New York Giants 2025 Season Preview | Blue Rush

New York Giants 2025 Season Preview | Blue Rush

What’s up, Giants fans? This is your first official blue rush of the 2025 Giants season. The 53man roster is all set. We are ready for some real football to be played. Uh, Sunday, September the 2nd. I’m Brandon London. Paul Schwarz, our longtime Giants beat writer for the Post. Paul, it feels like it’s been forever. We’ve been waiting for forever for this moment. We’re going to do a nice season recap for these guys. Next week we’ll get into the nitty and gritty and the details of going into week one against the commanders. Joe Shane Brian Dable just uh kind of spoke to the media. A lot of it was about roster construction. A lot of it was about the cuts and obviously the quarterback situation. Mic is yours, sir. Kick us off here. What do you want to talk about and uh let’s deep dive into this. We’re also going to have uh Bobby Skinner for the Giants Nation show on the show a little bit later. We’re going to go into the locker room, speak with a player or two. But Paul, get us going, man. Here goes our first one. Yeah. Um, look, I it’s a better team than it was this time last year. You know, I we were probably in the same spot. I think we did this before the, you know, a couple of weeks before the season. It’s a better team. I mean, how much better? We’ll see. But there’s no question it’s a better team when I look out what they have on the field over there. When I look down at the roster after the cuts, um, seeing the players they put on the practice squad who were guys who were on this team last year, what does that tell you? Right. You were a practice squad guy. that says that we have guys who who were NFL type players. We’re on our practice squad now because we replace them with guys we think are better NFL players. So, um, does that mean four wins, five wins, nine wins, 10 wins? I don’t know right now. But there’s no reason why that roster that I see right now is a bad team that shouldn’t be able to compete. It’s just not it’s not it’s a better team than that. That’s all. Without a doubt. And I think they’ve purposely they’ve raised the expectations when it comes to how you look at and how you evaluate this 2025 Giants roster. It’s almost like how when you know how everyone says like when Joe Shane and Brian Dable came in and had that early success, they kind of cursed themselves per se. The preeason they just had kind of cursed themselves as well if you look at it from that lens. But if you look go on the flip side to where people like us, people within the building, players who’ve been uh on this team and been within this franchise the last couple of years, if you look at it through their lens, they’re looking at it like, “Okay, we finally get a chance to play some competitive football, not only in the NFC East, but in the NFL as well.” You never apologize for winning, ever. Ever. Now, look, does 3 and 0 in the preseason mean anything? No, it doesn’t. I covered the Jets one year early in my career before the Giants. Okay, they went 5-0 in the preseason with a new quarterback and it’s like 5-0 in the preseason. Back then when they played five games, they won four games in the regular season. So, I get it. It doesn’t three and 0 means nothing. But it’s better to win than to lose and it shows that the depth was better because when the ones came out, the twos and the threes dominated the twos and threes of the other team. That’s a good thing. That’s a and and the vibe of winning, it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t mean anything um two minutes into the game in Washington, not really. But um it goes to show that look, uh Russell Wilson, all four quarterbacks, they only have three now. Tommy Devito is now with the Patriots. All four quarterbacks played remarkably well considering who they were playing with. So that’s a good thing. In the past, the three or four quarterbacks they had could barely get first downs. So it does it it’s true, right? It’s true. They in the in the preseason they had to play them extra series. Okay, they went three and out. Okay, now they went they got one first down. We want to get them more reps. We got to play them more. So, we’ll see how it turns out. But, um, yes, the the I would agree with you that the summer the preseason could not have really gone better. It couldn’t have been. And they’re also and here’s let’s not bury the lead here. They are healthy. The Giants are a healthy team. Um, they put some guys on IR guys who were fringe roster guys. Every guy other than maybe Andrew Thomas. We’ll see if he’s able to play, but we knew he came in with a pre-existing injury. Every other guy made it through and should be in great shape. That is tremendous this time of year. Remember when Rex Ryan said that, well, we won the offseason when he was talking about the Jets. I think Brian Dable, if he wanted to, could beat his chest and say we won the preeason. But then there’d be a bunch of people that looked at them and be like, “But that means absolutely nothing.” And you talk about never apologizing for winning. And that’s a stance they took when they beat the Colts and knocked themselves out of uh contention for the first first pick of the draft to draft Cam Ward. Now, how it how things ended up playing out was that they got the third pick, they got Abdul Carter, they were able to trade back into the first, get Jackson Dart. Everyone knows that right now. I’m just setting all this up right now. Now, and quarterbacks is the hot topic around here these days. Joe Shane was asked in multiple ways. People were kind of trying to prog at him a little bit to see if he’d he’d crack he’d slip on when Jackson Dart could possibly start. But he made sure to say, “Yeah, well, Russ is our guy. Russ is our starter.” Now looking at the Jackson Dard Russell Wilson situation, how do you think Brian Dable manages that? Because it’s almost like there is more pressure on him now because Jackson Dart played well throughout the preseason to manage this the right way or things could get ugly down the road in terms of people asking that the same question over and over. When’s Jackson going to play? When’s Jackson going to play? Well, you know, it’s gonna manifest itself. You know, I mean, Jackson’s not if they’re losing 10 nothing at halftime in Washington. Jackson is not playing. Jackson Dart’s not playing. It will. Now, now look, they drafted a guy named Daniel Jones in 2019, and Eli Manning was the fading franchise icon. Fading, but he was still the two-time Super Bowl winner, and Eli thought he had time, and they gave him two games, and then he said, “Eli, thank you. You’re out. Daniel’s in.” That was not expected. And it was not expected for for Eli either, but that I don’t think is going to happen now. Um, we’ll see. Does Russ have a lot in the tank? Not a lot in the tank. You know, Joe Shane was honest. I mean, he doesn’t know when Jackson Dart’s going to play or if he’s going to play. No one knows that. Brian Dable doesn’t either. I mean, I if if in the back of Brian Dable’s mind, he’s thinking, you know, we got to get Jackson in as soon as possible, that means that Russ was a disaster. And a disaster means they’ve lost one or two or three or four games. you really want to have a a a kind of a season where you’re going to be 0 and2 and 0 and three and 0 and four again. The Giants fans are sick of that. They’ll mutiny. So, but but Joe Shane was honest. He said most of the time with rookie quarterbacks, you can see him do it in the classroom, they come out on the field, it doesn’t go. They don’t execute. It’s it’s too fast for them. Jackson did it better than I thought. Honest. That’s all. He did it better than I thought. He also said he’s got a long way to go and a lot to learn. I am I would say 93% sure, okay, that for day one, for game one, Russell Wilson gives them a better chance to win than Jackson Dart. I really truly believe that based on his 13 years, based on his leadership, his knowledge, his moxy, his intelligence, all that stuff. Now, is there a little thing in my head after that spring and that summer that says, “Holy cow, maybe Jackson’s like really good.” Yeah, you know what I mean? Because he looked really good. Yeah, there’s a little bit of that in there, but not enough for me to say, Jackson, look, we’ve both seen tons of football. Rookie quarterbacks are by and large not Jaden Daniels. They’re very often Caleb Williams, right? Yeah. Who is the number one pick and struggled mightily. They’re Drake May, the number three pick last year who struggled. That’s the norm. Jaden Daniels is not the norm. So, I don’t think Jackson Dart is Jaden Daniels right now. So, Russ gets the ball and I think it’s totally appropriate and we wait and see. We go week to week and we see. I’m glad you brought up the Drake May comparison because Jackson Dart isn’t Drake May and Russell Wilson isn’t Jacobe Brassette or at least you don’t want him. You’re hoping he’s not Jacobe Brassette. And people talk about this all the time like when we talk about the Russell Wilson situation, everybody’s like, well, he lost his last five in Pittsburgh. He also won his first what five to six in Pittsburgh as well. He also stepped in here day one galvanized this locker room and has become a guy to where guys look at and go grown men 25 26 year old 27 year old grown men look at and go he’s leads I’m going to follow. We haven’t seen that. We haven’t seen that confidence around. You know what else Russ didn’t play god awful in those games that they lost. He didn’t play well enough, but the Steelers the Steelers kind of went in the tank a little bit. So, if you look at it, it wasn’t three interceptions, three fumbles, interception, fumble, three and out. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t like this guy can’t play anymore. Look, is Russell Wilson what he was from 2012 to 2020? He is not. That was a Hall of Famer. I mean, that was a guy in a Hall of Fame trajectory. He is not that. They need him to be not quite that, but not quite what Daniel Jones was the last few years. They need him to be a good, competent quarterback and a great leader. Um, we’ll see if he can be. We’ll see. A game manager with confidence. And I say that and I say that because they feel as though they’ve put together enough offensive weapons around him to where we’re not asking you, Russell Wilson, to scramble and to do all and and to do all those amazing things he was able to do in Seattle. If you have to scramble a little bit, just be able to identify who that target is that you want to get the ball to and give that target and Darius Sllayton, Malik Neighbors, Theo Johnson, Cam Scataboo, you could the list goes on and on of capable playmakers. Give that give that playmaker a chance with a catchable ball. And I think Russell Wilson is that quarterback uh to to to kind of to deliver that right now. It’s still wait and see. Uh Paul, uh wrap us up when we’re talking about the offense. I’m going to throw to this Bobby Skinner uh interview, then we’ll come back and we’ll talk about the defense. Okay. About the offense, look, offensive line, offensive line, offensive line. It’s more than a decade long problem. If Andrew Thomas comes back, I don’t know if he’s going to make it back for the opener. It’s a tall order. He hasn’t played in the preseason. You know, he’s going to get a couple of padded practices. We’ll see how he does in those. Even if he doesn’t, they expect him back soon. With Andrew Thomas on the field, you can make the case it’s a credible offensive line. Not great, not bad, credible. Um, running game should be pretty good. Cam Scatteraboo, uh, Tyrone Tracy, uh, Motor Singleary should be pretty good, not crazy. The the the the one thing I think is that when you look at this whole offensive roster and you say, who keeps defensive coordinators up at night? One player, Malik Neighbors. And that’s not great. That’s not great. Malik Neighbors is terrific and he had a terrific rookie year. But there’s one guy, Tyron Tracy doesn’t keep you up at night. Juan Del Robinson doesn’t. Darius Sllayton doesn’t. Uh Theo Johnson I have a lot of regard for in his second year. He doesn’t. So that I’m wondering if they have enough firepower to to Holy smokes. Look at that play that made. We know Malik can do it. I’m not sure who else can do it. That’s a little bit of a concern for me. Going to have to have or be playmaker by committee. But at least, again, we can agree that at least they have the quarterback that you could at least have a chance to unlock potential out of a lot of guys who are waiting to kind of just have that breakout year and put some great things on tape. A lot of great vibes within the fan base, within this building right behind us. A lot of great vibes uh amongst Giants Nation as a whole. Earlier today, I got a chance to talk with Bobby Skinner, host of the Giants Nation show. He’s feeling the vibes as well. All right, it’s the Giants content you’ve all been waiting for. Blue Rush Times, the Giants Nation show. Bobby Skinner is on with us so we can get his thoughts on the new vibe Giants is what I’m calling them, Bobby. Not the New York Giants. These dudes are looking like they’re uh there’s just a new vibe within the locker room, within the building as well. What’s up, man? How you feeling going into this season, bro? Always excited for a new season, no matter what the team looks like, but like you said, for the first time, there’s new quarterback blood in there. And for Giants fans, this is only the third time in 20 years that’s happened because we had so much time with Eli. Wouldn’t didn’t hate those years. Y, but the last five years have been up and down and mostly down. So now you get Russell Wilson, former Super Bowl champ and a and a first round rookie. Like there’s a lot of things to look forward to. Yeah. Go back. I want and let’s let’s go a little throwback Thursday right now for this next question or this next topic of conversation for us. I want to know about where your vibes were back then compared to where they’re at now. So go back, take yourself back, Bobby, to where the Giants had just signed uh Russell Wilson. Then I want your thoughts on when they drafted Jackson Dart. Think of what your outlook was on the team then. Now fast forward to right now after the preseason, the 53man roster is set. How much has your your your outlook, your your your mindset about this team changed from what uh earlier in 2025 to where they are right now? Not too much besides the fact of what I’m saying overall the plan with Jackson Darth that’s the thing that I’ve been trying to get a hold of what they’re going to do and not even just when he’s going to play games and I’m sure we’ll talk about that but what you like you see from preseason isn’t just oh great performances by Jackson Dart it’s the fact that Brian Dav is going to do the most to keep him comfortable as in his transition into the NFL when he plays right we saw hurry up offense in preseason when do you ever see that you know you saw him using the things that they did well at Old Miss and just kind of bit putting confidence into him, not trying to test him and besides, you know, little tests like go in for a play stuff, but like not trying to have him look bad, just trying to give him everything that he’s comfortable with and then adding the harder stuff later. Uh, and it’s clear they have a plan with Jackson Dart. And that’s a big part of it is making him comfortable. Yeah. And I would even go to so say like a uncomfortable comfortable, you know, because like you said, if going no huddle, like you said, that’s something he was comfortable with in Old Miss, but putting it on tape, making him go out there and and run a twominute or a no huddle drill. Same thing with them running empty formation, like when do you see a rookie quarterback in empty formation? Because a lot of them don’t know how to protect themselves when it comes to, you know, a free a free blitzer coming off the edge. Just think of what Anthony Richardson went through uh in his preseason game where he uh messed up the pinky. He was that was someone unaccounted for, but the quarterback’s supposed to account for him. So, and then like you said, throwing Jackson Dur unexpectedly in there for that one play um just to to show him what it could be like if that now they were playing with real bullets and he had to step into a game for a play for Russell Wilson. You saw Jamus do it and he threw the touch touchdown to Jaylen Hyatt. So, I think like when when it comes to every test that that that Brian Dable threw at Jackson Dart, he aced it and you could see the fan base like they were seeing it all in real time. And between Jackson Dart, Russell Wilson, and Jameus Winston, it’s like someone said before, I think Matt Hasselback said that Joe Shane and these guys went overkill on the quarterback room, but it’s almost like he had to. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. they’ve prepared themselves that if Jackson Dart wasn’t ready to be a backup quarterback, they had Jameus Winston who started 80 plus games in there and they signed him for next year to be a backup and then Russ, you know, I I thought they brought those two guys in to not draft a quarterback and that was this that’s what why they brought in both those guys. But like you said, they they’re a little overkill, but I think Jameus’s two-year contract makes it make sense because he’ll be the backup next year. But I I mean I just liked what I saw out of Dort, right? Even when he didn’t make the right read that that like that that Gunnar Ovesky 50-yard play on last Thursday, he made the wrong read on it, but he improvised and finds Gunner again for 50 yards and and makes a play out of that. So, uh they prepared themselves if he wasn’t like seeing those types of things, but he has. Yeah. And I I love I’m glad you mentioned that play and it was two more plays, two throws he made in that game. one that was dropped by Bo Collins, another that was dropped by Jaylen Hyatt. You just think of like the accuracy, like the location where he put that football. Man, this kid is he’s NFL ready. He’s he I think it’s going to be sooner than later before we start to see him play. And and by that I mean I think Bri I think Brian Dable was going to have maybe one to one to five scripted plays for Jackson Dart to throw him in the game and get him one to two reps uh early in the season. So I’m going ask you how do you want to see the introduction to the start of the of the Jackson Dart area like era? What would be your ideal situation and what would be your worst case introduction as well? The worst I think the worst case is they are 0 and three and they throw him in to save the season right there. The plan to bring him in should be for development, not to uh spark spark, you know, Brian Dable uses the quote to to start a spark, not to spark the team. It should be to develop him. That’s why you bought brought in Russ. That’s why you brought in Jamus. However many games that is five to seven, you know, anyone could pick there, but somewhere in that range. I just don’t I don’t want them putting him in there out of desperation because here’s the thing is he should be afforded struggles. He’s a rookie quarterback. He was taken 25th overall. It’s not about success year one rejection dart. It’s about success year two. So whatever plan they have, I hope they stick as close to that as possible. Yeah. I I mean, it’s going to be exciting watching this kid when he does like get into the game. But I think Russ has done enough to where he deserves that QB1 title. He deserves to be the starter on the team. And you just see the overall vibe that he’s been able to bring um to that locker room. And it’s infectious. guys are playing what I feel better than what they played last year. We were able to evaluate guys that we couldn’t evaluate last year. So, uh, when Brian and when Joe Shane said that they were a quarterback away, looking at the roster to where it is right now, remove the quarterback room out of it better right now in 2025 going into the season than it was in 2024 going into the season. Surely. I mean, the offense stayed the same outside of the upgrade of the quarterback position on defense. You added Paulson Adivo, Jovon Holland, and then the guy I’m most excited for, an Abdul Carter. I think he’s going to be a top five player on the team off rip. So, they and they’ve created something where they can have some have something that offenses are just worried about preparing for every single week. It’s been a while since the Giants defense has had that, even when they’ve had some better seasons with that pass rush. You have Dexter Lawrence who’s top two or top one or two at his position. Abdul Carter and then if you get Brian Burns as like a number three and Kavon as a four. Yeah, that’s a nice luxury to have. So certainly better schedule’s a little tougher, but the they’re no doubt a better team. I love the breakdowns that you do and you don’t just focus on the like the premier players, the bigname players. You go into the nitty-gritty, you go into the trenches and you find some guys that you think are going to have breakout seasons or sleeper picks. So, who are some guys that you got your eye on this year that right now maybe they’re they’re not making a lot of noise. They’re not getting a lot of retweets, but sometime by the end of the season that they could be a household name in Giants Nation. The guy I’m really hoping for and I can see it happening is Tyler Nuben. You know, as year one, he was a competent player. He didn’t give up a lot of passes. You know, he was a solid run defender, but he wasn’t a playmaker. He had one pass break up, zero interceptions. We brought him from drafted him from Minnesota to be that playmaker. I think he had, you know, 11 interceptions in his final three seasons of college. That’s what he’s got to be. And I think he’s an extremely intelligent player, but as a rookie, you’re just kind of everything’s coming at you at once. And you’re looking to not make mistakes. And he didn’t make those mistakes. But now it’s about being a step ahead. And I think the addition of Javon Holland there, too, to have another, you know, highlevel player next to him instead of Pin who was just kind of do his job type of player. Yeah. I think he’s the guy. And again, he’s the second round pick from that draft class. Year two is when you see guys make the jump. It’s usually not year three, it’s year two. Well, it’s just kind of time for Tyler Nuba to make that jump. Yeah, I I I think T Noob is going to have for that exact reason what you’re saying. Like you can’t expect a rookie to come in and kind of be the leader on the back end. Um so they definitely upgraded in that free safety position where Javon Holland’s going to allow T- Noob to be T Noob. My guy, I think, is going to be Thomas Fedoni, man. I I like the routes he was able to kind of run throughout the course of of of training camp. He put some of those routes on tape. Uh especially in the Patriots game where he ran that little out route for the touchdown. Got some good separation. Uh got vertical on his route. So, it looks like he’s got some sort of route discipline to him and he’s got a little weird athleticism to him as well. So, I can’t wait to see if Thomas Fedoni how much he kind of grows and adapts within this offense and how much they use him throughout the the course of a season. But, I got to put you on the spot for this last one, man. Overall season predict prediction, record. What’s your your final thoughts going into uh week one? Wow. I usually save the pred the record prediction for our preview show. Go ahead. Go ahead. I get that. It’s this is where the good vibes and stuff. I I I don’t like to use those terms because at the end of day it’s about winning games and even if they’re losing games but there’s progress in the offseason we say, “Oh, that’s that’s fine. No one no one sticks to that script.” I think that schedule is brutal, man. And I think it’s the most important thing for the Giants is week one and week two. The Commanders, as talented as they are on offense and can be a top five offense in the NFL, that defense is untalented. The Cowboys, they’ve got issues. If they don’t have Micah Parsons, that’s another untalented defense. If the Giants are looking to make some noise, I think starting two and 0 is the key to that. Um, and then you get the Saints in week five and you have an option to be three and two and then you can, you know, keep stay afloat until you get to that end of the season where the schedule gets a little bit easier. So, that’s the thing I’m looking for the Giants. Win week one, win week two, at worst one and one because if you’re 0 and2, I don’t see how you get out of that. Yeah. And those two games mean so much with both those teams being in the division as well. Uh Bobby Skinner, man. Looking forward to uh uh collabing on a lot more content throughout the season, man. And uh shoot, happy 2025 season, bro. Let’s get it. Let’s Let’s get it. Another year. Let’s do it. I told you a lot of vibes. A lot of people are seeing the same thing. That’s the thing. Like if you when you think about how big of a disconnect there’s been within the Giants fan base. Oh, cut Daniel. No, Daniel’s our guy. give him a chance. Oh, this guy like fire this guy. There’s been such a disconnect, but at least everyone in this preeason and throughout training camp has identified that, okay, there may be something here with this team. Everyone’s just like like my dad used to tell me when I was a kid, I’m like Missouri, the show me state. You’re going to have to go out there and uh and show it. And to do that, let’s talk about the defense. Now, the defensive line is going to have to put some Ben Gay on their back because they’re going to have to be that unit that I guess carries this team in this first what two to four games, this gauntlet of a a beginning schedule that they have. But I think they have the dogs on the defensive line to do that. They want that smoke. They want that challenge. Paul, you know what? When you look at a team, you just it’s sometimes it’s just as easy as follow the money, you know, follow or or or the draft money, the draft capital. Where does a team invest itself? Dexter Lawrence was drafted where? What round? First round. Okay. Brian Burns was drafted where? First round by the Panthers, traded to the Giants, and then got a boatload of money. Uh Kavon Thibido where? First round. Uh Abdul Carter, third pick of the draft. First round. I’m noticing the trend. Four first round picks on the line. That’s a lot. So that is Joe Shane’s image right now of what a team wants. Um now you know I talked to Ernie Aorsy not long ago. You know he had OC Yumora Justin Tuck and um he had Strahan still and they drafted Matias Kiwanuka. Okay. Um why did he do that? He did it because he said you can’t have enough. You can’t have enough. So So you can’t have enough. So that is a a a philosophy that Joe Shane has adopted. Um my concern is that there they were a god awful run defense in the la last year, right? Better before that, not good last year. So you know how football goes, right? You got those guys, those outside linebackers and they’re waiting, right? They’re waiting. They’re going to they’re going to get a get off and get the guy, right? Okay, now it’s first down. The guy gets six yards, right? So now it’s second and four. Can you put in Abdul Carter? Can you put in Kvine? Can you put that NASCAR? What they call package in second and four. What do we do? Are they going to run or they get a pass? Okay. So then you gang busters. They throw a little screed or they run the ball again. So they’ve all said it in the spring. We have to earn the right to be pass rushers. So that is my concern with this group. Dexter can stop the run. Um you know Roy Roberts Harris they brought in to stop the run. Darius Alexander, the rookie, shows signs of stopping the run, but he’s a rookie. It’s a very tough thing to do. So, we’ll see how that goes. But, but if they can get to a situation where they’re not losing by 14 points and it’s third and seven or eight, bang. That’s what you need. And that’s just like you have a baseball team, right? You have a great closer. If you don’t have a lead ever, it he’s a waste of time, right? He doesn’t pitch. So, these guys cannot pitch. These guys cannot rush the passer unless they earn it. Um um now there’s a lot of things that go into that, right? Maybe the offense holds the ball more. You know, there’s all different things. So, you’re you’re he the NFL nowadays is if you have to be on a field for 75 plays, you’re in trouble. You’re in trouble. And you know what I mean? And and if you are always playing from behind on defense, you’re in trouble because they can just do it after they want. It’s a team thing, but the potential of those four guys we talked about to get after the quarterback is immense. And it’s like Joe Shane took a script out of the Commanders playbook what four or five years ago they had five first rounders on that Dline and the Eagles as well when they were close to the sack record or tied the sack record. They had about four to five to six firstrounders on that defensive line as well. The NFC East has too many really solid well I would say almost great quarterbacks right now. I hate using the word great, but they got some really good quarterbacks in the NFC East that you’re going to have to face twice uh twice in a year, in a season, you’re going to have to be able to wreck the decision maker, especially the guys who are getting paid to be decision makers in the NFC East. And then you talked about the Chiefs who were coming to town. And then you talked about the Chargers who are coming into town. He It’s almost like he had to load up on that defensive line to give this team a chance. But exactly, you got to earn the right to rush. That was probably one of the biggest question marks I had on this team. And then if we get to that that scenario, that perfect world that we’re talking about, that third and seven plus, you’re up two possessions in the fourth. They have to throw the football. Pass rush doesn’t get there, but it it it causes a a toss up. There’s a 5050 ball down the field with the AJ Brown. Is that secondary? Did they show you enough throughout training camp in the preeason to where you’ve turned that question mark into a period? Not yet. Because that that the key look they right now they’re one spot short. You know, let’s assume that Paul Sonadobo, the guy they got from the Saints, is going to be a a number one corner. He’s not the number one corner in the league, but he is a number one corner. Big, looks like a safety. Great. Uh Javon Holland is a number one safety. Maybe not Xavier McKini number one, but he’s a good player. He’s a good player. Those guys can get the ball. They’re good players. Uh Holland, somebody told me inside this building that Holland is going to save us touchdowns because he going to run sideline to sideline and those bust if there’s a bust in coverage, he’s going to run it down. That’s good. Um Tyler Nubin we think is a young aspiring good player. And um Drew Phillips is a young aspiring secondyear nickelback nickel quarterback who’s who I think is going to be really good. He’s a tough guy. They’re missing that one cornerback. Deontay Banks, Cordell Flot. The problem was both were kind of hurt a lot in the summer. So, that’s not good. Do I think either of those guys showed me bang, he won the job? I do not think that. Someone will start there. Um, I definitely have questions about Deontay Banks. I actually think Cordell Flot might be the safer choice right now. I don’t think he’s the better athlete, but I think he might be the safer choice to do his responsibility and make the plays when they’re called upon. Deontay Banks is still he’s in position. He doesn’t turn his head around. He’s in position. You know, as a receiver, he’s too handsy. He’s too handsy. You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to do that. You were there. He doesn’t trust it as much. So, it’s a wait and see with him. It’s absolutely a wait and see with him. And that could be a spot where they’re going to look. They’re going to look and they see we’re targeting him. Adobo’s over there. The heck with him. Now, if it’s Adbo and Terry Mclloren in game one, they’re going to throw to McLaren anyway because they’re going to throw to McLaren. but that you go to your weaknesses and so that has not been proven to me that they can hold up with that second perimeter quarterback. Yeah. And I got great relationships with both these guys. I’m a little upset with both of them that not one of them came out and really took the job, took the spot. I know both of them were talking about how their confidence was high and then Tay Banks is talking about turning a new leaf. And I was watching them all throughout the social media, his workouts, you know, that he was posting and I’m like, “Okay, cut his hair. Looks a little bit older now. got number like I really I I really thought that he was going to come in and just let Cordell Flat know you’re the third corner on this roster. He he he did not and you can’t do that when you’re on the side. You know, they had injuries. I’m not, you know, damning them to hell because they had injuries, but they had injuries. It’s a fact of life and that set them both back. So, we’ll see. Look, you know, sometimes the first round pick gets the edge. I don’t but I don’t know if he will. I don’t know, you know, and and whoever doesn’t start is still going to play in a lot of packages, but I wonder if Deontay Banks doesn’t start, does his head going to tank a little bit? Cordell Flat’s used to that. We’ll see. We’ll see. But it’s something to keep an eye on, you know, as early as game one and you’re going to get your chance like now you’re not going up against like like no disrespect like some a practice squad guy. If Paulson Adibbo is on Terry McLaren, that means you’re up on McCaffrey or you’re on Debo Samuel. Week two, you’re up on George Pickins or CD Lamb. You’re going to have opportunity to get ones on good on really good. So, I guess I guess I was disappointed because I wanted to see that camp battle get solved in camp. I didn’t want to see any experiments going into week one or week two. But hey, if that’s if it’s still up in the air, may the best one win and and hopefully the best one puts his best foot forward and and is a reason why this Giants defense uh takes some steps. Um I guess last but not least, Paul, go ahead and tease your prediction because I know you got it coming out uh on the website, so we won’t we won’t really do yours here, but go ahead, tease us a little bit. Give a little something to tickle the people’s fancy. Well, we got an NFL special section coming out, which is tons of Giants and Jets stuff. Look, they if they they won three games last year, they can win double that and still not have a good season. You know what I mean? So, um the schedule is is really difficult. I don’t question that. It is. So, but I think there’s no reason for this team to be a lousy team that is out of it, you know. Oh, they can’t beat the Commanders. Oh, they can’t beat the the Cowboys. Can they beat this the Chiefs? Well, they’re not as good as the Chiefs. I get that. But, you know, the the Saints, um, it’s the your Chargers come in here. You know, I get it. I get it. Every week there’s, you know, there’s there’s, you know, um um, you know, some team from the MAC is not coming in here to play. I I I I get it. You know, UMass is in the MAC. Okay. Well, I’m just, you know, if UMass came in here, I think the Giants would be in good shape. Okay. You know, no disrespect to UMass. I’m saying there are no different levels here. You know what I mean? you know. So, um, but this team is it it’s it’s the fourth roster that Joe Shane put together. It’s the fourth roster that Brian Dable gets to work with and, um, they have quarterbacks in place that that know what they’re doing. So, I think that it’s a better team. And, um, I would really be disappointed if on Halloween, if we’re doing one of these on Halloween, we’re looking ahead and saying, “Well, what are they going to do with Jackson Dart? He has to play. What are they doing with this? What are they going to fire everybody?” I’d be really disappointed if they don’t have some wins. So, I think it’s it’s it’s it’s definitely a year where they can be on the fringe of something interesting and we’ll leave it at that for now. And I think that would hurt even more if we get to October and that’s what we’re talking about because after going through the spring and the summer like I’m not going to it’s it’s like waiting for that text like I’m not going to text back. I’m not going to text back. I’m not going to text back. And then you text back and that person’s like oh I’m not interested. Can’t go out on a date. And like that’s we’re that’s the feeling that we just don’t want to feel. Take you from experience with that, man. That’s a whole another the Blue Rush dating show, Paul. That’s a whole another show we can get into. But at the end of the day, at least we have expectations going into week one. And we’re going to see you guys next week on Thursday heading into week one where we really break down the commanders and what the Giants can do to attack them. Know your enemy. You know, we’re bringing it all back plus some this year on Blue Rush for Paul Schwarz. I’m Brandon London. Thanks for hanging out with us.

On this special episode of Blue Rush, Brandon London and Paul Schwartz preview the Giants 2025 season after the final 53 man roster was finalized

Brandon and Paul discuss where the Giants have improved this season compared to last year’s 3-14 season along with how they will manage the quarterback position with the addition of Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart. Bobby Skinner of ‘Giants Nation’ joins the show to discuss the development of Jaxson Dart, what the plan could be to start seeing him on the field, and some breakout players to watch for as the Giants begin their 2025 campaign.

Timecodes***
00:00 Intro
00:58 How much better the Giants will be
5:32 Managing the Quarterbacks
10:02 Russell Wilson 2025 outlook
10:42 Offensive expectations
12:20 Bobby Skinner of ‘Giants Nation’
24:05 Importance of the defense
28:33 Looking at the secondary
32:32 Season Predictions
34:50 Outro

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