Big Blue Kickoff Live 9/23 | Reacting to Roster Reports

Lance Medow and Matt Citak talk about recent Giants reports, talk about the Giants offense, and take calls from fans.

:00 - Quarterback news

27:20 - Calls

37:20 - More calls

47:40 - More on quarterbacks

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 5 (00:27):
Welcome to Tuesday's edition at Big Blue Kickoff live here
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He is Matt Sidetech on Lance Medal with you for
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He could also hit us up on social media using
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(00:49):
last name Mdow. He is at Matt's Sidetech one word
as well. Clearly, some interesting news off the top of
the show which we will address, and a lot more
that will delve into in terms of some takeaways from
the Chiefs game as well. But according to multiple reports,
and let me make this clear, the Giants have yet
to make this news official but I'm sure a lot
of you have seen everything that has been posted out

(01:09):
on social media, many reports indicating that Jackson Dart will
make his first career start this Sunday at home against
the Los Angeles Chargers at one pm Eastern. So the Giants,
according to reports, are making a quarterback change, as Russell
Wilson no longer the starter after the first three games
Jackson Dart in Brian Dable addressed the media yesterday, Matt,

(01:30):
but his next press conference is not until Wednesday, and
we won't know anything official until, of course Dable speaks
to the media. But I think if you maybe reading
between the lines and connect the dots. When he did
speak with reporters the other day and he was asked
on multiple occasions, what's the plan in terms of the
starting quarterback, said that they're reviewing everything. He left it

(01:52):
general open ended with respect to personnel, and that once
again a little bit different Matt than maybe his rests
sponsor the first two weeks. So that perhaps was opening
the door a little bit more than we had seen
previously that there's a chance there could have been a
change under center.

Speaker 6 (02:09):
Yeah, look after the season opener, right after the game
when coach Table was speaking the beat reporters basically asked him,
you know, are you think considering making a change? And
right after that first game he did the same sort
of thing that he did this past Sunday night, which
is he kind of left the door a little open
a little bit. But then when he spoke to the

(02:29):
media the very next day, so this is Monday after
week one, he definitively said, you know, Russ is our starter.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Now fast forward.

Speaker 6 (02:37):
Two weeks, Coach Table did the same sort of thing
after the game Sunday night, which is normal, but then
yesterday that was the as you mentioned, that was the
sort of eye opening remarks where he was given several
opportunities to, you know, definitively say like, yes, Russell Wilson
will be our starting quarterback this week, or no, Jackson
Dart will be.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
He did not close. He left the door open.

Speaker 6 (02:59):
As you mentioned, he did not give any sort of
definitive answer, and obviously that led to a lot of
speculation like, oh, maybe the Giants are considering making this change.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
So yeah, I would say based on.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
Coach's remarks yesterday, you could say that the writing may
have been on the wall a little bit Obviously, again
nothing is confirmed. We will hear from coach in about
I guess twenty four hours from right about now, and
he will give us, you know, more definitive answers to
these questions. But yeah, according to reports, it sounds like

(03:34):
the Jackson Dart era begins.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
And you could say this is, I guess inevitable when
it comes to the National Football League. We've seen this
trend play out when teams struggle record wise early in
the season and a first round pick comes in. The
quarterback who's the younger of the two, tends to get
on the field sooner rather than later. And we talked
about a potential timeline, and even Brian Dable was asked

(03:59):
and the approach was patients developing, that he's got individual
steps that he needs to check off. And he even
gave a similar answer the other day when he was
asked about Jackson Dart and how confident are you in saying, hey,
he's going through the motions and in practice we have
him run the scout team and this and that, and
things sometimes get accelerated because of what develops based on

(04:21):
the results on the field and so forth. I mean,
we can go through so many other examples, Matt that
we've done in NFL history ever since the Giants drafted
Jackson Dart, and there are many different young quarterbacks that
have started immediately. There are others that got in mid season.
There are some that waited till year two and year three.
And Mahomes has come up coincidentally because he was here

(04:42):
the other night, and you had Kafka who was with
him in Kansas City, and he got in the very
last game of his rookie season and then took over
Alex Smith the following year after they moved him to Washington.
So everybody's not cut from the same cloth. There's a
different pathway. But I thought Darius Slayton, who spoke with reporters,
you know, gave some really good perspective the other day,

(05:04):
and he had answered similarly that about a few weeks ago.
But he was asked about a potential quarterback change and
supporting Russell Wilson and Jackson Dart, and he said, listen,
I was here when Daniel Jones took over. They were
both rookies in twenty nineteen. And there's actually there's going
to be a difference between one week between Daniel Jones,

(05:24):
right and Jackson. Dart Jones was thrown in to the
fire and week three against the Bucks when Pat Shermer
was the head coach replaced Eli Manning, so Dart week four,
and he had looked back over the years since and
has reflected and he admitted he said, I thought Daniel
was sort of rushed onto the field and didn't have
time to digest being a starter. Now once again, Darius

(05:48):
lived it, he experienced it, and that doesn't mean that
every quarterback once again is the same. But you don't
hear players after a year or two review that and
maybe think through that. So I just thought it was
interesting if Darius. He didn't say if he could go
back and do it again, but he just felt that
Daniel wasn't given maybe a little bit more wiggle room

(06:09):
in time to go through the motions compared to maybe
some other younger quarterbacks who have entered the league over
the last few years.

Speaker 6 (06:17):
Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, every quarterback is different.
We have seen some examples of rookie quarterbacks coming in
in week one and having tremendous success.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Cam Warden, I mean he's coming right, yes.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
Camberton last year, Jayden Daniels obviously came in, took the
league by storm, led the Washington to the NFC Championship
as a rookie.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
You know, CJ. Stroud a couple of years ago did it.

Speaker 6 (06:37):
So there are examples of guys coming in and immediately
finding success.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Now that was interesting.

Speaker 6 (06:43):
I'm glad you brought up the Darius and the twenty
nineteen season because, you know, for some people that are saying,
you know, I can't believe they're going away from Russell
Wilson so quickly, I just want to remind people that
in twenty nineteen, the Giants want to from Eli Manning,
the greatest quarterback to play for this franchise after two

(07:04):
games for a rookie quarterback. So it's not like this
is like such an unheard of decision here, like it's
been done before. And the last time the Giants drafted
a quarterback in the first round of the draft, we
saw this very similar situation play out, and that was
with an all time franchise legend, not a veteran quarterback

(07:25):
who obviously is one of the best, I think one
of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, but
he signed a one year deal earlier this offseason. It's
not like he's been here for over a decade like
Eli was. So it doesn't if this, you know, if
Brian Dable confirms this news tomorrow, I'm not I don't
think it's like so crazy and unheard of to make

(07:48):
this decision. Clearly, if this is the decision that the
coaching staff has made, it's because they believe that Jackson Dark.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Gives them the best chance to win.

Speaker 6 (07:57):
And quite frankly, looking at how we performed in the preseason,
that might have changed the timeline that the coaching staff
had in mind for getting Jackson Dart into game action.
I'm sure when they went into training camp they might
have said, you know, we want to be patient with him,
let him take time to develop, get used to like
the speed of the NFL. But then he came and

(08:18):
lit up in the preseason. He had three tremendous performances,
and that probably opened the eyes of the coaching staff
like maybe he's further along than we maybe thought he
would have been at this time, you know, when we've
drafted him or when we signed Russ back in March.
So yeah, I look, if this turns out, if coach
Nable confirms this tomorrow, I think it's an exciting time. Obviously,

(08:39):
it's a tough matchup with the Chargers defense is a
good defense. Yeah, But then again, you look at the
Giants schedule, there really is no soft landing spot to
put a rookie quarterback in for his first start. I mean,
next week the Giants are in New Orleans, which New
Orleans not that talented of a team, but any team
going to the Superdome to play that is a very

(09:00):
tough environment to play in.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
And then you have a.

Speaker 6 (09:02):
Stretch of Eagles Broncos Eagles, so there really was no
soft landing spot to put him in. I mean, I
guess in an absolute ideal world, the softest landing spot
made a bit after the bye, But because the Giants
have such a late buy, don't you don't want to
wait until December to see what Jackson Dark can do so.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Well, especially with the team zero to three in the
level of urgency, at least from a standings perspective, if
you're gonna look for a spark, you're gonna do it
sooner rather than later. But I'm in wholehearted agreement with you.
You're gonna see Vic Fangio, who is a solid veteran
defensive coordinator twice in the span of three weeks, and
then in between that the Denver Broncos, who had the
best defense last season, maybe have struggled a little bit

(09:45):
in some higher scoring games. But Vance Joseph is also
another experienced former head coach who coincidentally, like Fangio, was
in Denver and now he's back as the defensive coordinator.
So it's not gonna get any easier. You're gonna see
Green Bay at some point, the Lions. It is what
it is when it comes to the NFL, I would say,
even when you look at the record of teams like
the Saints, their defensive coordinator and their unit has a

(10:09):
lot of veterans on that side of the ball who
I'm sure are going to be foaming at the mouth
going up against the rookie quarterback who at that point
will be making his second career start. So there is
no ideal formula for putting this timeline into place. Things
don't necessarily always go according to plan. Just like life,
the NFL, it evolves week to week. I think we

(10:30):
have enough evidence of that. Heck, let's go beyond Daniel Jones.
Matt Okay, you mentioned that was the last example, Eli,
who Daniel Jones replaced Okay, was a rookie in two
thousand and four and Tom Kaughlin, actually you could argue,
made an unpopular decision that season because the Giants were
five and four, they had a winning record with Kurt

(10:50):
Warner as their starting quarterback, and at that point he decided,
I'm going to now switch gears to the rookie quarterback.
And things didn't go smoothly record wise. The team didn't
make the playoffs that year, didn't finish with a winning record,
but Tom felt at that point they needed to make
a change and they needed to accelerate getting Eli on

(11:11):
the field. So you've seen teams with winning records make
the change, and we've seen a team with a losing record,
and both under the umbrella of this franchise. So you
really don't have to look outside the Giants organization in
terms of the history of various different pathways for rookie quarterbacks.
I think, as you were hitting on, I think based
on how Jackson Dark performed in the preseason and how

(11:33):
quickly he seemed to get a feel for the offense
and the rapport he built with his teammates gave Brian
Dable and the coaching staff the confidence that maybe we
can get him on the field sooner rather than later.
But I'm going to go back to what Darius Slayton
had to say. There's a distinct difference between the preseason
and the regular season, for sure. Okay, it is a

(11:54):
huge spectrum that you're talking about, and just because certain
flashes and things went smoothly before the season started doesn't
mean it's gonna roll over. But Dart offers the Giants
a bit of newness and something different also for the
Chargers to have to account for, right, because there's a
lot of film out there of Russell Wilson three games,
specifically a lot of historical matchups that Harbaugh and his

(12:19):
staff have well documented film. Dart, you have a few
preseason games, as you noted bad, but it's a little
bit of a land of the unknown, and that always
adds a bit of intrigue, I guess to a matchup.
And perhaps you know something that the Giants can throw
in an opponent that they were not afforded in the
first three games.

Speaker 6 (12:38):
Yeah, and I think you know something that people might
be forgetting.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Now. You know, we spent all off season or at
least I did.

Speaker 6 (12:47):
All offseason, you know, training camp, even the preseason, saying
that based on how the last two seasons have gone
for the Giants, you know, I don't know how many
people necessarily expected the Giants to come in this year
and you know, be Super Bowl contenders. Realistically, we all
want and still want the team to make a jump,
a step in the right direction. And I said for

(13:10):
months the most important thing to have Giants fans ending
the season and this organization ending the season feeling like
we are going in the right direction is Jackson Dart's development.
So the fact if Jackson Dart is out there this week,
it clearly means that the coaching staff feels that he
is ready to go out there.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
This isn't some like you know, desperation play, just throw
the rookie out there.

Speaker 6 (13:33):
No, they think that Jackson Dart gives them the best
chance to win the game on Sunday and every Sunday
moving forward.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Would they wouldn't be no decision would be.

Speaker 6 (13:43):
Made to put him out there if he was not ready,
just to you know, as like a desperation thing save
this season. No, they think that he gives them the
best chance to win and you know, obviously we'll see
how he performs. He's got what is it, fourteen games
left now to see what he can do. But ye,
his development has always been the biggest, the number one

(14:05):
priority for the Giants this season, at least in my opinion,
it has always been how does Jackson Dart develop as
a rookie? If we end the season with, you know,
feeling like we are set at quarterback for the next
decade plus, Jackson Dart is our guy, and I said
this months ago, I don't care if we only win

(14:25):
a couple of games like that is what would leave
us feeling like we are heading in the right direction,
that we found figured out a long term solution to
the most important position in all of sports.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
So now we're going to see, you know, what the
rookie can do.

Speaker 6 (14:39):
But clearly the coaching staff has a ton of confidence
in them, otherwise they would not be putting him out
there in Week four.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Well, they also, I'm sure feel, and this is just
my own personal opinion that at this point, given the
struggles of the offense, that perhaps Dart's skill set and
once again that newness factor that I was talking about,
meaning not document did on film, could provide perhaps a
bit of a spark, but once again, tough defenses right

(15:07):
out of the gate that he's going to have to solve.
And I think the other thing that's important to understand,
and I brought this up Matt on last Tuesday show
after the Cowboys game, that what they put forth on
offense was a great development, right Russell Wilson throwing for four
dred fifty yards explosive plays, But don't expect that to

(15:28):
now all of a sudden roll over to the Chiefs
when Steve Spagnolo runs a completely different defense than Matt
Eberfluss and has completely different personnel than what the Dallas
secondary has to offer, and what happened it was a
big one to eighty. So this idea that if your
show flash is one week that all of a sudden,
it could be easily pushing a button and it's going

(15:51):
to come out the same way the follow up game.
The NFL just doesn't operate. It doesn't work like that.
And you can even look at other offenses that I
could go through the NFL this season. For example, the
Minnesota Vikings looked a lot better this week against the
Bengals than they did the previous week against the Atlanta Falcons,
and I know it was a different quarterback with Carson Wentz,
but Winston throw for three hundred yards. They just looked

(16:12):
a better team, and they went up against a team
with a backup quarterback in their defense had multiple takeaways.
So the Dynamics can flip flop immensely from one week
to another. And if you go back to Daniel Jones,
he had that great game against the Bucks right in
twenty nineteen, and he had that rushing touchdown to help
propel the Giants the victory. And I thought Daniel Jones

(16:34):
had a really good rookie year overall in comparison to
the rest of his tenure. But every other game wasn't
like that. They played the Vikings shortly after the Bucks,
and you know, Minnesota made it difficult. So I think
anybody going into this, at least from a fan perspective,
has to understand Dart's gonna get on field experience, which
to your point, is going to be great, especially with
him being hopefully the plan in the long run. But

(16:54):
he's a rookie quarterback and there's a lot he hasn't seen,
and there's a lot he has to learn on the
flying and it's gonna come ten times faster than what
the preseason and what practice those settings have to offer.
And that's important to at least designate when you at
least have a conversation of what realistically one man under
center can do. I think for the state of a

(17:16):
team's offense is what I'm getting at.

Speaker 6 (17:17):
Yeah, and look Week two, Russell Wilson against Dallas. There's
no you know, no one's gonna stit in here and
say that he was not fantastic in that game. But
the Dallas Cowboys might have one of the worst defenses
in the NFL. You know, he takes my context. Yeah,
take Micah Parsons out. They're currently down deron Bland Like,
there's just not a ton of talent on that Cowboys defense. Now,

(17:39):
Russell Wilson, we all know going into the season, his
biggest strength, and it has been for the last you know,
recent years, has been the deep ball, and which we
saw at against the Cowboys. The depasse was fantastic this
past Sunday night against the Chiefs. Steve Spagnola, who I
think we both agree, one of the best defensive coordinators
in the NFL. He's obviously he'd been the most successful

(18:01):
defensive coordinator in NFL history in terms of Super Bowl championships.

Speaker 4 (18:06):
He took away the deep ball.

Speaker 6 (18:08):
The Chiefs ran split safety coverage nearly eighty percent of
Russ's dropbacks. That is the highest rate that any team
has run it this season and since Steve Pagnolo took
over as the Chiefs defensive coordinator, which was I believe
was twenty nineteen, the third highest rate that he's run
it in any game in a six to seven season stretch.

(18:31):
So Steve Spagnolo again put a defense out there knowing
we're going to take away Russ's best attribute, the DePass,
where you're not gonna let him beat us with the
deep ball, which we saw. Russ did not complete a
single d pass on Sunday night, and it wasn't because
he didn't try.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
He did. He had I think it was six attempts,
none of which were completed. So when the defense does
that to you, you got to just take what they're
giving you.

Speaker 6 (18:56):
And at least this past Sunday night, we didn't really
see Russell Wilson do that. And clearly that is and
it's a similar defensive strategy that we saw the Commanders
run in Week one. The commander said, We're not gonna
let Russ beat us with the deep ball. I the Cowboys,
I don't know what they.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Were doing in Week two, but they allow you to Clearly.

Speaker 6 (19:18):
The Giants coaching staff believes that Jackson Dart is going
to be more capable of taking what the defense gives him,
because obviously Jackson can throw the deep ball, but his
game doesn't center around connecting on those deep passes like
Russell Wilson's kind of does at this point of his
illustrious NFL career. They clearly believe that Jackson Dart will

(19:39):
be more capable of taking what the defense gives him,
hitting on some of those more short intermediate routes screen passes,
which that's what you want to see your quarterback do.
You got to take what the defense is giving you.

Speaker 7 (19:51):
You know.

Speaker 6 (19:52):
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are coming off a super Bowl.
Week one, their passing game was non existent because the
Cowboys sold out to take away AJ Brown and Devarte Smith.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
So what did they do?

Speaker 6 (20:03):
They played the short game. They leaned on the run games.
Jalen hurt said, fourteen rush of Jemps and they won
the game, like, that's what you need to do in
order to win games. You got to take what the
defense is giving you. And at least this past Sunday night,
it just felt a little bit like the deep ball
was trying to get forced when the Chiefs were playing
a defense that was gonna make it very, very difficult
to be successful on the deep ball.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
So and that led to the two interceptions. And when
you only score nine points, every possession is so important
that when you lose two it does add up, regardless
of whether or not they had their kicker accessible. But
I think the other thing to watch with Jackson Dart
now is red zone efficiency or the lack thereof which
it has been. They're two for ten twenty percent. I mean,

(20:45):
this is basic math here on the season that has
to change, Matt, whether it's Russell Wilson, whether it's Jackson Dart,
whether it's Jameis Winston, it really makes no difference. That
number has to dramatically improve because number one, that coincides
with your point total, and you don't need to be
a rocket scientist to figure out you finish in the
red zone, you're gonna score more points. But also it

(21:08):
opens up so many other opportunities for your team. For example,
you know you're not putting as much pressure on your
defense when you're finishing in the red zone. That's number one,
and you know you're not turning it over on downs
to maybe give the opposition a position to do something
aggressive or dig deep into their bag of tricks. So
red zone efficiency, I would say, hits on so many

(21:30):
other facets of a team. And you know that's the
one area that Jackson Dart is going to have to
tackle with the rest of the offense, of course, to
improve against a really good Chargers defense that is led
by Jesse Minter who came over with Harbor from Michigan.
And I know we're gonna get into the Chargers as
the week progresses, but I mean, if you just look
at their first three games, and coincidentally, they've played all

(21:50):
division rivals and they're three to zero. They held the
Chiefs to twenty one, the Raiders only scored nine, and
the Broncos twenty, So I mean, just based on point tally,
and there's to run the football much more effectively with Hampton,
who's now going to be their number one back with
Naji Harris being out for the season with the torn
Achilles and Justin Herbert we know is an extremely polished quarterback,
so this is gonna be quite the challenge. But he'll

(22:12):
make his debut I think also interestingly at home in
front of the crowd at MetLife Stadium, and I think
that from a confident standpoint, doesn't hurt that whatever he's
gonna put out there, he's going to have the home
base behind him. So I'm not saying that that was
the end all, be all reason, but I'm sure that
maybe that was taken a little bit into consideration that

(22:33):
when and if we choose to make this decision, perhaps
a little bit more comfortable him doing it in Jersey
as opposed to on the road in New Orleans or
wherever it may be.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
Yeah, I mean again, playing in the Superdome is one
of the toughest away stadiums the noise wise. And then
the following week, do you really want Jackson Dart's NFL
debut to be against Vic Fangio and the Eagles? And
then the week after Broncos, Like again, there was no
soft landing spot. So I understand the decision.

Speaker 5 (23:00):
By the way they mean to interrupt you, the Eagles game.
It's a Thursday game. Two another reason why that would
have been much more challenging that too.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
And look, with everything that we've said, like, by no
means are we saying that like all of the offensive
struggles falls on Russell Wilson schol So clearly not the case.
But we're three games into the season and two of
the three games the Giants have finished with single digit points.
That's that's no, that's just unacceptable for any any NFL

(23:27):
team would say that. That obviously is unacceptable. You're not
gonna win games scoring single digit points. So this is,
you know, a for again, the coaching staff feels like
he's ready, but be this is just could be a
spark plug. Like clearly the coaching staff is looking for
something to get this offensive going because there are talented
players on the roster. It's not like a lack of talent.

(23:50):
It's just putting it in coach table. Everyone has said
this is putting everything together. And I know this is
like a buzzword saying you need to play complimentary football,
but it really is true. The teams that win the
most games play well on all three phases, and the
defense for the Giants has been playing pretty well. It
hasn't been perfect by any means, but they have not

(24:12):
been You know, the reason that the Giants have started
oh to three they have played performed outside of the
Cowboys game, which obviously that forty points is it's tough
to win a game giving up forty points.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
But the other two games, the defense played pretty pretty well.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Kept them in the games.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
The offense, it's this is looking for something to spark
the offense to get it going. Because again, Malik Neighbors
is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.
You have complimentary receivers in Wandel Robinson and Darius Layden
that are very solid. You know, number two and number
three receivers, Theo Johnson, a tight end who there was
so much positivity and buzz about coming into the season.

(24:51):
And now Cam Scadabo a running back who just showed
last week with somewhat limited touches how much of a
weapon he can be on offense. So hopefully adding Jackson
Dart under center to those group of guys, not to
mention Andrew Thomas now back hopefully sees more snaps this
coming week than he did last week. Obviously he was
on a snap count this past week. Hopefully we don't

(25:14):
know yet, but hopefully he is at least able to
play more, if not a full game yet, hopefully more.

Speaker 4 (25:20):
But this move like is.

Speaker 6 (25:22):
Clearly trying to find a way to get the offense going,
and based on what we saw in the preseason, I
totally get it. I mean, Jackson dart again and again.
As you mentioned in the preseason, the opponent, you know,
everyone plays more vanilla defenses. It is very, very different
from the regular season. But he did check all the
boxes in those preseason opportunities. So hopefully this is the

(25:47):
spark plug that the Giants offense needed to really get
going and get the season back on track.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
I just think it's going to be important for him
to also from an emotional standpoint, a mental standpoint, not
feel as if he's got to go above and beyond.
You know, sometimes rookie quarterbacks, especially you know, the one
thing we saw in the preseason is him having trouble sliding.
You know, he's gonna now have to all of a
sudden embrace the fact that I'll take a three yard
run as opposed to try to force a six yard run,

(26:13):
because that's gonna be the biggest difference in terms of
durability and health moving forward for hopefully what will be
a lengthy career for him. All Right, we're gonna open
up the phone lines as we move forward here in
case you're just tuning in. According to multiple reports, the
Giants are making a quarterback chains Jackson Dart will be
the starting quarterback his first career start this Sunday at
home against the Chargers. Russell Wilson will head to the bench.

(26:35):
Matt side Tech Lance Metal with you here on giants
dot Com Big Blue Kickoff Live, and we're gonna open
up the phone lines at two zero one nine three
to nine four five one three. He could also hit
us up on social media. We're monitoring that as well,
hashtag Giants Chat. He's at Matt Sidetech one word. I'm
at Lance Metal one word, last name MDOW. But let's
kick off the festivities here on Tuesday's edition of the program,

(26:56):
and we check in with John in Florida. John, welcome up.
What do you got for us?

Speaker 3 (27:01):
Hey, guys, I've been listening to your program quite a bit.
I called once last year. I really the quarterback is
the least of our problems. The New York giants have
a systemic administrative problems. I grew up in Jersey, fifteen
minutes from that stadium. I've been an educator for thirty

(27:22):
two years. I'm retired now. I was a high school principal.
I had to hire staff. I ran a high school
of a thousand students and one hundred staff members. I
have to tell you every time that I listened to
Coach Stable, if I were interviewing him to teach in
my school, he wouldn't cut it. I called him sacked,

(27:47):
mug arrogant, and condescending. That's my opinion. I used to
be able to tell in fifteen minutes whether someone was
going to be a successful teacher or I made one mistake.
In thirteen years, we've made dumb, dummer and dumbest mistakes

(28:09):
ever since Joe Shane took over. I'm sorry letting Barkley go.
And I know they're gonna say, oh geez, they couldn't
make a deal. I would have given him half the team.
You had to do everything to keep that player. Big mistake,
the contract to Daniel Jones. Dumber mistakes. Then you bring

(28:33):
in Russell, Then you bring in interception. Mister Winston. He
throwing a ball to anybody. If Paul Datina was on
the sideline, he.

Speaker 5 (28:43):
Probably well, well, let me just jump in here, John.
First of all, I mean, Jamis has yet to play,
so you know, you can tell me all you want
about his baggage. They gave him a two year contract
to be an insurance quarterback, which he's going to remain
that way, And the deal financially makes a lot of
sense because if you look at what backup quarterbacks make
compared to what Jamis is making, it's a real logical
smart move.

Speaker 8 (29:04):
I would argue, No, you had a backup quarterback.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
His name was Tommy DeVito. I'm sorry, who's the last
quarterback to win three games in a row for the
New York Times?

Speaker 5 (29:16):
Well, I mean that's that's a small sample size. In fairness, John,
you're judging it based on a very small sample size.
And I mean Tommy DeVito once again had his opportunity
and the offense didn't necessarily light up the scoreboard. You
knew they were going to revamp and go in a
different direction based on the results of a year ago.
I mean, I don't think that's a surprising development when
you evaluate everything.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Who is the only one. They we've only won two
five time games out of twenty three night games. Savino
is the only one that won one. I guess it
was manning At won the other one.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
Well, the team won or lost it, not a quarterback.
I mean, listen, in fairness, you said there are bigger
issues than the quarterback, and now you're having a conversation
about the backup quarterback of all positions, John, I mean,
let's be realistic here. Thirty third string Excuse me, I
mean that's where you want to go. Of all the
topics and all the facets of a roster, your beef
is with the third string quarterback and the decision making.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
No, what I'm saying is you could have saved eight
million dollars and had missed the veto. As a backup
next year, you would have two really good young quarterbacks. Well,
when John Maras stood there and said I won't be
able to sleep at night if he goes to the Eagles,
he should have fired him right there.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
Well, I mean, once again, we could cry over past situations.
Still we're blue in the face. I really don't think
it's going to do much of anything, John. I appreciate
the phone call. I mean I think we've revisited the
Saquon Barkley topic. We don't need to do it all
over again. I think another important element here, and if
you want to weigh in Matt on this is you know,
Barkley has benefited immensely from the personnel around him in Philadelphia,

(30:59):
and if he were to stay here, to just assume
that that level of success would be duplicated, I think
would be a little naive and unrealistic. Just like you
move a quarterback to another environment, for example, what Daniel
Jones is doing in the first three games. When you
change things around the quarterback in personnel, yeah, it's going
to have an effect on an individual player. So you

(31:20):
can't just assume that you roll it back with the
Giants and that those results are going to.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Be the same.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
I mean, look, we have talked about this for what
nine months now, since the end of last season. Like Saguon,
Barkley had a absolutely tremendous season last year obviously helped
win the Super Bowl for the Eagles, playing behind the
best offensive line in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
And we saw Saguon.

Speaker 6 (31:48):
For six years here playing behind not the greatest offensive
lines and he had some success his rookie year was fantastic,
But the last five years he wasn't able to do
what he did in Philly because he didn't have that
playing behind that offense line, playing with the dual threat
of Jalen Hurts at quarterback like that played a very

(32:08):
big part in Saquon having the tremendous season that he had.
And that's not taking anything away from him. He's a
fantastic running back and one of the best running backs
in the NFL. But just to say the Giants should
have resigned it because he would have done the same
thing here is just that's a naive mindset to have.
And then about Tommy DeVito, I mean, we all love Tommy.
Tommy was great and he yes, he did win some

(32:30):
football games for this team over the last couple of years.
But when the Giants waived him at the end of
training camp, there was one team across the entire NFL
that put a waiver claim in for him, the Patriots
where he is now, where he is serving as their
emergency third quarterback on game days. So to have to
be so up in arms about bringing in an established

(32:51):
veteran quarterback who's been in the NFL for a decade,
who you signed him to a two year deal with
the mindset of he's probably gonna be Jackson Dart's backup
in twenty two twenty six. When you want a veteran,
experienced guy who has a lot of playing experience under
his belt to be so up in arms about that decision,
that kind of kind of baffles me. Look, we love Tommy,

(33:13):
Tommy was great when he was here, But to get
so worked up about that that I don't really fully understand.

Speaker 5 (33:20):
Well, I mean, I'll go back to the Giants average
under twenty points a game when Tommy DeVito was the
starting quarterback. Listen, I've got nothing against Tommy, and hopefully
you know he is able to continue to carve out
a career. But if you were to say the Giants
average twenty five points a game with Tommy DeVito at
the controls, maybe we have something to talk about. But
the results have been pretty much the same no matter

(33:41):
who has been under center over the last few seasons,
and the goal was to upgrade that by bringing in
much more experienced, polished quarterbacks. So to criticize that, of
all things, would be to me the last thing on
the list in terms of issues that they need to fix.
And as you mentioned, the lot was Russell Wilson's on

(34:01):
a one year deal, but we're gonna bring in Jamis
because he's on a two year contract, which actually doesn't
stress out this salary cap. And Jamis, I'm sure could
have went elsewhere, by the way, and made a lot
more money because of the demand and importance of backup quarterbacks. Oh,
by the way, Matt, think about how many guys have
gone down already this season. Joe Burrow, JJ McCarthy, Jayden Daniels.
You know what Marcus Mariota did for Washington this past weekend.

(34:23):
Veteran quarterback. That's been the theme across the board, So
they knew Jamis could still be around when you make
the transition to Jackson, whether it be this year or
the start of next season. So that hasn't changed. Regardless
of these reports that dart is going to be the quarterback.
That does not impact at all what the quarterback room
can look like in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 6 (34:44):
Yeah, and I need to stress how important it is
to have experience in your quarterback room, not only because
if your starter gets hurt, obviously the backup is next up.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
But Jackson Dart is twenty two years old. He is
a rookie. He now has.

Speaker 6 (34:59):
A all three or even four. Going back to the
training camp with Tommy DeVito, all the quarterbacks spoke about
how close knit the quarterback room was and how they
would all like bounce ideas off each other. Say like
what one person saw on film pointed out, help the
other ones out.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
You have a rookie quarterback. And again, no offense at
all to Tommy Devido.

Speaker 6 (35:19):
But Jameis Winston has so much more experience under his
belt than Tommy DeVito has seen, so much more in
the NFL than Tommy DeVito has played. Was the backup
to Drew Brees, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
If you don't think that that has an effect on
your rookie quarterbacks development and could potentially benefit him over
an undrafted rookie who's been in the league for three

(35:42):
you know, this is his third season and has won
a handful of games, but has only been here. I
don't know what to tell you, Like, there is clearly
more than just what Jamis brings on the field that
went behind the signing to bring him in to mentor Jackson,
Dart and Jackson has spoken at length multiple times since
the start of training camp about how important Russ and

(36:04):
Jamis have both been for his early development, and that's
only going to get.

Speaker 4 (36:09):
More and more important now that.

Speaker 6 (36:11):
He is going to be QB one moving forward, because
he's going to see things that he's never seen before
that both Jamis and Russ have seen a lot of
because they've been in the league for over a decade now.
So you need to have experience in your quarterback room.
You don't want to have three guys on rookie contracts
in your quarterback room. That's not the recipe for, you know,

(36:31):
a good experienced quarterback room.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
It's just not Now.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
Tommy did know the system, so there was value in that.
But Jamis has started eighty seven games, Tommy DeVito has
started eight and I'll let our listeners and viewers do
the math. I think there is quite a disparity between
both of those is. You are watching and listening to
Big Blue Kickoff live here from our Giants podcast studio
presented by Hackett Sack, Maridian Health, Keep Getting Better, Lance Medo,

(36:55):
Matt's Sidetech with you. Let's head back to the phone lines.
We check in with David and North Carolina. David, welcome aboard.
What do you got for us?

Speaker 8 (37:03):
Oh boy, well, star gentlemen, don't mean to piggyback off
that last caller, and maybe I can make a little
bit better arguments than that gentleman did no offense. I'm
gonna try to do this quickly because I know people
are passionate about what's going on right now. Let me
read off these rankings for you and take a guess

(37:23):
who the mysterious person is. Twenty ninth in the league,
thirty first in the league, twentieth in the league, thirty
second in the league, twentieth in the league, thirtieth in
the league, and thirty first in the league in offense.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Are you talking about a team or an individual quarterback
with those rankings?

Speaker 8 (37:44):
An individual coordinator?

Speaker 5 (37:46):
An individual coordinator with respect to this season through the
first three games, No, sir, those.

Speaker 8 (37:52):
Are various seasons that he was the offensive coordinator.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
Well, I mean, my guess is, since this is a
Giant show, probably going to wind up with somebody on
the Giants' coaching staff, is my guess?

Speaker 8 (38:04):
Sing ding ding ding, mister Brian Dave All, Yes, that
is correct. So outside of the years of Josh Allen,
this supposedly offensive guru that I mean, let's face it,
me Wilson, Charlie and Mayne and with a little help
of coach Marvin could have developed Josh Allen. This guy

(38:26):
is not an offensive guru. What do we hang our
hat on? What would you say is something that the
Brian table offense does really well? It certainly doesn't run
the ball well, it certainly doesn't establish the run well. Okay,
we know he's more of a pass oriented coach. You
mean to tell me, I don't care what defense de

(38:47):
Spagnola was employee. You mean to tell me you can't
rub a run, a bubble screen or some kind of
drag route to get malite neighbors of the ball. I'm
not talking about a ten catch, two hundred and fifty
yard performance. This guy couldn't coordinate an offense to score
twenty points more than once a season if he wanted to.

(39:07):
It's a joke. And let me, I know John Merrow
doesn't listen to the show. But let me give another
little insight seekers a Giants fan. If you think the
quarterback is going to solve it, and you guys just
laid it out perfectly. With the various quarterbacks that can't
score more than ten points a game, it's not gonna happen.
There's a few guys that the tide raises all the

(39:29):
boats right off the top of my head, Josh Allen, Patrick,
mahomes Lamar Jackson, Yeah, well.

Speaker 5 (39:35):
I mean those are elite quarterbacks, though you're naming David.
And that's why Matt and I earlier in the show.

Speaker 8 (39:40):
Changes, personnel changes, and those guys can elevate the team
to what eight, nine, ten winsor more. Look if the
Giants are expecting to land that type of quarterback and
it changed the face of the franchise. Not only is
it hard to draft the franchise quarterbacks, it's ten times

(40:01):
harder to draft a quarterback of that caliber. And that's
what it seems like we're waiting on. Is this magical
character to come in here and fix everything. I can't
believe John Marra's gonna let Brian dave Ball get his
hands on Jackson Dart and ruin him like he's ruined
everything else. When it comes. Maybe Brian dave Ball is

(40:22):
a great quarterback coach. He's not an offensive coordinator, and
he's certainly not a head coach, Hi, David, the team
was out of shape in Dallas. Instead of running a
training camp, we have club med Dave Oll. You know
it's obvious this team's not prepared to play on Sundays,

(40:43):
and I don't know what else we got to see
to see it.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
Hi David, we'll let you go on that note. Appreciate
the phone call. I think Matt and I made it
very clear off the top of the show in case
you're just tuning in that you have to be realistic
that Jackson Dart is not putting on a cape and
he's not waving a magic wand and he's going to
fix everything on offense. I think that would be a
naive perspective. I think what we were getting at is
the mindset is they have seen enough at this point.

(41:10):
They're confident that what he has shown progression wise in
the preseason and behind closed doors in the film room
gives them confidence that they can put him on the field,
he can operate this system, and that they can get
a better look at him within the setting of the
regular season, which is a little bit sooner than probably
everybody else had anticipated. But I think that's more of

(41:30):
the logic. I mean the idea that now the Giants
offense is going to score thirty points a game. I
don't think anybody realistically is anticipating that, Matt. I think
it's more of can Dart provide something that is different
from Russell Wilson and can they help him grow now
in a regular season setting. That's what it comes down to.

(41:50):
And you know, I mean as far as the point
about you know, Dable and getting his hands on a
quarterbackt Dabel and Joe Shane, they put the time and
effort in the scouting team to invest in Dart and
bring him in, So I mean it is logical that
they would then want to see something come to fruition
on the football field under those circumstances. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (42:08):
Look, no one is expecting Jackson Dart to step onto
the field Sunday and all of a sudden play like
MVP Josh Allen.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
No one is expecting that.

Speaker 6 (42:17):
I mean, first of all, just look at what Josh
Allen did as in his rookie year compared to what
he's doing now.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
It's night and day different.

Speaker 5 (42:23):
He had no offensive line by the way, his rookie year.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
Yeah, no one's expecting Jackson Dart to do that, but
clearly the coaching staff feels like Jackson Dart is more
capable of running the offense that the Giants want to
run on a weekly basis than Russell Wilson. Let's not
forget Russell Wilson obviously has had a tremendous career, still
is a great deep ball passer, but at thirty six
year old, despite his little bit of running that he

(42:46):
has done, he's not exactly a mobile quarterback. You know,
he has rushed a little bit through the first three games,
no doubt about it. But I don't think anyone's gonna
argue that Jackson Dart is a much more mobile quarterback
than Russell Wilson. Do is go back and I cautious
making this comparison, but I'm just saying. Twenty twenty two

(43:06):
and Brian Dables first season here, Dale Jones, while his
numbers did not light up the box score, ran the
offense so efficiently. He had the lowest interception percentage in
the NFL. You know, yes, he only threw fourteen touchdown passes,
but he also rushed for seven hundred yards and another
seven touchdowns. That sort of offense with maybe a little
bit more explosiveness because I think obviously the coaching staff

(43:29):
must have confidence in Jackson Dart's ability to throw the
ball and to hit his receivers accurately. But that I
feel like is the sort of offense that the coaching
staff is probably looking to try to remake now with
Jackson Dart under center, which you couldn't really do with
Russell Wilson because he doesn't offer that rushing threat like
Daniel Jones did in twenty twenty two. Jackson Darta, on

(43:50):
the other hand, has already shown he is very capable
of running with the football, maybe even a little too much,
where you know, obviously we find we wanted him to
obviously slide and not take so many hits, But we
kind of said the same thing with Daniel Jones rushing
a couple of years ago, where he was doing the
same sort of thing we wanted him to get down.
So I think this move is because they think that

(44:10):
Jackson Dart has a better chance of running the offense
that the coaching staff wants to run. He fit and
more efficiently than Russell Wilson has. Because I mean, we've
seen Jackson Dart go out there for a couple of
plays in the last two.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Games, all of which were read options.

Speaker 6 (44:26):
Yep, that's not something you can really do, at least
not that much.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
With Russell Wilson, they did it a little.

Speaker 5 (44:32):
They did it a little. Yeah, I mean, listen, he's
not a statue. I agree with you. I think Dart's
more athletic at this stage in his career, and I
think offers them a little bit more athleticism. And perhaps,
once again, going back to the red zone, Matt, the
combination of Dart and Cam Skataboo, now that Tyron Tracy
is dealing with a shoulder injury, does that maybe keep
defenses guessing a little bit more because they have to anticipate.

(44:53):
I mean, if you go back to that red zone
series against the Chiefs, you know they had run a
run play with Russell Wilson, and you know Kansas City
wasn't caught off guard, and then a lot of the
other throws were in the back of the end zone.
So maybe that perhaps is a facet that they could
tap into. But I guess I would just be a
little bit concerned about you know, you were thrown out
seven hundred rushing yards. I don't know if you want

(45:14):
to expose. No, and I'm not saying you're insinuating that.
For sure, you run him the amount of times it's
going to take to get seven hundred rushing yards, he's
going to be absorbing a lot of hits. Remember Jones
wasn't a rookie that year. He was at least in
the league for a few seasons. A little bit different, No,
definitely different.

Speaker 6 (45:31):
That's why I said, I hesitate to even make this comparison,
But I just met the style of the offense in
twenty no, and now I go sure that I think
is what they would like to get closer to now.
While the last three weeks the offense was kind of
relying just almost solely on the deep ball, and obviously
it worked in Dallas, but the other two games, when

(45:52):
opposing defenses schemed to take away the deep ball, the
offense had a lot of trouble moving the ball up
and down the field, and especially you know then we're
getting when you got close to the end zone. Obviously
the deep ball when you get into the red zone
not really no longer applicable there. But they weren't getting
punching the ball into the end zone. As you mentioned before,
they were. The Giants are two for ten in the

(46:14):
red zone. That's not going to cut it for.

Speaker 4 (46:16):
Any team, any team.

Speaker 6 (46:18):
That's obviously unacceptable. That probably played a part in making
this change because, as you mentioned, Jackson Dart is more
capable of, you know, doing that read option and taking
the ball himself running it in and I'd feel a
little despite him being a rookie, as you mentioned, he's
just more athletic than Russell Wilson is. With Russell Wilson

(46:38):
at the stage of his career that he is at
right now, at thirty six years old, Jackson Dart offers
that rushing threat. And again I'm not saying I want
him rushing, you know, two hundred times over the next
fourteen games, but I think it's pretty clear that there
will be some design runs scheme.

Speaker 4 (46:55):
For Jackson Dart.

Speaker 6 (46:56):
And in the preseason we saw him do it and
he was picking up huge chunks of yards almost every
time he round with the ball.

Speaker 5 (47:02):
Sure, and I think he also showed a capacity to
get rid of the football very quickly, and maybe that
will create opportunities to get some of their playmakers out
in open space to have yardage after the catch as
opposed to waiting for the big bombs to develop down
the field, which is more of Russell Wilson's style. That's
something else to at least take into consideration. Let's head
back to the lines. We got Joey in California. Joey,

(47:23):
welcome aboard. What do you got for us?

Speaker 7 (47:26):
Hi? Guys? How you doing to it right?

Speaker 5 (47:28):
We'll tell your mind.

Speaker 7 (47:29):
Well, I was hoping to talk about the giants struggles
at MetLife Stadium, but then the news broke this morning,
so I had to change the topic. But this is
my concern with Jackson Dark getting the NOD after three
games this year. Look, I know Russell had a bad
game Sunday night, but I don't think that was warranted

(47:51):
to say we want Dark from the fans. But you know,
the thing that gets me is that we're repeating the
same habit we had with Daniel Jones. And like, that's
my biggest concern with the Giants is that they got
a bad habit of repeating the bad parts of history
in their organization, you know. And I just don't think.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
This was a good idea to.

Speaker 7 (48:14):
Put Jones in, not Jones. I'm sorry Dark on this situation.
And well, you guys talked about it. He's got like
this these upcoming opponents, and I just am wondering, is
this really a coaching decision or is this pressure from
the head of the organization who says, hey, look, we've

(48:34):
had great success with Charlie Connolly from ole Miss, We've
had great success with Eli Manning from ole Miss.

Speaker 5 (48:40):
Well, yeah, I don't know if it's dark. I mean,
I understand the track record of the track I don't
think that they said, well, you know, when we've utilized
Ole Miss quarterbacks before, we've had good results. I could
assure you, Joey, I don't think that was a big
part of it. And we'll let you go on that note.
We want to try to squeeze in as many callers
as possible here for the remainder of the show. I
think when I said at the top of the show

(49:01):
that you know, quarterbacks have taken various different paths, the
one common element and I'm not saying that this was
what Brian Dable was thinking, but there is a level
of urgency. I think with any coach when you draft
a quarterback, specifically in the first round, that you know
you want to now see what you can do with rite.
What a new toy is Basically, if you give a

(49:22):
kid a toy, right, kids not gonna then throw the
toy to the side, assuming that you know it's a
toy that they love, they're gonna want to play with it,
and they're gonna want to play with it religiously. Okay,
So it's no different you give a quarterback, coach, an
offensive coordinator a toy slash a young new up and
coming quarterback. You know, more often than not, they want
to get their hands on that player and they want
to see what they can create. And I think when

(49:44):
you look at the turnover rate also in the National
Football League, that's why a lot of first rounders get
on the field much sooner than the Patrick Mahomes school
of thought or the Philip Rivers school of thought, or
the Aaron Rodgers school thought, where two to three years
that will wait and develop. I'm a big proponent to

(50:05):
that philosophy because I would rather see you take your time.
But I'm also not naive, Matt. I understand how the
NFL landscape works. That coaches, if they feel that there's
a part of the skill set that the young quarterback
offers that could maybe do something for the offense. The
only way to tell whether or not that's going to
happen is to put them on the field, as opposed

(50:26):
to playing the waiting game. So this is more of
the evaluation of Jackson Dart's skill set, what he's shown
behind closed doors than anything you could talk about the
common element of what college program they've come from, or
what somebody else is saying in this and that this
is what they've seen, and Dable's given even some breadcrumbs

(50:47):
over the last few weeks about what has impressed them.
I mean, I think one of the questions after the
preseason ended, they were asking member Matt Brian Dable about, well,
what are you going to do with Dart? What's going
to be the process now? When he was also presented
a question about what jumped out to him about the
preseason and spoke very highly about his decision making getting

(51:07):
rid of the football very quickly, utilizing has to athleticism,
you know, studying habits and so forth. So I just
think a lot of that impressed them little by little
as they went through the early stages of camp as
well as the preseason into what they're seeing through the
first three games of the regular season.

Speaker 6 (51:24):
Yeah, look, he has not. He's only taken a handful
of snaps in a regular season game. We are all
acknowledging that he's not done actually really anything in an
actual game. Yet everything we've obviously seen has been training camp, preseason,
behind the scenes off the field, which is all great,
but the coaching staff has made it very clear he

(51:46):
has checked every single box so far, every single box.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
He has been so impressive.

Speaker 6 (51:52):
I don't think there's more he could have done since
he stepped foot in this building at the end of
April to you know, give the coaching to have confidence
that he's ready to go out there. And you know,
I spent all offseason, I spent training camp, even the preseason.
When Jackson Dart was lighting up the preseason opponents, I
was saying, in an ideal world, Jackson Dart barely plays

(52:14):
this year, or he plays at the very end of
the season because the Giants are winning games behind Russell
Wilson playing great. But we're three weeks in and the
Giants have yet to win a game. They're zero and three,
and again, two of those games were single digit points
on offense. Clearly a change was needed to something to
get this going. It's not to just you know, quote
unquote save the season. It's to simply just start winning

(52:36):
football games. We all want the Giants to start winning
football games. And I said this before and I'll continue
saying it. Clearly, the coaching staff believes that right now
Jackson Dart gives them the best chance to win football games.
And at the end of the day, isn't that what
all of us want. We want the Giants to start
winning games. So again, there's no and I'm seeing just

(52:58):
some comments in the YouTube chat about this matchup and
stuff like.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
There was no good play. We said this.

Speaker 5 (53:06):
Before, We talked about this early this schedule.

Speaker 6 (53:08):
Look, the most logical place in terms of matchups opponent
matchups would have been that little stretch after the bye week,
because then you have Washington Minnesota, which Brian Flores is
a tough matchup, but then Raiders and Cowboys. But at
the same time, you want to wait until the very
last four games of the season to put the rookie

(53:28):
out there when the offense is not performing up to
the level that it should be.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
No, you can't wait that long. And it's not in
terms of just saving the season.

Speaker 6 (53:36):
Is what is the point then of having the rookie
continue to ride the bench for another few months if
you feel that he's ready to go out there and
lead the offense.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
This also gives them an opportunity you talked about you
wait till week fifteen. Not to say that you hope
anybody gets hurt, but you know, over the toll of
the season, guys are going to be lost, and I
think you want to maybe try to evaluate Jackson Dart
with as many of your key pieces healthy and on
the field. Andrew Thomas is just coming back, so we'll
have the benefit of the anchor at left tackle. You know,

(54:06):
those are other things that you can't just dismiss. One
of the worst things you can do for a rookie
quarterback is throw him in there with an injury play
team and expect him all of a sudden to go crazy.
So you know that's another I think element in play.
Let's head back to the lines. We got Chris in Colorado. Chris,
welcome to the Big Blue Cake off Live. What do
you got for us?

Speaker 2 (54:24):
Hey, how's it going? Lance and Matt, how you guys doing?

Speaker 5 (54:26):
And it's actually Chris jan but Chris jin Okay, yes,
we cut off a little bit of your name. Our apologies.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Yeah, okay, yes, now nowhere. I appreciate you guys having
me on. Yeah, I guess compared to all the other callers,
I guess I'm more of a optimistic Giants fan. You know,
I'm actually excited about the move. I think it was definitely,
definitely needed. You know, Giants obviously haven't been playing good
zero to three aside from the Dallas game, you know,

(54:52):
our offense has been pretty much non existent. You know,
any pretty much consists of you know, downfield throws, uck
in the ball downfield or checkdowns or you know, nothing
really in the middle of the field, aside from like
the wand Delle Cats, you know, towards the end of
the game last last week. But I just didn't think
Russ Russ had it anymore. You know, he's he's you know,
making questionable throws. Like I said, he's kind of limited

(55:15):
in his tools. You know, we kind of know what
we're gonna get out of Russell Wilson, you know, through
throughout his career, and you know, I think the changes
needed Jackson Dart, you know, gives us, gives us that element.
You know that you guys were you know, alluding to
with with the Russian ability, I think he's going to
be you know, shoot, you know, trying to tack the
middle of the field more, which, like I said, I

(55:37):
feel like we've been lacking in that department. You know,
I haven't seen you know, too many Elie Neighbors slants,
you know where he takes it, you know, twenty five
yards downfield. Haven't really seen you know, those burst plays
aside from the you know, the deep balls, which we
all knew that Russell was you know, good at that.
But you know, I'm excited. I don't know about you guys,
but you know, I think, uh it was it was needed.
You know, I'm not I'm not you know, thinking over

(55:59):
here that Jackson is gonna you know, lead us to
you know, the playoffs and and the superin know that's
that's not you know, but it was needed. You know,
he needs to get the growth. I think the reps
are going to be super valuable, especially you know, with
the teams we are going to play, He's gonna be
seeing good defenses. You know, I know that scares a
lot of people, but you know, like you guys were saying,
we got Andrew Thomas back you know, offensive line. You know,

(56:21):
I think he's been playing you know, pretty decent, pretty good.
You know, we haven't been you know, allowing a lot
of sacks. It hasn't been you know, our line giving
up a bunch of sacks. It's been you know, Russell
Wilson escaping you know, clean pockets is what I can
see in you know, I've seen a couple of plays
the other day where he's just running out of a
clean pocket, and you know that's I don't think Jackson
Dart is going to do that. You know, I think

(56:42):
he's you know, we've seen kind of in the preseason
games that he's he's willing to stand in there and
fired the ball downfield. And I think that's you know
what we need. You know, we got Malik Nighbers, he's
got a star receiver, you know, line, you know, it's
playing playing all right. You know, we got Gataboo, you know,
going out there giving it his all. And you know,
I think I think he's he's up in a decent position,
you know, to go out there and then have a

(57:04):
fair chance, you know, And so it's what he's got,
you know, that's all we can ask for.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
Well, and That's how you got to look at it,
Christian and appreciate the phone call. I think you know
what Man and I were talking about is we could
sit here and analyze the schedule, and I really don't
think there's a stretch that is ideal, no matter how
you spin it. So you have to look at it
at the environment of the team, what's around him, and
does it at least put him in a position where
he can at least be successful and try to duplicate

(57:28):
what he put forth in the preseason. Though, keep in
mind the last caller mentioned about Russell Wilson running out
of maybe what appeared to be a clean pocket. You know,
Dart has the capability where he can move out and
run too, so you know, doesn't mean he's going to
be staying in the pocket himself. They may have some
designed runs and so forth that can enable him to
showcase his athleticism a little bit. Let's head back to

(57:49):
the phone lines. We got Len in Columbia, Maryland. What's
happened in Len?

Speaker 9 (57:53):
Hey, guys, how you doing?

Speaker 4 (57:54):
You're right good? What's up?

Speaker 7 (57:55):
Lading?

Speaker 3 (57:55):
All right? Well?

Speaker 9 (57:56):
Tough loss on Sunday and disappointing. Russell had a tough game.
I mean, it was just just not a good outing.
I don't know whether the bad outing was worthy of
benching and bringing in Dart, but none of us should
be surprised by the move, but maybe by the timing

(58:17):
end of the move, but none of us should be surprised.
I mean from the day to season ended on this
show we've been talking about I mean, how many names
of possible bridge quarterbacks came up in the first three
months of the season, of the offseason, and how many
quarterbacks did we talk about we thought would be worthy

(58:37):
of being drafted who would take to take the job
eventually away from the bridge quarterback. So I think it's
been the plan all along, not just amongst the fans
and people on this show, but I think in the
front office and maybe all the way up to ownership
that this is how it was going to play out,
and there was going to be a vet quarterback, and
there was going to be a young quarterback, and eventually

(58:59):
the young quarterback would get a chance. Lance you touched
on something at the beginning of the show, we say,
I think it was important. And also, uh, Joey who
just called wanted to talk about it but got diverted
into the into the Wilson thing. Lance, I don't know

(59:19):
if you were there on Sunday night, Matt. You were
probably in the in the stadium. Were you in the stadium, Matt.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
Yeah, I'm in the press box.

Speaker 9 (59:26):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that was you know, the cheers for
Dart were pretty half hearted. It wasn't anything monumental. I'm
not sure where Joey was coming from with that. Fans
are down. That was. That was a crowd that had

(59:47):
no enthusiasm. That's the way I read it. That was
there was very little juice in the stands. In fact,
there was probably more juice for the in between music,
big boards showing things Eli Throne passes into in the competition.

(01:00:07):
I seem to be more excitement about that than the
game itself. It was really pretty lucklesser And I think
this will this will be a little spark for the
team maybe and a little spark in the stands. And
the more you think about it, Lance, I think, you know,
doing it at home it is probably a good idea.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
Sure. Well, I mean, once again, I don't think that
was Yeah, I don't think that was the main reason
behind it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Listen, one of the.

Speaker 9 (01:00:32):
Things I haven't talked about today, and I think it
was pretty important with regard to last Sunday except for
the tight end and his his time will come. The
draft pick for Dawn. I mean this, This draft class
is getting more and more plays, and you know what
not bad. I was been screaming for Darius Alexander to

(01:00:53):
just get on the field. Come on, let's see what
a twenty five year old rookie can do. Matt, you've
probably heard me go in that direction a couple of
weeks ago. And you know with BA and now Dart
and Carter and Scatable, you know it's we're getting guys
out on the field, and for Dona is probably going

(01:01:15):
to be there, you know, pretty shortly too, so that
you know the draft class looks pretty good as well.
There's no quick fix. This is a long term project,
longer than this year, but it's time got to get
it started.

Speaker 5 (01:01:34):
Well, listen, quarterbacks, and then we'll let you go on
that note, appreciate the phone call. If you look at
the percentage in recent history and I actually met. Before
we wrap up, I've got a CBS Sports article which
I always referenced. This was written in twenty twenty three.
It's got a great breakdown. I may even tweet it
out at some point where it lists when first round
quarterbacks started, whether it was right away, weeks two through eight,

(01:01:56):
weeks nine through sixteen, year two, year three, year four,
And I'm not going to read through every name, but
I mean you could see my computer. This is the
column on the left for right away, and look at
how long it goes in terms of and look at
and the other columns, notice have ended. Okay, and you're
talking about the percentages point to when you draft a

(01:02:18):
first round quarterback, they get on the field sooner rather
than later. I mean that's just the reality of life
in the National Football League. So yes, to the last
caller's point, not a stunning development, even based on the
hypotheticals that we talked about throughout the offseason that you
had to at least anticipate we could get to this point,

(01:02:39):
maybe sooner than we anticipated. But still not a stunner
that Jackson Dart is seeing the field as a rookie.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
No. I mean again, we see it across the NFL
so often now.

Speaker 6 (01:02:49):
I mean cam Ward obviously was the number one pick
but been thrown right out there, and that's just the
first example for this season, but we see it every
single year with first round picks getting thrown out there.
And again I said for months, in an ideal world,
Jackson would barely play this season, and if so, not
until the very end. But that was if everything everything
had to go right for that situation to come to fruition. Obviously,

(01:03:12):
the chances were more more likely than not that Jackson
would be getting in, and a lot sooner than you know,
the end of the season. Again, I don't know week four,
if necessarily anyone was expecting it, but the Giants are
zero three and the offense is just not Outside of
the one Dallas game against two good defenses, the offense
has just not been getting the job done. So clearly

(01:03:34):
this move an attempt at a spark plug. Again, I
don't know how many times I have to say this,
but the coaching staff clearly believes that Jackson gives them
the best chance to win. Obviously, we'll see what happens,
but for me, I feel like this should be an
exciting time. The future of the franchise is sort.

Speaker 4 (01:03:53):
Of it's now.

Speaker 6 (01:03:54):
I mean, between Jackson, Dart and Cam Scataboo, Abdul carter
I mean, as Lene just mentioned, Darius alex Ander played
the most snaps of the season. So the young guys
are starting to take key roles and I think that
is a good thing and an exciting thing. Hopefully that
starts leading to more victories.

Speaker 5 (01:04:11):
Well, we talked about if this franchise is going to
move forward, it's going to take multiple draft classes getting
on the field and showing their development. So the fact
that now these guys are getting on the field a
little bit quicker at least should help in terms of
the development. But it's going to be the Dart and
Scataboo show, two key members of this year's draft class
that are now going to do a lot of the
heavy lifting at least in terms of opportunities on the field.

(01:04:33):
All Right, that is going to wrap up Tuesday's thish
A Big Blue Kickoff Live. It is presented by Cadillac,
the official luxury vehicle of the New York Giants. Here
in our podcast studio presented by Hackensackburty in health, keep
getting better. We appreciate everybody tuning in, watching listening. Is
today's addition, A Big Blue Kickoff Live, part of the
Giants platforms everywhere and giants dot Com slash podcast Brian

(01:04:54):
Dable will obviously speak to the media on Wednesday to
confirm the news. According to multiple reports, Jackson darts at
the take over as the starter against the Chargers for
Matt Sidetech on Lance Meadow saylock to Giants dot com,
fro the latest, and we'll speak to you on Big
Blue Kickoff right here on Wednesday. Have a go one