance. I think there are probably some
teams around the NFL that did not think he was
capable of a performance like that, in part because he's
never done that before. So I can't fully blamed show me,
But you know, I do wonder if maybe the Chiefs
(25:05):
defense does a little more. You know, obviously Trent McDuffie's
gonna be matched up against the belike neighbors for most,
if not all, of the game on Sunday night. I
do wonder if Malik, you know, starts to get going early,
if this that is a situation where maybe Spags you know,
has a safety or someone helping McDuffie out at least
(25:25):
sometimes with Malik, just because he's proven He's one of
the best receivers in the NFL and there are not
many corners that can slow him down one on one.
And just because the other Giants pass catches, while there
are very solid pass catches, they're not quite like to
the level of you know, the Devonte Smith j.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Brown combination.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
That's the only thing I'm curious to see if Spags
does that a little bit, just to you know, maybe
throw a slight wrench into the Giants plans. And if
that is the case, then as to Ryan was saying,
is guys need to step up. Then you know you're Wandell's,
your Darius Slayton, your Theo Johnson's. They are all gonna
be in one on one situations basically the whole game.
They are gonna have to take advantage of those opportunities.
(26:07):
They're gonna have to catch the passes that are thrown
at them. You know, you were saying, get someone on
defense make a play. How about one of these other.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Pass catchers, not name a leak, break a tackle or two,
take a you know, a slant route seventy yards to
the house for a touchdown.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
See, they've got a little bit of a problem because
Christian Fulton is injured. He's got an ankle injury. He
didn't practice earlier in the week. Now, what they want
to do in a perfect world spags when he brings
in Fulton, they slide McDuffie into the slot and he
covers the slot guy man a man which would be
Wandel Robinson. Here's the problem without Fulton available, Okay, they
(26:44):
got to keep McDuffie on the boundary, so that already
is going to Jimmy with their usual game plan and
how they want to run things. Now, can the Giants
take advantage that? You would think if McDuffie's not gonna
move into the slot in the sub package, well whoever
(27:07):
they wind up throwing in and they've got a bunch
of other dbs, but they're not as accomplished. That may
be Wandel Robinson's chance to have another big game, but again,
given the pressure and the amount of hot reads you're
gonna have to run, you're not probably not gonna run
a lot of deep routes because you gotta get that
ball out this folks, I know it sounds nuts, but
(27:29):
this is a battle between two oho and two teams,
and there is a lot of permutations to this Rubik's Cube.
I mean that this is a great puzzle. This this
so far, of the three games the Giants have played
this year, this is the one that's keeping me up
the most at night when I'm jimmying around with leex'es
and o's and formations, this one has me going crazy,
(27:52):
probably because I love Spags so much and I respect
him so much. He's got me going bonkers. Two on one, nine, nine, four,
five three is our number here on Big Blue Kick
Off Live, Jonathan and Westchester.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
You're next on the show.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Hello, Hi guys, how are you hi?
Speaker 7 (28:10):
So it was nice to score thirty seven points against
Dallas last week, but going into the Chiefs game, I
am still concerned about our run blocking and blitz pick up,
particularly on the interior. Wanted to get your thoughts on
something I was running through the Giants draft history, particularly
as it relates to the guard positions. So back in
(28:33):
two thousand and four, everyone remembers the Grade Eli trade,
but overshadowed by that was the second round pick Chris Snee,
which I think is one of the most important draft
picks in recent Giants history. So amazingly, in the twenty
one years since that two thousand and four draft, Giants
have only selected a guard in the first four rounds
(28:56):
of the draft. And you can check me on this
one time. That was when Gettlement selected Will Hernandez in
the second round of twenty eighteen. I'm not counting as
Zudo a zudu in twenty twenty two. I know it
was used as a guard occasionally. I think it was
two of his ten starts as a Giant. So in
that same twenty one year period in two thousand and four,
(29:17):
I counted six guards drafted by the Eagles and five
guards drafted by the Cowboys. I'm wondering if you know
we're seeing the effect of that. You know that the
Giants just haven't spent enough draft capital on the guard position,
you know, and that's impacted and continues to impact our
interior aligne So I guess I'll hang up and get
your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Thanks, guys, thank you, thanks for the call.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I want to take it.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah, Well, just for starters, I would say that. I mean,
as we've discussed mostly in the offseason, there are many
different ways you can go to build an offensive line.
It's not like the Giants have not put any resources
towards the interior offensive line. They signed John Runny into
a you know, pretty significant guard contract last year.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
They brought back Greg Van Rodin.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Now obviously his contract is not so substantial, but he's
a proven veteran that has provided the Giants with you know,
solid play at the guard position. And John Michael Schmidz
was the second round pick only a couple of years ago.
So it's not like there have not been any resources
put towards, you know, the offensive line or the interior
offensive line. I mean, you were talking about that Chris
(30:23):
Snee offensive line. Well, the guys that were around him,
it was a combination of some draft picks and some
veterans that were brought in. So I someway, I kind
of get what you're saying, But at the same time,
I'm I don't fully agree because they have still tried
to address the interior offensive line with free agency, so
(30:45):
I don't That's where I disagree a little bit.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
The only thing I will say in terms of where
it's showing up. Obviously, with a shorter quarterback Russell Wilson,
we've talked about that being a key all year, it
does become even more important that the interior line plays
up to par. That's true. I'm not hiding from that
(31:08):
or running away from that. Now much more important when
Russell Wilson, a shorter Russell Wilson is playing behind the
interior line than when a Daniel Jones is, when Daniel
Jones is six foot four and a half for sure. Okay,
So yes, to that point, you have a little something.
The other little something you have is that in the
(31:30):
last two or three years, we have seen more defensive
tackles and this will all is the Aaron Donald syndrome.
We have seen more teams devote more time and perhaps
trying to get more impact players on the interior of
the defensive line. Right, We've seen Hayward and Pittsburgh. We've
seen Dexter Lawrence.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
With the Giants.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
We've seen now we see Carter playing.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
With the Eagles.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Quentin Williams, Yeah, Quinn Williams, another one, Chris Jones with
Kansas City. You know, there's been more of an emphasis
in recent years about beef up the impact from the
interior defensive line. So yes, yes, I do think it
is more imperative that the Giant's interior offensive line steps
(32:15):
up and does better.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
This year, So that's perhaps a little bit of what
he was talking about.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, I get that, But I guess somewhat of a
counterpoint I would make is you look back at this
past Sunday's game against the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Now, not the Cowboys obviously don't.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Have the league's greatest defensive line, but Kenny Clark is
a pretty formidable defensive tackle.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, and they scored thirty seven points against defense.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
They scored thirty seven points and the combination of John Runyon,
Greg Van Roden, and John Michael Schmidtz were credited, according
to Pro Football Focus, gave up a total of five
pressures between the three of them. I feel like we
would sign up for that. The three interior linemen, who
you know, at least in terms of the starting five
offensive linemen on the Giant. I feel like going into
(33:01):
the year, everyone felt great about the Thomas illumin or
tackle combination. It was the interior that some people were like,
we got to see them perform. Yeah, I think five
total pressures between the three of them. We would sign
up for that.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, give me a pen.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
You go back to Week one, and that was a
game where the offensive line did not play great at
least especially compared to this past week.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Oh, they were bad. This three of.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
Them, according to PFF again were credited with six pressures allowed.
So like I again, I can I get what you're saying,
but I don't think that the three of them have
been like so awful these first two games where it's
like Giants need to find a remedy for the interior offensive.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Line where they didn't necessarily step up big time last week.
They didn't pass pro, they didn't do it a whole
lot in a run game that they still.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Have to show us for one hundred percent, the run
game has been basically non existent. And to be honest,
I meant to say this before to Ryan, our first caller,
it's gonna be real tough for the run game to
get going this week because for you know, the holes
that the Chiefs defense might have shown through the first
two weeks, run defense is not one of them.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
They have been one of the best run defenses for
years now.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Stuff in lanes and when because they're blitzing so much,
they're even run blitzing.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
And Chris Jones being right there in the mills certainly
doesn't help opposing run games. So I know, so to
be honest like it might be another rough day for
the run Game this week. I would say, don't you know,
give up hope on the run Game because things can
and likely will get better moving forward. But this week
it might be a little tough to get going.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Real quick, folks. And we may have to cut the
program short today because Cam scattab who has to do
a pregame radio interview. They need the studio, so we
may have to get out of here shortly. I just
want to give you a heads up. The Giants Foundation
will host a five K Racing Kids Run presented by
Quest on Sunday, October twenty sixth at nine am at
MetLife Stadium. Net Proceeds will benefit the Giants Foundation. All
(34:53):
participants receive a commemorative T shirt after the race, stay
for a post race festival with appearances by Giants ledg
and a live DJ. Registered now at giants dot com
Slash five k. The Giants Foundation is a five oh
one C three nonprofit corporation. Also the Ultimate New York
Giants Women's Tailgate, presented by Joe Malone. It's a ticketed
event and it's on Sunday, September twenty eight from ten am.
(35:16):
To twelve pm in Lot G ahead of the Giants
Week four home game against the Chargers. Attends will have
an opportunity to connect with the Giants legends. Also, Madelin
is going to be out there enjoy custom merchandise, shop
exclusive Kendris Scott activation at her particular setup, tailgate games, giveaways,
(35:37):
photo ops, live DJ entertainment, tailgate food Hopebolohas. One drink
ticket is included with the purchase and the tailgate is
for twenty one and older only. Also, Giant season tickets
for the twenty twenty five season are still available. Full
membership gets you out of season benefits as well. Go
to Giants dot com slash tickets, and don't forget The
(36:00):
Giants TV Mobile app is free on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon,
Fire Tv, and the Giants Mobile App. It is there
to get you all kinds of good fun and goofy
highlights that we put up on social media. Finally, real quick,
either Matt or Pearson Giants huddle today, anything special has
gone up this morning or going up today in the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
What's going up today is the interview with Cam Scattaboo,
your interview with danon Hughes and coach tables sit down
with Pop Pop.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
There you go, well prepping for the chiefs.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
Speaking of Bat Scatoby, that was the one other thing
you missed during Coaches Presser.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
He is a character.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
He walked by behind the media as coach was speaking,
gave coach kind of like a smirk because I was standing,
you know, towards where on the side where our coaches,
and I saw Cam smirk. And then all of a sudden,
he started just howling, like howling, like basically like his
screams that we've seen him do at times. He started
(37:00):
doing that and like every ten seconds would be another scream.
I highly recommend everyone once it gets posted onto YouTube
and the Giants dot Com, give Coaches Presser a quick view.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It's not long as like ten minutes, is very entered.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
Even coach it gets a little flustered and like starts
laughing like this guy.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's very funny.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Cam has as you will see in the huddle that
gets posted later. Cam's got a lot of personality. Oh
something I think this locker room could use. Like it's
good that he's been added to the mix.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
I will tell you this, and the way that he
loves contact it is willing to take on blitzers. Okay,
could be very important against the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Oh yeah. Now, the trick is.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
He is a rookie.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
He's got to be able to make sure he's got
the call right, he recognizes it right, and then he's
able to execute it. We know he loves to face
these blitzers and he loves the contact, but he's gonna
have to make sure that he gets the right call
and makes the proper recognition because mental mistakes when you're
trying to pick up the blitzers a running back, we'll
(38:06):
get your quarterback smoked.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
For sure and all.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
The only thing I'll say to that is, at least
through the first two weeks of the season, the first
week limited action, a little more last week, he's done
good in that department.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
So far, so yeah, so far, so good.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Obviously, as a rookie, the only way to have him
improve and play better is give him more chances. So
I'm sure he will get plenty of opportunities on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Although they might be safer given Singletary a few more
option in that particular spot because he's a little more
experienced to handle it.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
True, maybe, I mean, maybe they throw Cam out there,
and if he struggles a little bit with the pass
protection to start, then maybe we see more Singletary.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Later we'll see Malachi.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
You are next on Big Blue Kick offf Live.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Hello.
Speaker 8 (38:49):
I'm really excited for this game because I'm actually going
to be present. This is like one of the first
games I get to be at cool Young, so I'm
excited for that. My first question for you guys is
what's up the pie. Obviously, our offense played very well
last weekend, so it's not like we need more offensive
players on the field, right, But I just feel like
you guys over the off season were saying how he
(39:09):
booked up, but you're very impressed with him, and we
just haven't gotten to see him on the field. So
I just was leading like, is he more Dusky's at
this point or do you think later this season he'll
get more opportunities to show his skill. And then my
other question would just be for people like Brian Burns
and one the Robinson who also just had an excellent game,
(39:29):
are they players that we need to look to resigning
soon or what's their contract situation looking like? Because I'm
just really sired of losing really good players over you know,
the years, whether it'd be Siquan or McKenzie. And I
understand his reasons for those things, but I just don't
want to keep losing them. So yeah, those are make
two questions. Thank you guys, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
I'll take the second one real quick. Well, that's an
easy one. Brian Burns has signed for multiple years. He
signed when the Giants traded for him, they signed to
do a big contract extension, so he's not going anywhere
anytime soon. Wandell Robinson is going into the last year
of him contract. You know, obviously what happens in the
future remains to be seen. You know, how he performs
(40:07):
moving forward will play a big factor in that he
is entering the last year of his rookie deal. We
have seen, you know, Joe Shane in some occasions negotiate
with guys in season. Other times he likes to wait
until after So for that one, that's a little bit
of a question mark.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
We'll have to see.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
But I mean, obviously, if he keeps playing like he
did last week, that'll be way more of an incentive
for the front office to want to bring him back.
Speaker 5 (40:33):
So yeah, as far as hya goes, if the Giants
coaching staff believe that his snaps would be more productive
than the guys who they are playing, then he would
get the playing time. For whatever reason they have, they're
going to play the guys who they believe will give
them the most production by snap. And to this point,
hy it hasn't gotten a play.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
It's that simple.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
And if you look, I've been doing a weekly snap
count article after each the day after d each game,
Malik Neighbors and Darius Slayton have been on the field
at lot.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
They are not really coming off the field.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
And if a third receiver is coming on the field,
it's Wan Dell. They haven't really no other receiver I
don't think has taken an offensive snap outside of those three.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
So if there were.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
To be a fourth receiver to take the field, my
guess is it would be Higatt, I would think. But
so far, Neighbors and Slaton have shown that they can
handle this, you know, high snap count, a high percentage
of snaps, and they haven't needed to put more than
three receivers out there yet.
Speaker 5 (41:32):
So real quick, Vinnie, we got about a minute I
think before Scataboo gets in here.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
So go ahead, what do you have for us.
Speaker 9 (41:39):
Okay, I'll be quick. First of all, I want to
give Pearson a shout out.
Speaker 8 (41:43):
He does a good job.
Speaker 9 (41:44):
And before I get into giant stuff, Pally, you're right,
and I don't always agree with everything, but you're right
when you talked about the quarterbacks that make the crazy money.
The sixty million really drains the ability of the team
to grow better players. That's starting to happen to the
Chiefs now with sixty mili going to the Mahomes, they're
(42:07):
not able to get the star players in free agency.
They just don't have the money.
Speaker 5 (42:13):
Well, Josh Allen, from what I understand from the Buffalo people,
he's actually taken less money. He's redone his deal and
taken a little less money. I mean, Brady did it
for years. Mahomes deserves to be the highest paid courterback
in the NFL. He's far from it.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
He signed that massive, a ten year, five hundred million
dollars year.
Speaker 9 (42:29):
To win another ten Super Bowls.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I mean, to be honest, I think he could be
asking for way more money than he is. I think
he is somewhat taken a pay cut in order to
try to fill the rest of the roster out. You know,
they haven't. They've been kind of affected by just some
injuries and stuff across the roster.
Speaker 9 (42:47):
Now let's talk about the giant.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
All right, what do you got, Vinnie? Real quick?
Speaker 9 (42:51):
You mentioned run game is Andrew Thomas Planner is still
a game time.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Decision, game time decision.
Speaker 9 (42:57):
Okay, we need we need to play Evan Neil in
that game. Let him help John Michael Smith's blow out
that Johnson. Let's have them pushed back because Grant Van Rodden, well,
well he's a good player. He's not a great player.
Not that Evan Neil is a great player yet, but
he's got the opportunity to be a smash mouth, run,
(43:17):
run stopper, run maker. Let's let's give it a shot
and put him in. I mean, he, after all, was
the top seven pick. Let's go get it. The other
thing I wanted to say is Abduel Carter like his game,
but unlike LT when he came in in the first game,
he was already a superstar. I think Abdul has improvement.
(43:39):
He's got to do and and get get to. He's
not quite there by the middle of the season. I'm
excited to see what he brings because when he starts
turning it on and and and Thibodeau with sat Burns,
we can be special, especially there's not forty points a
game though.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
Well, all I can tell you, Vinnie is that I
warned people before the season started sloppy September. It's going
to take three to four weeks before these guys really
find their groove, especially on the defensive side, where we
know that they've had a ramp up Dexter Lawrence, who
is the heart and soul of that defensive front. I
tried to warn you guys about this for at least
(44:18):
the last two weeks going into the season. And what
did we see a defense that has.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Not lived up to its billing so far.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
Well, if they're going to do it, you're gonna either
start seeing it this week or next week against the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
You know, the problem is already a zero and two.
You don't have much room for error anymore.
Speaker 4 (44:36):
Yeah, I mean, I'll say I think Bill Carter's looked
pretty impressive so far. Obviously he only has half a sack,
but he's the lead, the team leader in pressures. I
think he's gotten found ways to affect the quarterback in
multiple ways. Obviously we saw what he could do on
punt block, so I do think he's been impressive. Now,
(44:57):
let's just remember Lawrence Sailor is the greatest defensive player
to ever play, so it's not crazy that he doesn't
quite look exactly as good as LT through two weeks.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
All right, folks.
Speaker 5 (45:06):
Timed to end Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac,
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We have come to you from the Giants Podcast Studio
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Everybody
It's time for a Big Blue Kickoff line.
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Hello again, everybody, and welcome to Friday's edition of Big
Blue Kickoff Live, presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle
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Speaker 2 (00:38):
Keep getting Better.
Speaker 5 (00:40):
Paul Tatino, Matt Sietek, We're here for the next hour
to talk Giants football with you as they get ready
for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night football. It's
the home opener this season at Metlive Stadium. Now, we
already heard from coach Brian Dable this morning, and Matt,
I'm gonna let you do the honors because there is
a bit of a headline coming out of it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
Yes, I would say maybe half of the press conference
this morning or just an hour ago was about one
player in particular. Surprise, surprise, it was about Andrew Thomas.
Coach started off the press conference basically saying that Andrew
came out of yesterday's practice. He practiced two days in
a row, something he did do last week. But Coach
(01:22):
Dabel said at the beginning of the week that they've
been increasing his reps at practice.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
So with this increased workload.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
In practice on Wednesday and Thursday, Andrew came out of
it positive.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Coach said that he had a good day yesterday following
a good day on Wednesday. He's set to be out
there again, you know.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
The team's practicing at this moment, so all that is
good now. Coach Dabel did say that this is a
situation that is likely going to be taken all the
way up until inactives are announced ninety minutes before kickoff,
so we're not going to get one hundred percent clarity
on whether or not he's playing. My guess is he
will be listed as questionable on the injury report this afternoon.
(02:02):
Remains to be seen, but we'll see he's going to
be questionable. I would say we are trending in the
right direction. But a lot obviously can change in you know,
forty eight plus hours, but as of right now, it
sounds like arrow pointing up for Andrew Thomas. Now. Coach Dable,
(02:23):
when asked, did say that they're working through sort of
like strategies in terms of if he is clear to go,
is he going to play every single snap? You know,
he seemed to He was asked if there's possible a
rotation they could use, especially given how good Marcus Bow
looked last week. He did not close the door on that.
(02:44):
He didn't say yes, he didn't say no. He said,
we're still figuring things out, working through things. So it
seems like that is at least a possibility if Andrew
is given the green light, but maybe they don't want
to give him, you know, a full you know, how
many have sixty seventy snap in the first week. So
it sounds like there's at least a possibility that if
Andrew is cleared, they could do some sort of rotation
(03:08):
with Marcus. I guess potentially with James Hudson. You know,
he didn't specifically say it had to be Marcus, but
all in all, trending in the right direction for Andrew Thomas.
He also said that they were gonna scale back on
rakeem Nutnia's ROACHEZ today. That doesn't mean he's necessarily out
for Sunday, obviously, He's a veteran who was coming off
(03:31):
an injury. He did not he was inactive last week, right, Yeah,
inactive last week.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
So I think they're just trying to be a little
smart with him.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It sounded like everyone else would be the same as
the practice status says of yesterday. It was a long
list of limited players.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Coach did say that Demetrius Flannigan Fouls would be out
there again today. He also missed last week's game due
to a calf injury that he I believe suffered in practice. Obviously,
with Mike and McFadden and Chris Board both on injured reserve,
Giants need as many middle linebacker inside linebackers and Mouis
(04:11):
out in concussion protocol so and he is still yet
to practice, so Giants need as many bodies as they
can get at the at the linebacker position. Having flan
again Fouls, even though primarily special teams player or only
special team snaps in Week one, having him out there
would provide that, you know, second level of the defense
a little bit of a boost.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
I do see Swayzee Bozeman and as the next.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Man up to be honest, yeah, he likely will.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
He got a couple of only I believe five defensive
snaps this past week. Again, you know, the Giants lost
Darius Moussou and Chris Board during the game, which led
to Swayze Boseman, who had been elevated from the practice
squad for a last week's game, led to him playing
defensive snaps. He started off the game only playing special teams,
got thrust into that role. He could be looking at
(04:58):
a expanded role this weekend. Obviously, as I'm sure you
guys spoke about earlier in the week, the Giants made
some moves on the practice squad to add a couple
of more bodies to linebacker position, the headliner being nevill Hewitt,
who's an NFL veteran, been around for.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Years now, proven guy you know.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
Remains to be seen who gets elevated from the practice
squad if obviously, if Lewis that doesn't clear concussion protocol
and flanning and fouls is unable to go. I'd say
there's a good chance that one of these new linebackers
that were just signed, Yeah, could be making their Giants'
debut this Sunday night.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Well, they're not calling me.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
I promise you that I don't have the bulk for it.
I will tell you this. The good news about Bozeman
is that he was part of the Kansas City Chiefs
in twenty twenty four. He kind of pinballed between the
practice squad and the regular roster. Primarily a special teams guy.
(05:56):
Came out of the Southern miss last year, was an
undrafted rookie free agent, had a pit stop during this
year with the Bears, got cut, Giants picked him up.
The reason they picked him up is because he's got
an incredible relative athletics score rating of well over nine
points on a ten point scale. He's only about six
(06:17):
one and two fifteen, so he's kind of like safety size,
but his athleticism is ridiculous. If you looked at his
pro day, all of his testing numbers would have put
him in the top four in every category of the
linebackers at the twenty twenty four combine. So they're looking
(06:38):
at him as a tools guy or a traits guy,
if you will. How much does he play well? He's
a strong side linebacker by design, that's what he was
at Southern Miss. So with Okara Kea as the quote
middle linebacker so to speak, he may draw some snaps
against Travis Kelcey. I also would suppose that you'll see
Dan Belton draw snaps against Kelsey and you probably will
(07:00):
see them bracket him some too. To be quite honest
with you, Uh, it's an important matchup in the game.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
I mean, you know, say what you want about Travis
Kelcey through two weeks, he doesn't quite look like, you know,
the vintage Travis kelce that we have seen in the
NFL for so many years now. But making no mistake,
especially given you the situation that the Chiefs have at
wide receiver between injuries ra Shei Rice's suspension, Travis Kelcey
(07:28):
is still Patrick Mahomes's go to guy. That is the
guy that Patrick is going to look towards in key
situations on third downs, He's gonna be looking for Travis Kelcey.
So yeah, it's it's gonna be tough matchup defending Travis
kelce Just given all of the injuries that the Giants
have at the linebacker position, I see one comment already
(07:49):
in YouTube saying that there's no linebacker depth. I mean,
who could have thought two weeks into the season that
the Giants would lose one of their starting middle linebackers,
the primary backup middle lineback, and then one of the
veterans they signed to be depth at the linebacker position
and also contribute on special teams. You lose three guys
in the first two weeks of the season, two of
(08:09):
which are uninjured reserve. I don't see how you could
prepare for that. There's only so many linebackers you can
have on your active roster. I don't think the depth
was an issue. It's just Giants have had very unfortunate
injury luck in terms of the linebacker position to start
the season.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Good news in that you know Carter Abdul Carter will
see more snaps in this game. As they get him
more snaps each and every week, he will still be
in different spots. Trust me, They're not just gonna line
him up and say you be the backup middle linebacker
or inside backer and you take that spot. They're not
gonna do that. They value Carter's ability to play all
(08:45):
over the field too much to just stick him in
one spot Man.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah, but I mean, as you said, we did see
Abdul Carter.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I think it was only one or two snaps last
week played it off ball linebacker, and I believe it's
the same with Brian Burns. Like the Giants are gonna
find create ways to fill that position. That's not just
you know, Swayze Boseman playing every single snap next to
Bobby Karake. They're going to try to find ways to
get their best players out there as often as possible
(09:12):
and just.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Real quick Spacey.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Boseman's got to be one of the best football names
I've ever heard. This is a quickly little aside.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I didn't expect that.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
It's a pretty great football name. I'm just saying, well,
hopefully the production on field will match his name, but yeah,
I just have to quickly.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
The word from Kansas City media this morning is that
Xavier Worthy is not wearing a brace on his separated shoulder,
and so that's the video that they have posted, and
so m with that, it's looking more and more like
maybe there's an opportunity for him to try to play.
(09:53):
They've got Juju Smith Schuster and Hollywood Brown as they're
two guys who are their primary receivers, and Worthy is
very critical to them because he's a speed demon. He
is a burner. He is a guy who can take
the top off of a defense and is their best
deep play threat. Now he's got a separated shoulder. He
(10:15):
played three snaps in the opening game against the Chargers
and that was it. Just talked to Dannan Hughes, the Bayonne,
New Jersey native, former Chiefs wide receiver who does radio
work for them, talked to him about an hour ago,
and he said, it looks like they're going to try
to get him in there, so we will see.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
I don't know how effective he can be. I don't
know about him having the ability to take.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Hits on a shoulder that is not structurally really sound
right now, that's that's quite a chore for him to
be able to play effectively. Certainly, I don't know how
he's going to block in a running game that was
a separated shoulder.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Yeah, I mean, from everything I've all the reports I've
seen throughout the week, didn't look like he doesn't sound well.
From even what like Andy Reid told the media back
on Wednesday, is he was basically saying that Xavier Worthy
at least in practice has no limitations, so they clearly
have at least some level of confidence that that shoulder
(11:17):
is okay enough for him to play and okay enough
for him to hold up, you know, when he does
get hit. Now, XAVI, you're worthy even putting the shoulder
injury aside. He is not the biggest guy in the
end of the biggest wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
He's listed at one hundred and sixty five pounds.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
His his attribute, his biggest attribute is his speed.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
He has the ability to take the top off of
any defense.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
However, I mean even before the injury, any any big hit,
you'd have to like hold your breath and wait for
him to, you know, get back up, because he's just
not He's very very you know, I don't want to
say fragile with thin, but just one hundred and sixty
five pounds, there's not a ton of muscle on that frame.
So if I were the chiefs, I would certainly be
(12:03):
a little Again, we don't have any you know, actual information,
medical information on the injury besides what's been reported, but
it seems to me like one hit, as you mentioned,
one hit could knock that shoulder out of you know,
dislocate it once again, and if it gets dislocated again,
that then he's gonna have to I would think, have
(12:24):
to get surgery. That's season over.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
That's it. Look, they are just for sure that you
go oh and three.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
I don't know we know the percentage because we've unfortunately
smoken a lot the last couple of years on chances
of making the playoffs. If you start oh and two,
it's it's pretty tough to overcome that. I don't know
the numbers at oh and three, but it's obviously even
more difficult to overcome that.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So so they do need to win, but.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
I would be it's tough for me to see him.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I mean, as you said, it's like he's.
Speaker 5 (13:00):
Going to play well only because of what Hughes told
me this morning.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
And just based on the reports I've seen out of
Kansas City, it certainly seems like it. But boy, I
would be scared. One hit and that could be it
for the season for him.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
All right, So for me, the biggest key in this game,
and I'll get one from you, Matt, and then we're
going to take to your phone calls, because you guys
want to talk about this game. Two on one nine three, nine, four, five,
one three. It's obvious for me, if the Giants are
going to win this game, or have any chance to
win this game, the thing that must happen, an end
(13:35):
of story period, must happen. Defensive coordinator Steve Smagnolo, we
know him well, won a Super Bowl here, two stints
with the Giants. Basically next to Bill Belichick. Those guys
are my two favorite coordinators of all time. Okay, quite frankly,
he has been going crazy. He's sending the blitz because
(13:58):
he knows that his front four does not have the
teeth that it needs. He does not have the Giants
front four of Super Bowl vintage. He does not, so
what is he doing. He is sending everybody else on
the field. Safeties, corners, linebackers, They're all part of his
(14:18):
blitz package. His blitz percentage is the second most in
the league, just about fifty percent, only behind the Denver Broncos.
They are going hogwild crazy, you think with Martin Dale
blitzed a lot two years ago when he was the
Giants DC, he was only in the forty percent tile. Okay,
Spags is up right there at fifty percent. He is
(14:42):
going to send the kitchen sink and then some we
saw what happened against Washington when Russell Wilson had to
run for his life for four quarters and he was
suffocating back there because the pressure was so enveloping to him.
If the Giants do not pick up those blitzes, John
(15:03):
Michael Schmidz making the line calls at center, Russell Wilson
deciphering things and calling out audibles and hot reads, making
sure the tight ends and making sure the wide receivers
get the communication and run the hot routes. If they
do not handle the Chiefs blitz, they will lose this game.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
End of story.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
There is no other key that matters in this game
that must be taken care of.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, I mean that is definitely priority number one. And
I know that's obviously only focusing on one side of
the ball, but you nailed it in that Spags is
gonna blitz, and he's gonna blitz early, he's gonna blitz often.
And we saw the difference of the Giants offense when
Russell Wilson has some time to operate in the pocket
and when he does it, and they are two very
(15:54):
drastically different results. In the first two weeks of the season,
That's why to me, Wandell Robinson I think is one
of the biggest keys to this game. I mean, we
saw what he did last week deep. I mean he
basically matched or beat his career deep receiving numbers in
one game. So and he spoke about it in the
(16:15):
offseason about how he had been starting to line up,
you know, kind of all over the offense, not just
in the slot, run more routes, Expando's rout tree. We
saw it, and you know, last week was the first
time we got to see it in a game.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
That is priority number one, and I would say priority number.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Two is basically the same thing.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
But on the other side of the ball, Patrick mahomes
is you know, you look at his numbers this year,
to be honest, they're not great.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
His passing numbers are not great.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
He's had a lot of production with his legs, more
than he's ever had through two games of his career.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
In two games of a season in his.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
Career, he's on pace to shatter all of his previous
rushing numbers, all of that from scrambles, though he's had
zero designed runs. All of his production on the ground
has been scrambles because he too has somewhat been running
for his life the first two games, and that is
priority number two.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
And there's no balance because their running game hasn't gotten
going either.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
They have had You know, people have spoken about how
the Giants run game has struggled so far, and it has.
Kansas City's run game has struggled just as much. With
Isaiah Pacheco Kareem Hunt, They've been unable to get the
run game going outside of Mahomes. I mean, Mahomes, similar
to Russell Wilson, leads the Chiefs and rushing guards. I
don't think either team is happy with their quarterbacks leading
the team in rushing but on the defensive side of
(17:32):
the ball, Mahomes despite his limited passing efficiency this so
far this season, I don't think I'm going out of
the limb by saying we all know he is one
of the best, if not the best quarterbacks in the
NFL period. He's done it for enough years now we
all know this to be true. His numbers so far
this season when he's been blitzed are quite bad. So
(17:54):
when he's been blitzed, he has completed only six of
eighteen passes for eighty five five yards, one touchdown and
one interception. That thirty three point three completion completion percentage
second lowest in the NFL when blitzed. His forty four
point nine passer rating against the blitz is the fourth
lowest in the NFL. So he's going to get his
(18:16):
because he's Patrick Mahomes. The way to somewhat contain him
is he gotta blitz him, just like Spags is going
to do to Russell Wilson. You gotta get after Patrick Mahomes. Now,
he has tried to mitigate the blitzes he's been facing
by getting rid of the ball quickly. He's averaged two
point four second two point four to seven seconds average
(18:37):
time to throw this year, the fastest mark of his
entire career. However, he's only had a thirty nine percent
success rate, which is the fourth lowest in the NFL.
So getting rid of the ball quickly has not been
helping him. I mean, Dak Prescott we spoke last week.
He's amazing at getting the ball out quickly and he
has a ton of success doing it. Mahomes has not
had that same level of success this year. Well, it's
(19:00):
only been two games.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
The receiving corps is not as good as it used
to be. Rashi Rice is suspended, and that's a big
blow to them.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
No, no, for sure, but they're likely going to have
the same receiving corps this week that they had last week.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Oh yeah, and for pretty much the whole game Week one.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
I mean, we'll see about Worthy, but that's gonna be
the same group of receivers. So he's gonna face if
the Giants can get after him and blitz him and
pressure him as much as he's been pressured the first
two weeks. Hopefully the Giants defense will get the same
success that the Chargers and Eagles defense has got in
terms of Mahomes's throwing passing abilities. Obviously, the you know,
(19:35):
to counter that, he's probably gonna run the ball just
like he has the last two weeks. He's probably gonna
run the ball. He's gonna have some production on the ground.
I think as a defense, you can take Patrick Mahomes
running for fifty plus yards if it means he's only complete,
if he's completing, you know, under sixty percent of his throws.
I think we would take that trade off.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
No argument for me. Two oh one, nine three, nine,
four five one three years. Our phone number here on
Big Blue Kickoff Live And as a reminder, if you
do not catch the show live, always catch it on
your favorite podcast network, on giants dot com, Slash Podcasts,
and all of your platforms.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
The show is available.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Everywhere on the archive all the way up until game time.
All right, let's go to the phones and see who
we've got up first on the program today. We will
go to Ryan from Illinois, your first on the show.
Speaker 6 (20:26):
Hello, Hey guys, how are we doing today?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Verry? Good sir, how are you right?
Speaker 6 (20:32):
I'm well. I think that Sunday's game is going to
be really intriguing because, you know, some of the major
players that we've got, I think we know what they bring,
you know, offensively, I think Malik is going to be
doubled quite a bit. And I wonder if if some
of the unsung heroes that are you going to have
to really emerge and you know, in a community kind
of sense, make plays, you know, the the cam Tyrone combo.
(20:58):
I think it's gonna have to be big. I think
Theo Johnson. You know, it's like, do these guys play
like week one or like Week two? And I just
hope that that energy of you know, seeing first downs,
touchdowns being scored. I just hope that energy is maintained.
And I think that this is a step in the
right direction, having those guys on, you know, everyone kind
(21:18):
of doing their part and just staying really focused in
you know, does THEO have a couple drops like Week one,
or does he maybe score his first touchdown of the season.
I think that that could be absolutely huge. And then defensively,
you know, pressuring Mahomes like you were saying, Matt, But
I think bigger than that is. Can we rely on
a Cordel flot on a or even a debo like
(21:40):
we need a couple of plays on the back end
made when they get those opportunities, like like week one,
cordellflot could have had a pick six. I know it
was a tough play, but he legitimately could have had
a pick six and turned that game around. Can we
get one or two big plays by the defense to
really give this offense a chance to, like you know,
you know what I'm saying, score enough points and then
the defense and maybe comes through with a couple of
(22:01):
really big plays. All Right, That's all I got, guys,
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (22:04):
Case is one in turnover ratio so far. Unfortunately, Ryan,
your philosophy on the other side of the ball is
actually exactly the opposite of what the Chiefs will do.
At least during the first two weeks of the season.
They have because they've been a heavy blitz team. They've
been playing man to man. They have not doubled any receivers.
And let's not forget they played the Chargers and the
(22:26):
Eagles and they've got some potent weapons on the outside,
and Spagnolo has been saying, the heck with that, we're
not doubling anybody. We're going to send the blitz packages
and we are going to tell our dbs, specifically Trent mcduffee,
pro Bowl player, Okay, terrific, terrific player, very physical player,
(22:47):
going to tell the DBS to beat up the wide receivers.
Play man to man, play physical, beat them up, throw
out they're timing, and rush the heck out of the
quarterback so that he's got to get rid of the
ball quick. And what do we always say about quarterbacks
who want to get rid of the ball, Well, you
screw up the timing on the other side of the
(23:08):
passes so that the routes get all screwed up and
readjust it. That's how you break the rhythm of a
quarterback who wants to get rid of it quickly. That
is the mantra that Spags has lived on for two weeks.
Talking to Dandan Hughes again, the Chiefs color guy, this morning,
I asked him about, do you think against Neighbors and
(23:29):
Robinson after what they did last week? Maybe does something else.
He's like, no, no, no, you know, Spags, I do.
He's aggressive. He's always going to want to come after
the quarterback. So these receivers in terms of your comment
about focus, oh yeah, they better be focused, they better
be on top of their hot reads, and they better
(23:51):
be up for a black and blue style game because
the Chiefs tdbs will try to beat them up. That's
the bottom line, Spags will. He's not into disguising and
fooling on this. The only fooling he's gonna do is
when he's sent in his pressures. Who's coming on the pressure.
That is where he's playing his head games. He's not
(24:14):
playing head games with the secondary.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Ye're playing straight up.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, I do.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I do wonder if maybe Malik sees a little bit
of double coverage just because the first two weeks of
the season, the Chiefs played teams that have multiple proven,
very talented pass catchers. The Chargers obviously Lad McConkie, Keenan
Allen who's been doing it for a long time now,
even Quintin Johnston who obviously scored two touchdowns against them
(24:42):
in Week one, and then last week the combo of
AJ Brown and Devonte Smith, one of the best in
the league. I think Wandell obviously opened some eyes last
week with his performance. I think there are probably some
teams around the NFL that did not think he was
capable of a performance like that, in part because he's
never done that before. So I can't fully blamed show me,
But you know, I do wonder if maybe the Chiefs
(25:05):
defense does a little more. You know, obviously Trent McDuffie's
gonna be matched up against the belike neighbors for most,
if not all, of the game on Sunday night. I
do wonder if Malik, you know, starts to get going early,
if this that is a situation where maybe Spags you know,
has a safety or someone helping McDuffie out at least
(25:25):
sometimes with Malik, just because he's proven He's one of
the best receivers in the NFL and there are not
many corners that can slow him down one on one.
And just because the other Giants pass catches, while there
are very solid pass catches, they're not quite like to
the level of you know, the Devonte Smith j.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Brown combination.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
That's the only thing I'm curious to see if Spags
does that a little bit, just to you know, maybe
throw a slight wrench into the Giants plans. And if
that is the case, then as to Ryan was saying,
is guys need to step up. Then you know you're Wandell's,
your Darius Slayton, your Theo Johnson's. They are all gonna
be in one on one situations basically the whole game.
They are gonna have to take advantage of those opportunities.
(26:07):
They're gonna have to catch the passes that are thrown
at them. You know, you were saying, get someone on
defense make a play. How about one of these other.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Pass catchers, not name a leak, break a tackle or two,
take a you know, a slant route seventy yards to
the house for a touchdown.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
See, they've got a little bit of a problem because
Christian Fulton is injured. He's got an ankle injury. He
didn't practice earlier in the week. Now, what they want
to do in a perfect world spags when he brings
in Fulton, they slide McDuffie into the slot and he
covers the slot guy man a man which would be
Wandel Robinson. Here's the problem without Fulton available, Okay, they
(26:44):
got to keep McDuffie on the boundary, so that already
is going to Jimmy with their usual game plan and
how they want to run things. Now, can the Giants
take advantage that? You would think if McDuffie's not gonna
move into the slot in the sub package, well whoever
(27:07):
they wind up throwing in and they've got a bunch
of other dbs, but they're not as accomplished. That may
be Wandel Robinson's chance to have another big game, but again,
given the pressure and the amount of hot reads you're
gonna have to run, you're not probably not gonna run
a lot of deep routes because you gotta get that
ball out this folks, I know it sounds nuts, but
(27:29):
this is a battle between two oho and two teams,
and there is a lot of permutations to this Rubik's Cube.
I mean that this is a great puzzle. This this
so far, of the three games the Giants have played
this year, this is the one that's keeping me up
the most at night when I'm jimmying around with leex'es
and o's and formations, this one has me going crazy,
(27:52):
probably because I love Spags so much and I respect
him so much. He's got me going bonkers. Two on one, nine, nine, four,
five three is our number here on Big Blue Kick
Off Live, Jonathan and Westchester.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
You're next on the show.
Speaker 6 (28:04):
Hello, Hi guys, how are you hi?
Speaker 7 (28:10):
So it was nice to score thirty seven points against
Dallas last week, but going into the Chiefs game, I
am still concerned about our run blocking and blitz pick up,
particularly on the interior. Wanted to get your thoughts on
something I was running through the Giants draft history, particularly
as it relates to the guard positions. So back in
(28:33):
two thousand and four, everyone remembers the Grade Eli trade,
but overshadowed by that was the second round pick Chris Snee,
which I think is one of the most important draft
picks in recent Giants history. So amazingly, in the twenty
one years since that two thousand and four draft, Giants
have only selected a guard in the first four rounds
(28:56):
of the draft. And you can check me on this
one time. That was when Gettlement selected Will Hernandez in
the second round of twenty eighteen. I'm not counting as
Zudo a zudu in twenty twenty two. I know it
was used as a guard occasionally. I think it was
two of his ten starts as a Giant. So in
that same twenty one year period in two thousand and four,
(29:17):
I counted six guards drafted by the Eagles and five
guards drafted by the Cowboys. I'm wondering if you know
we're seeing the effect of that. You know that the
Giants just haven't spent enough draft capital on the guard position,
you know, and that's impacted and continues to impact our
interior aligne So I guess I'll hang up and get
your thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
Thanks, guys, thank you, thanks for the call.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I want to take it.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
Yeah, Well, just for starters, I would say that. I mean,
as we've discussed mostly in the offseason, there are many
different ways you can go to build an offensive line.
It's not like the Giants have not put any resources
towards the interior offensive line. They signed John Runny into
a you know, pretty significant guard contract last year.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
They brought back Greg Van Rodin.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Now obviously his contract is not so substantial, but he's
a proven veteran that has provided the Giants with you know,
solid play at the guard position. And John Michael Schmidz
was the second round pick only a couple of years ago.
So it's not like there have not been any resources
put towards, you know, the offensive line or the interior
offensive line. I mean, you were talking about that Chris
(30:23):
Snee offensive line. Well, the guys that were around him,
it was a combination of some draft picks and some
veterans that were brought in. So I someway, I kind
of get what you're saying, But at the same time,
I'm I don't fully agree because they have still tried
to address the interior offensive line with free agency, so
(30:45):
I don't That's where I disagree a little bit.
Speaker 5 (30:48):
The only thing I will say in terms of where
it's showing up. Obviously, with a shorter quarterback Russell Wilson,
we've talked about that being a key all year, it
does become even more important that the interior line plays
up to par. That's true. I'm not hiding from that
(31:08):
or running away from that. Now much more important when
Russell Wilson, a shorter Russell Wilson is playing behind the
interior line than when a Daniel Jones is, when Daniel
Jones is six foot four and a half for sure. Okay,
So yes, to that point, you have a little something.
The other little something you have is that in the
(31:30):
last two or three years, we have seen more defensive
tackles and this will all is the Aaron Donald syndrome.
We have seen more teams devote more time and perhaps
trying to get more impact players on the interior of
the defensive line. Right, We've seen Hayward and Pittsburgh. We've
seen Dexter Lawrence.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
With the Giants.
Speaker 5 (31:52):
We've seen now we see Carter playing.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
With the Eagles.
Speaker 5 (31:55):
Quentin Williams, Yeah, Quinn Williams, another one, Chris Jones with
Kansas City. You know, there's been more of an emphasis
in recent years about beef up the impact from the
interior defensive line. So yes, yes, I do think it
is more imperative that the Giant's interior offensive line steps
(32:15):
up and does better.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
This year, So that's perhaps a little bit of what
he was talking about.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Yeah, I get that, But I guess somewhat of a
counterpoint I would make is you look back at this
past Sunday's game against the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Now, not the Cowboys obviously don't.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
Have the league's greatest defensive line, but Kenny Clark is
a pretty formidable defensive tackle.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, and they scored thirty seven points against defense.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
They scored thirty seven points and the combination of John Runyon,
Greg Van Roden, and John Michael Schmidtz were credited, according
to Pro Football Focus, gave up a total of five
pressures between the three of them. I feel like we
would sign up for that. The three interior linemen, who
you know, at least in terms of the starting five
offensive linemen on the Giant. I feel like going into
(33:01):
the year, everyone felt great about the Thomas illumin or
tackle combination. It was the interior that some people were like,
we got to see them perform. Yeah, I think five
total pressures between the three of them. We would sign
up for that.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah, give me a pen.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
You go back to Week one, and that was a
game where the offensive line did not play great at
least especially compared to this past week.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Oh, they were bad. This three of.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
Them, according to PFF again were credited with six pressures allowed.
So like I again, I can I get what you're saying,
but I don't think that the three of them have
been like so awful these first two games where it's
like Giants need to find a remedy for the interior offensive.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Line where they didn't necessarily step up big time last week.
They didn't pass pro, they didn't do it a whole
lot in a run game that they still.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Have to show us for one hundred percent, the run
game has been basically non existent. And to be honest,
I meant to say this before to Ryan, our first caller,
it's gonna be real tough for the run game to
get going this week because for you know, the holes
that the Chiefs defense might have shown through the first
two weeks, run defense is not one of them.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
They have been one of the best run defenses for
years now.
Speaker 5 (34:11):
Stuff in lanes and when because they're blitzing so much,
they're even run blitzing.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
And Chris Jones being right there in the mills certainly
doesn't help opposing run games. So I know, so to
be honest like it might be another rough day for
the run Game this week. I would say, don't you know,
give up hope on the run Game because things can
and likely will get better moving forward. But this week
it might be a little tough to get going.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Real quick, folks. And we may have to cut the
program short today because Cam scattab who has to do
a pregame radio interview. They need the studio, so we
may have to get out of here shortly. I just
want to give you a heads up. The Giants Foundation
will host a five K Racing Kids Run presented by
Quest on Sunday, October twenty sixth at nine am at
MetLife Stadium. Net Proceeds will benefit the Giants Foundation. All
(34:53):
participants receive a commemorative T shirt after the race, stay
for a post race festival with appearances by Giants ledg
and a live DJ. Registered now at giants dot com
Slash five k. The Giants Foundation is a five oh
one C three nonprofit corporation. Also the Ultimate New York
Giants Women's Tailgate, presented by Joe Malone. It's a ticketed
event and it's on Sunday, September twenty eight from ten am.
(35:16):
To twelve pm in Lot G ahead of the Giants
Week four home game against the Chargers. Attends will have
an opportunity to connect with the Giants legends. Also, Madelin
is going to be out there enjoy custom merchandise, shop
exclusive Kendris Scott activation at her particular setup, tailgate games, giveaways,
(35:37):
photo ops, live DJ entertainment, tailgate food Hopebolohas. One drink
ticket is included with the purchase and the tailgate is
for twenty one and older only. Also, Giant season tickets
for the twenty twenty five season are still available. Full
membership gets you out of season benefits as well. Go
to Giants dot com slash tickets, and don't forget The
(36:00):
Giants TV Mobile app is free on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon,
Fire Tv, and the Giants Mobile App. It is there
to get you all kinds of good fun and goofy
highlights that we put up on social media. Finally, real quick,
either Matt or Pearson Giants huddle today, anything special has
gone up this morning or going up today in the afternoon.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
What's going up today is the interview with Cam Scattaboo,
your interview with danon Hughes and coach tables sit down
with Pop Pop.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
There you go, well prepping for the chiefs.
Speaker 4 (36:31):
Speaking of Bat Scatoby, that was the one other thing
you missed during Coaches Presser.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
He is a character.
Speaker 4 (36:37):
He walked by behind the media as coach was speaking,
gave coach kind of like a smirk because I was standing,
you know, towards where on the side where our coaches,
and I saw Cam smirk. And then all of a sudden,
he started just howling, like howling, like basically like his
screams that we've seen him do at times. He started
(37:00):
doing that and like every ten seconds would be another scream.
I highly recommend everyone once it gets posted onto YouTube
and the Giants dot Com, give Coaches Presser a quick view.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It's not long as like ten minutes, is very entered.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
Even coach it gets a little flustered and like starts
laughing like this guy.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's very funny.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Cam has as you will see in the huddle that
gets posted later. Cam's got a lot of personality. Oh
something I think this locker room could use. Like it's
good that he's been added to the mix.
Speaker 5 (37:32):
I will tell you this, and the way that he
loves contact it is willing to take on blitzers. Okay,
could be very important against the Chiefs.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
Oh yeah. Now, the trick is.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
He is a rookie.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
He's got to be able to make sure he's got
the call right, he recognizes it right, and then he's
able to execute it. We know he loves to face
these blitzers and he loves the contact, but he's gonna
have to make sure that he gets the right call
and makes the proper recognition because mental mistakes when you're
trying to pick up the blitzers a running back, we'll
(38:06):
get your quarterback smoked.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
For sure and all.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
The only thing I'll say to that is, at least
through the first two weeks of the season, the first
week limited action, a little more last week, he's done
good in that department.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
So far, so yeah, so far, so good.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Obviously, as a rookie, the only way to have him
improve and play better is give him more chances. So
I'm sure he will get plenty of opportunities on Sunday.
Speaker 5 (38:28):
Although they might be safer given Singletary a few more
option in that particular spot because he's a little more
experienced to handle it.
Speaker 4 (38:35):
True, maybe, I mean, maybe they throw Cam out there,
and if he struggles a little bit with the pass
protection to start, then maybe we see more Singletary.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Later we'll see Malachi.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
You are next on Big Blue Kick offf Live.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Hello.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
Hello.
Speaker 8 (38:49):
I'm really excited for this game because I'm actually going
to be present. This is like one of the first
games I get to be at cool Young, so I'm
excited for that. My first question for you guys is
what's up the pie. Obviously, our offense played very well
last weekend, so it's not like we need more offensive
players on the field, right, But I just feel like
you guys over the off season were saying how he
(39:09):
booked up, but you're very impressed with him, and we
just haven't gotten to see him on the field. So
I just was leading like, is he more Dusky's at
this point or do you think later this season he'll
get more opportunities to show his skill. And then my
other question would just be for people like Brian Burns
and one the Robinson who also just had an excellent game,
(39:29):
are they players that we need to look to resigning
soon or what's their contract situation looking like? Because I'm
just really sired of losing really good players over you know,
the years, whether it'd be Siquan or McKenzie. And I
understand his reasons for those things, but I just don't
want to keep losing them. So yeah, those are make
two questions. Thank you guys, thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
I'll take the second one real quick. Well, that's an
easy one. Brian Burns has signed for multiple years. He
signed when the Giants traded for him, they signed to
do a big contract extension, so he's not going anywhere
anytime soon. Wandell Robinson is going into the last year
of him contract. You know, obviously what happens in the
future remains to be seen. You know, how he performs
(40:07):
moving forward will play a big factor in that he
is entering the last year of his rookie deal. We
have seen, you know, Joe Shane in some occasions negotiate
with guys in season. Other times he likes to wait
until after So for that one, that's a little bit
of a question mark.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
We'll have to see.
Speaker 4 (40:25):
But I mean, obviously, if he keeps playing like he
did last week, that'll be way more of an incentive
for the front office to want to bring him back.
Speaker 5 (40:33):
So yeah, as far as hya goes, if the Giants
coaching staff believe that his snaps would be more productive
than the guys who they are playing, then he would
get the playing time. For whatever reason they have, they're
going to play the guys who they believe will give
them the most production by snap. And to this point,
hy it hasn't gotten a play.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
It's that simple.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
And if you look, I've been doing a weekly snap
count article after each the day after d each game,
Malik Neighbors and Darius Slayton have been on the field
at lot.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
They are not really coming off the field.
Speaker 4 (41:06):
And if a third receiver is coming on the field,
it's Wan Dell. They haven't really no other receiver I
don't think has taken an offensive snap outside of those three.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
So if there were.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
To be a fourth receiver to take the field, my
guess is it would be Higatt, I would think. But
so far, Neighbors and Slaton have shown that they can
handle this, you know, high snap count, a high percentage
of snaps, and they haven't needed to put more than
three receivers out there yet.
Speaker 5 (41:32):
So real quick, Vinnie, we got about a minute I
think before Scataboo gets in here.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
So go ahead, what do you have for us.
Speaker 9 (41:39):
Okay, I'll be quick. First of all, I want to
give Pearson a shout out.
Speaker 8 (41:43):
He does a good job.
Speaker 9 (41:44):
And before I get into giant stuff, Pally, you're right,
and I don't always agree with everything, but you're right
when you talked about the quarterbacks that make the crazy money.
The sixty million really drains the ability of the team
to grow better players. That's starting to happen to the
Chiefs now with sixty mili going to the Mahomes, they're
(42:07):
not able to get the star players in free agency.
They just don't have the money.
Speaker 5 (42:13):
Well, Josh Allen, from what I understand from the Buffalo people,
he's actually taken less money. He's redone his deal and
taken a little less money. I mean, Brady did it
for years. Mahomes deserves to be the highest paid courterback
in the NFL. He's far from it.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
He signed that massive, a ten year, five hundred million
dollars year.
Speaker 9 (42:29):
To win another ten Super Bowls.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
I mean, to be honest, I think he could be
asking for way more money than he is. I think
he is somewhat taken a pay cut in order to
try to fill the rest of the roster out. You know,
they haven't. They've been kind of affected by just some
injuries and stuff across the roster.
Speaker 9 (42:47):
Now let's talk about the giant.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
All right, what do you got, Vinnie? Real quick?
Speaker 9 (42:51):
You mentioned run game is Andrew Thomas Planner is still
a game time.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
Decision, game time decision.
Speaker 9 (42:57):
Okay, we need we need to play Evan Neil in
that game. Let him help John Michael Smith's blow out
that Johnson. Let's have them pushed back because Grant Van Rodden, well,
well he's a good player. He's not a great player.
Not that Evan Neil is a great player yet, but
he's got the opportunity to be a smash mouth, run,
(43:17):
run stopper, run maker. Let's let's give it a shot
and put him in. I mean, he, after all, was
the top seven pick. Let's go get it. The other
thing I wanted to say is Abduel Carter like his game,
but unlike LT when he came in in the first game,
he was already a superstar. I think Abdul has improvement.
(43:39):
He's got to do and and get get to. He's
not quite there by the middle of the season. I'm
excited to see what he brings because when he starts
turning it on and and and Thibodeau with sat Burns,
we can be special, especially there's not forty points a
game though.
Speaker 5 (43:58):
Well, all I can tell you, Vinnie is that I
warned people before the season started sloppy September. It's going
to take three to four weeks before these guys really
find their groove, especially on the defensive side, where we
know that they've had a ramp up Dexter Lawrence, who
is the heart and soul of that defensive front. I
tried to warn you guys about this for at least
(44:18):
the last two weeks going into the season. And what
did we see a defense that has.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Not lived up to its billing so far.
Speaker 5 (44:26):
Well, if they're going to do it, you're gonna either
start seeing it this week or next week against the Chargers.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
You know, the problem is already a zero and two.
You don't have much room for error anymore.
Speaker 4 (44:36):
Yeah, I mean, I'll say I think Bill Carter's looked
pretty impressive so far. Obviously he only has half a sack,
but he's the lead, the team leader in pressures. I
think he's gotten found ways to affect the quarterback in
multiple ways. Obviously we saw what he could do on
punt block, so I do think he's been impressive. Now,
(44:57):
let's just remember Lawrence Sailor is the greatest defensive player
to ever play, so it's not crazy that he doesn't
quite look exactly as good as LT through two weeks.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
All right, folks.
Speaker 5 (45:06):
Timed to end Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac,
the official luxury vehicle of the New York Football Giants.
We have come to you from the Giants Podcast Studio
presented by Hacketsack. Already in health, keep getting better from
Matt and Paul. Enjoy the game. Sunday night, the Giants
and Chiefs have met. Live stadium song.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Everybody
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