Zeroing in on the Saints | Big Blue Kickoff Live | New York Giants

Zeroing in on the Saints | Big Blue Kickoff Live | New York Giants

Hello everybody. Happy Thursday. Welcome to Big Blue Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle of the Giants. I am John Schmoke, joined by Jonathan Casillas. We’ll take your calls at 2011939-4513. We’re in the Hackin Sack Marine Health podcast studio. Keep getting better. Mr. Casillas, how are you my friend? I am good, bro. How are you, sir? It’s a uh big rivalry game for the Casillas taking on your former teammate team in the Saints. So, why don’t we start there playing in the Superdome? What’s that’s going to what is that going to be like for the Giants on on Sunday for a guy that’s very familiar with the building? The Superdome is extremely loud no matter if it’s full, you know, or if it’s at about half capacity, which is never at, but it’s always loud. You know, I don’t know about the the engineering dynamics in there, but it’s extremely loud. When I was playing defense there, the number one thing I wanted to do is get the crowd hyped. So, the Giants offense will be up against, I think, you know, the noisiest environment, especially for this young quarterback that they have been in in probably a long time. Um, and we have to see how the Giants do. The Giants have made mistakes on offense, pre- snap penalties, and it communication might be an issue for the offense because how loud it is in the Superdome. So, let me ask you this part of it because the Giants did use no huddle a fair amount in that game last week at home against the Chargers. Is that possible in an environment like that? And what’s the adjustment like? Is it all them hand signals? Like, how does that work? I I would say yes, but remember young quarterback only making his second start. How familiar is he with all of the hand movements, right? All of the hand motions, all of the signals that you know that are, you know, nonverbal, right? How familiar is he? You know, it’d be really a surprise to me if he just runs it without being able to talk to his his players, which some teams do. I just don’t know if he’s there yet. Um, and I do expect there might be some type of issues that the Giants might have because the Superdome’s loud. You got a young quarterback who it’s not that he’s not familiar. It’s just he’s learning so many new things. He has play in a bunch of loud stadiums in the SEC. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. He he’s he’s it’s not that he doesn’t have familiarity. It’s just this is a new offense for him. You know, he’s been here for a few months. Really? Let’s really think about it. He’s only been here for a few months. He’s only been the starter for two weeks, right? That’s what, six practices, you know? And I’m pretty sure they was pumping, you know, in the right the the noise here at practice, but that can’t replicate the Super Dome. So, if they do have issues, what does that look like? Are we talking pre- snap penalties? Are we talking out of sync with maybe some of the pre-nap motion stuff? Are we talking not getting the protections right? What if there are issues with the noise, how do those manifest themselves in the game? I think you hit it right there. And those all things that can break down an offense and then false start penalties from any position because you’re probably going on a silent count, you know, that that has to it has to be, you know, um chemistry there and it takes a while for that to develop, you know, and like I said, it’s only really been six practices before he’s starting this game that he’s going to have with the starting team. So, best of luck to Jackson playing in the Super Dome. Um, but look, the kid’s built for it, you know. I I think the kid, you know, he’s he’s a guy that, you know, plays up to the competition. I think he’s a guy that’s that rises, you know, to the occasion when to the occasion when his number is called. Things aren’t too big for him. It doesn’t seem like No, not at all. I just hope he makes some smart decisions, especially when he’s running the football down the field. Well, and and look, and the other part of the smart decision part too, JC, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. He never really put the ball in danger last week, except for the one fumbled snap. Other than that, throwing the football, he really only threw it to guys if they were really open. Yeah. And he was decisive, right? He was decisive. He He definitely I think tuck he held it a little bit here or there. Tucked the ball, right? But I’m talking about when he when he decided to run. Yes. Correct. Correct. He made those like really decisive things. I think those situations that you’re talking about when he held on, I think that was just because he was trying to be a passer and he did not want to run the football. You know what I mean? I agree. So, for him trying to do that, there’s still a clock that has to be there because these guys, these defensive ends in his league. I mean, Cameron Jordan has 120 something career sacks, right? Had one against uh Buffalo last week. So, he’s going to be have pressure. He’s going to have guys that are relentless after him. He has to have that clock in his head. Yeah, no question about it. And look, let’s talk about then this Saints defense. Brandon Staley, fans should know him. former head coach of the Chargers. Before that, defensive coordinator for the Rams under Shawn McVey. And this is not going to be all that dissimilar, JC, to what Dart saw last week against the Chargers. Again, near the bottom of the league in the terms of number of times they play cover one. Makes sense. They don’t have a bunch of really top quarterbacks on this team. Two man up. They’re not going to blitz a ton. It is more than what the um Chargers did last week, but I don’t think you’re going to see a ton of blitzes and it’s it’s a lot of zone and it’s a lot of trying to keep two guys over the top, not let guys get behind you. So that at least for Dart should look pretty familiar going from last week to this week. Yeah, unless they just switch up the game plan, right? Which by the way, and it’s funny, I was told remember they were going against Josh Allen last week, right? Well, no. I just mean it in terms of what the Chargers did to the Giants last week, what the Saints did will be similar. I think this week, what they do to the Giants, but and I think this is what we’re going to see moving forward now. And I’m going to get back to the neighbors part of this whole thing because he’s not here anymore. And JC, you can speak to this. When you’re a defense and you go up to a team and you’re playing a team in any given week and you don’t have really any real fear for their wide receivers, what do you want to do? Get the quarterback. But outside with your secondary, how do you want to play those wide? Oh, play them tough. Play them up front. Get the guys in their faces. You press and you play man. Yeah, for sure. That’s frustrating the quarterback cuz you’re getting hands on his targets. Now, that’s not what the Chargers do. And they didn’t make that adjustment last week after Neighbors went after out of the game. They kept playing two safeties deep. They kind of let the Giants run the ball as they wanted to. Now, they weren’t getting huge chunks, but they were getting, you know, three, four, five yards on a clip. And I wonder if the Chargers are going because I know some teams are like when they put the Eagles if Fangio they’re not going to give the Giants receivers any breathing space. They’re just not. Will the Chargers make that adjustment based on who the Giants wide receivers are? Because neighbors, what did I say? Will the Saints make that adjustment? Sorry. This week based on who the Giants have out there at wide receiver given neighbors lack of explosiveness on the field. They should because Neighbors is a game changer, right? Every week you go in as a defense, you you go to look at who’s the blue chip players, right? And they’re literally in blue on a scattering report because they’re elite players. Neighbors is gone. The Giants really don’t have another guy that maybe he’s even even in the category right underneath elite, which is great or whatever you want to call it besides Andrew Thomas, right? So, what do you want to do? You got a rookie quarterback. What are you supposed What do you do with a rookie quarterback? You fluster him. So, I think we’re going to see some some things that maybe we haven’t seen on film uh from this defense and the Saints because of the rookie quarterback because of the absence of of And that was my question. That’s exactly what I wanted to know. Yeah. But I mean, that’s that’s what you do. It’s like, who do we figure out how to stop? It’s like, well, the quarterback because he’s young, so let’s give him different looks and they move around a lot. I see a lot of similarities to both offense and defense with the Saints and the Giants, like both sides of the ball. The defense, especially last week against against the Bills, I haven’t watched the other games. I’m going to do that. But I I’ve broke down at the 22 and I’m watching I’m like, man, there’s a lot of problems. A lot of young DBs, a lot of safeties not being in the right position that allowed a lot of big runs. That’s the Giants. That’s what the Giants have been doing a lot this year against the run. They had missed tackles against James Cook last week. Oh, yeah. A lot of missed tackles. A lot of miss tackles. Their their DBs didn’t tackle that well. Uh I mean, Davis, he he’s one of the great tackles in the league. He didn’t tackle that well. I mean, they’re their uh the Bills receiver, what’s the guy named uh Shazir? Uh Shakir. Shakir. They he missed the tackle on the big on the big the big touchdown that he had early in the game. And this is this is one of the best tacklers in the league in Demario Davis. So, I I think they will improve there. And look, if you’re going against the Giants this week, for me, you don’t have neighbors. The Giants want to run the football. You think about a team that struggles in the red zone, what are they going to do? They want to run the football. That’s the Giants. So, I think the number one goal for the Saints defense is going to stop the Giants run game. and Jackson Darts run game two. You took the words out of my mouth. So, I agree. I think you stop you top you stop Cam Scatteraboo early. You try to get Jackson Dart into second and third and longs and then JC at some point and I don’t know if it’s going to be a spy. I don’t know if it’s just going to be keeping a couple linebackers a little bit more shallow in their zone coverages. Eventually, teams are going to say, “Look, we’re not going to let this guy beat us with his legs.” Remember, he’s not Lamar Jackson. He’s not Josh Allen. He’s a good scrambler. He’s a good athlete. He’s not elite, right? He’s not some guy that’s going to be shaking guys and making guys missing in the open field. So at some point and does it happen this week? Do teams say, “Jackson, we’re going to take away the scramble part of your game.” You can do that. If you’re a defense and you want to set yourself to do that, it’s hard to do that though. You can do it. Talk about some of the ways a defense can do that and how maybe that might open some other things up for the Giants. Number one, you can’t ever like you can’t ever let the offense know exactly what you’re doing, right? Like if you line up guys, which I’ve seen the Giants do with with Abdul Carter, he’s obviously the spy in the situation, you know, like he’s off the ball, he’s kind of moving around and he stays there. It’s easy when you know where the spy is at. Even if you have a spy, it’s easy when you know because you can manipulate him by stepping up one way and going the other way, right? You have to give different looks to this offense. And like like I said, when you got a young quarterback, you give him different looks, right? You make him see something before the snap and on the snap, he sees something else, right? Maybe he thought this the pressure was coming from this side, it’s coming from the other side. It’s no real recipe on how to exactly do it because Lamar Jacksons of the world, the guys that you know built scrambling into their playmaking abilities like Josh Allen, they just torch you. Like no matter what defense you have, it’s a little bit of luck that’s involved, you know, in in situations like that. But I I love the confidence that Jackson Dart plays with. I love the confidence that Scataboo has because when you look at the the loss of Malik Dabers, which is huge, you’re losing a primary target, one of the better receivers in the league. He’s not a better young receiver. He’s one of the top guys in the league. You cannot overstate how losing a guy like that can impact an offense. That’s it. It’s a big deal. But if you look at the the the Giants last week without him, who who was the guys? It was Dart and it was Scatable. And it wasn’t just their play on the field and how they they basically were both physical beings running the football. I don’t know why Jackson Dart tried to do that stiff for late. He ended up coming out for a play or two, but like he has to learn and he even said like, “Dude, that was a mistake. That that might have been a bad idea.” He has to learn. And even Cam Scapable, he’s not a big guy. He’s small, but the physicality that he brings to this offense, I think they feed off of it. No, I think they do, too. I agree with you. And and and that’s going to be the for for the Giants is like, “All right, what do we do against the Saints offense?” It’s like, “All right, I mean Saints Saints defense. We’re going to run the ball. But we’re going to establish a physical mentality. So on the Saints, you have to be thinking the same thing. We’re not going to allow them to run the ball on us. We’re I mean, they gave up a lot of rushing yards last week. Buffalo can run against anybody, but they also ran the ball very well, especially in the first half last week against Buffalo. So I think this is going to be another game like we saw last week from the Giants and offensively trying to run the football. And I think the Saints are going to take the same approach. I agree with you. All right, so let’s look at the Saints offense. Now, it’s funny. Spencer Rattler coming out, if you watch him in college, he was kind of like this freewheeling throw the ball down the field, make big plays, but he was inconsistent. You would make mistakes, he’d throw picks, and he’s kind of pulled that back a lot here this year. Five, five touchdowns, just one interception on the year. Good touchdown interception ratio. But the Saints only have four pass completions of 20 yards or more this year. Everything’s been station to station. They have not made chunk plays. and their offense. They have some players that are good players. They have some high draft picks on the offensive line, but JC, there’s just no dynamis dynamicism to this offense where you’re getting explosives and you’re getting down the field and I think that talking to a couple guys that cover the Saints, that’s something that everyone knows has to come and they just it just hasn’t showed up yet. Yeah, they’re trying to figure it out what they are on offense. You know, Spencer, to be honest with you, he looks like Jackson Dart on film against the Bills. The way he ran last week, it was very similar. I agree with you. Um, you know, the RPO game, they were doing a lot of RPO stuff with him, you know, and I’m looking at their big plays, their biggest play is to Rasheed Shahid, 39 yards. Crystal Lavi does not have a completion of over 15 yards yet. That’s He’s a good player. That’s crazy. Yeah, he is. I mean, their leading receivers, their tight end, Jawan Johnson, who’s a great tight end now. He and also misspractice yesterday, by the What? Meaning like injured Packers? Okay. I was say he just missed it. Oh, so Oh, yeah. He hurt I remember the catch that he hurt himself on. But yeah, so the Giants are going to have to do a good job, I believe, in the run game. And if you do a good job in the run game, you can make them one-dimensional. And I don’t think Spencer Rattler is going to be the guy to beat you. Especially what the Giants did to Justin Herbert last week, right? And and and I said this on Hangouts the other day. I don’t watching the film again, I don’t know why the Chargers threw the ball as much as they did. Neither do I. when the run game was working for them. I agree. And it wasn’t just one or two plays. It was not, which Paul Dino was like, JC, it was just if you take away the long run by um the the the running back and you take away the Herbert scrambled, he was like, yeah. And I’m like, no, Paul, that wasn’t what happened. The Giants were leaky the whole game. They were getting big first downs throughout the game. They average 11 yards a carry. I mean, they I I think he had only what, one, maybe two negative runs the whole game. Everything was getting the first downs, you know. And look, when you watch that on film, you got to say, how do we beat this offense? I mean, excuse me, how do we beat this defense? The defense made a point last week, good luck passing the ball against us. That’s what they said on film. That’s what that film looked like. Good luck passing the ball on us. So, if I was the Giant, I mean, the the Giants, the Saints, if I was the Saints, I would say, okay, we’re not going to try to throw the ball 50 times against them. We’re going to run the ball as much as possible. We’re going to do the RPO game. We’re going to put the ball in Spencer Rattler’s hands to run the football because that gives us an extra blocker. So, I do see the offense for the Saints attacking the Giants defense in the run game because the lack of explosivity, right on offense, they just don’t have it there. Yeah, I agree with you. And I was impressed by both running backs against the Bills. Y Kamar still looks pretty good. Yep. Kra Miller looked great against them. KJ Miller looked excellent. Did ran with power. explosion downhill between the tackles. Um, I liked how they kind of kept using Kamar. They kind of ran right at the offensive tackle and if he gets blocked out, I mean, and then if he blocks the edge player out, he goes inside. If he blocks the edge player in, then he’ll just kind of try to get to the sideline a little bit. So, this Saints run game is good. So, you’re going to have to do a good job against and they have linemen out. So, what you don’t want to do is have younger guys in there and put them in a lot of passing situations. give them confidence and run the ball early. This is I see a fast game early, meaning a lot of runs early from both sides. I agree. I I see it being low scoring. You know, I see it being a battle kind of who can run the ball, who can establish that, and the Giants got to do good in third and good in the red zone. These teams haven’t been good on either one of those situations. They haven’t been good in red and haven’t been good in the red zone. So, I mean, on third down. So, this is a game. It’s like, all right, this team is 0 and four, right? The Giants are one and three. This is a team. It’s like, all right, we can do something. Both sides are thinking that. Both sides are thinking like we can go into this game and do what we need to do to get back on track. I joke Giant fans are all pumped. Oh, you’re playing an 0 and4 Saints team. You have a chance to go two and three. You know what the Saints are saying, right? The Giants are the last team we beat last year. The Saints have lost like 10 straight games. The last the last team the Giants the Saints beat were the Giants. The Giants. Spencer Rattler has not won an NFL start yet, right? Yeah. He’s 0 and 10, I believe. That’s insane. It’s crazy. It’s insane. So the Saints are sitting there looking their chops like it’s time to get off the schneide here for us. Yeah. So that’s kind of both that’s how both teams are looking at this. And and for for any fans out there who are real fans, there’s no such thing as an easy game. I’m sorry. It’s just not I don’t care what their record is. They’re all pros. They’re all pros. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce their way. There’s not a lot of blowouts in the NFL. And if it happens, it’s not even the worst team. Last year, what was it? Bills beat Miami like 70 to 20 after Miami beat somebody like 50. Like that happens every now and again, but most games are one possession games, possibly two possession games. And if you watch the film last week, the Saints Saints were better than the Bills in the first half last week. If they don’t throw that interception on that Philly special, they’re winning the game at halftime. They’re winning the game at halftime. They had multiple opportunities in the second quarter to take the lead. Absolutely. They they had an interception. Olive had a drop on third down on third. He’s had uncharacteristic drops this year. Very weird. He’s a good player. and and then another time where they dropped the interception which like but all those happened in like the span of three to five minutes you could have got a lead then you know but you know things don’t happen that way this is not like of course the season is still early like teams haven’t given up you know like there’s no there’s no like oh this team’s giving up no it’s nobody’s giving up I don’t care what their record is you’re going to get the Saints best job they’re going to play their best football this Sunday in the super doome that they played all year cuz that’s what you do when you’re 0 and4 what do we need to do they’ve already improved their penalties, right? They’ve been a penalty laden team when they team when they went up to um Seattle, they had penalties all over the place. I think they only had a couple, maybe four or five last week against the Bills. So, they’re trying to show up. They’re trying to make themselves a disciplined team that can win football games and it’s starting this weekend against the Giants. All right, before we get to your calls, a quick look at the injury report. It is rather lengthy for both these teams. So, I want to make sure that fans know what’s going on. All right, for the Giants yesterday, Tyrone Tracy did not practice. He’s not quite there yet. He’s going to need a little bit more time to get that shoulder right. Uh Tyler Nuben did not practice with a groin injury. Uh and both other Giant safeties were limited. Uh Dame Beltton with the shoulder, Javon Holland with the neck. So that’s position is is one to watch for sure for the Giants this week. Greg Van Roen had a rest day. Dexter Lawrence was sick. He was not in the building. So you figure those two guys are going to be fine. Uh DJ Davidson, Chanty Goston, John Michael Schmidz, uh Nacho all limited. I think the thought is that Nacho could make it back this week after missing the last couple of games. And then Dart with a hamstring, Scataboo with a knee. They both practiced in full. Good. Uh Dart said he feels great um moving forward. And the Russell Wilson had ankle um he had a full participation as well for the Saints. Again, something to keep an eye on this week. Joan Johnson ankle did not practice. He’s been great for them this year. He’s put almost like 90 Yeah. Go ahead. He’s put almost like 90% of the snaps. He’s his snap count’s been unbelievable. Uh Trevor Penning, who did miss the first three games of the year, he returned last week. My guess is that’s just a maintenance thing because I don’t think he left that game last week. So, he is an ankle. I would expect him to play. Um, Cesar Ruiz, their starting guard, uh, he’s out for probably about a month with an ankle injury. His backup would be, I think it’s Dylan Raidens. I don’t think it’s redunes. I believe it’s Dylan Raidens. He is a toe. He would be the guy to play if Ruiz can’t go. And then if Raidens can’t go, it’s going to be um, Torelli Simpkins, I believe, at guard. uh a a rookie that would go at guard. And then Chase Young’s not going to play this week. He’s been out all year with a calf injury. Taesm Hill, Foster Maro just got brought off of IR. My guess is that it’s going to take more than a week to get them going. So I’m thinking probably not for them. And then Trey Pomemer, Justin Reed, Justin Rididgeway also just got taken off IR and Isaac Yatam all were limited. Former Giant Isaac Yatam by the way. So a lot of injuries for both teams to track this week. Important to keep an eye on those. JC mentioned the Giants hangout. Well, that is I believe up right now on giants.com. So, go check that out. He hang out. Is it Scit or Brand of London this week? London. So, you got Casillas, London, Manoline, and Russ. They have some fun. And I was a little annoyed. Russ did not ask the trivia question I wanted to ask. So, I’m going to ask you the trivia question right now. Okay. This Super Bowl winner with the Saints has I’m trying to remember the number had one and a half career sacks for the Giants and started 21 games. Me? Yeah, that’s correct. I didn’t think about it for a second. That is correct. You That is It is you. That is correct. That’s funny. I would have got that one wrong. That would have been bad. I would have Russ asked it to the group and you would have been like, “Oh, I know who it is.” Now, we’re going to see if Brandon and Maline, we’re going to be able to figure that one out. I got the wrong answer on Hangouts and it was a guy on my team. And he gave me the initials and everything and I was like, by the way, Russ Russ’s line that boy JC, you’re on the field. Your defense is getting 50 points an awful lot. Very funny. He killed me. He killed me. He killed me. I think that’s true though, dude. You kept bringing up games. Yo, we get 50 points then, we get 50 points there. It’s so bad. Okay. I haven’t been a part of too many of those games, but both times I was on the Giants or the Saints versus the Gi Giants or the Saints. Like it was I was either part of defense. That’s so bad though. That’s so bad. Like he was asking me questions and I was like I don’t remember that game because I blocked it out. Like it doesn’t even exist to me anymore. But it did happen and JC played a pivotal role in that excellent defensive performance by the New York Football Giants and the New Orleans Saints for that matter. All right, 2011 9394513. Uh let’s go to uh Tim in Charleston to lead us off today. Tim, what’s going on man? Hey guys. Hey John. Jonathan, what’s up? What’s up dude? Two things. One on offense, one on defense. First of all, Dart clearly changes for my mind anyway. This entire offense in that there’s just so many more options. There’s so many more possibilities of things that they can run in the playbook. Um Tim, I agree with you. I agree with you. Let me just add something very quickly. I’m curious to see if JC agrees and then you can continue. I don’t think the way the Giants worked in the passing game last week is something you could sustain over a long period of time. No, no, you can’t. Mm- I don’t think so. Um Well, they listen, I’m not I’m not too like, oh my gosh, they they really didn’t, you know, try to get explosive really. It it’s more like they’re trying to ease him in, I think. And that’s fine. Yeah, I think they’re trying to ease. you are going to win games with with Jackson Dart’s main weapon being his legs. And and Tim’s point with that being said, they easing him in. He still did more than we’ve seen. No, absolutely. From from Russell in the play call and that they gave Russell. No, look. And look, the way I put it last week is Dart was a playmaker. Yeah. You know, some of the art of playing quarterback stuff can certainly get better, taking sacks, seeing guys open down the field, things like that. But he was a playmaker and he made plays when he had to, and that helped, to your point, plays that maybe Russ at his advanced age can’t make anymore. and Dart was able to keep the possessions alive, especially on third down with with some of those. And Tim, John, I think when when all said and done this season, when we look back at who Jackson Dart is, I think that’s the name we’re going to call him. He’s a playmaker. Tim, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, last week, um, that first drive, even before we scored at the end of it, I had already texted a couple of people, this offense already looks different. And I I no knock against Russ because I like Russ. I’m glad we signed him and everything, but I I don’t Russell I don’t think Russell Wilson could have executed that first drive because, you know, that the no huddle and the constant motion and, you know, the constant movement and just the way it kept Well, I don’t think it was that stuff. I think that that dart ran like four times for 50 yards. I think that was the reason that, too. But so, so the one thing on the offense this week, I mean, I think they got I think you’re right. You know, the Saints will probably try to key on cutting down on on our rushing ability early and put us in longer ones, which means we’ve got to have the screen game. We’ve got to have the quick outs like we saw from Dart in the preseason where he takes like a one and a half twostep drop and bing zing bing zang, you know, and just hit hitting guys quick out for three or four yards and just let them do with do with it what they can after that and kind of keep the defense from concentrating too much on the run game. Now, I got to flip the page to the defense because, as has always my concern, can we stop the run? Now, last week, even if you take out the big run from Hampton and the the big run from um uh Herbert, we we still gave up six an average of of six yards a game. And last week against the Bills, the Saints put up 189 rushing yards. And if you take away Rattler’s rushes, which there were six of those, they still averaged five rush, five yards per per run per for per rush. And the Bills, the one fortunate thing, I looked it up because I said, “Oh, that bodess badly if the Bills have a good rush defense.” They’ve actually allowed more yards on the ground than the Giants have this year. So that made me feel just slightly better. But I want to ask I want to ask, you know, Jonathan, I know I know it takes everyone. I’ve heard that from the coaches 18 times. It takes everyone. But really, what do the Giants have to do to stop what these gashing runs up the middle aside from stopping Rattler from scrambling? And I’ll leave that to our pass rush. And hopefully when they’re not getting there, they keep that edge uh solid so you can’t slip underneath them. But Jonathan, you played you played enough. You played in the middle. You you know what it’s like back there. What what what is the key to stopping this? I’ll take the rest off the air, guys. Hey, always good to hear from you, my buddy. Appreciate it. Yeah. Well, Tim, great question because the Giants haven’t figured out how to do it quite yet. Um, but what I’ve seen on film for the first four games that sample size, I’m definitely not thinking about last year at all because they got different people here. What I’m seeing is just poor gap integrity on a consistent basis. like on all the runs that the Giants are giving up, the bigger runs, it’s gap integrity. And and gap integrity is, you know, you got A, B, C, D gaps, right? Everybody has a gap on defense. Everybody does. And then when they bring extra pullers and linemen, it creates extra gaps in other places. What I’m seeing from the Giants, sometimes they’re not seeing pulls, and it’s a lot of the younger guys, too, the safeties. It’s hard to see it from 10 yards deep, seeing a guard pull, but a lot of times they’re they’re just kind of a little bit out of place. Can I ask you a specific a play? Yeah, because it was a poll. The play I believe it was the I think that was the long 50 yard run for a score by Hampton. Uh Muisowl takes on the first puller in the hole if you remember right. And I’ve talked to Carl about this. He thinks Muisowl needs to get to the outside shoulder of that first puller and then force him inside to Bobby. And you know he’s supposed to kind of get everybody he’s basically the way Carl looked at it is that he said look everyone was playing outside leverage on that play except for the one guy. Yeah. And then you know Bobb’s waiting for Muisowl to force the runner back towards him inside. But Darius got the inside shoulder of the puller that trapped Okerake inside. Adbo got I believe he got pushed out on a block by the second puller. I believe it was a wide receiver number nine. And then that’s how the kind of big hole happened. Yeah, I’m trying to remember the play. I think I remember it. Uh that was uh I’ll bring it up. Okay. Muisowl hitting the guard and and kind of popping out almost. I can’t remember it verbatim, but if you bring it up, I I could definitely talk through it. Um, but on plays like that, look, when you have guards pulling and people pulling and people moving and it’s not just everybody stays in the same spot, but they’re just zone blocking up, it creates extra gaps. And I think sometimes the guys that we don’t think are supposed to make the play are sometimes supposed to make the play, right? like a lineman staying on the back side of a block when you think it it’s he’s supposed to stay on the back side because it looks but then if they pull he he actually supposed to go on the other side of that block. So without me looking at it, you know, you know, it could be a lot of different things. Um but it’s usually sometimes a lineman not getting over on these pull plays sometimes. All right, so here’s the play right here. We’re gonna talk through it. So this is in the uh third quarter, folks. A minute 37. They’re running a double puller. I think I think technically it might be like a counter tray, right? Um to the right. Alexander gets doubled. He gets pushed inside. You have two pullers coming in. You have a guard, then you have a wide receiver in motion. Muisowl hits the first guard coming through and then Okake kind of gets trapped inside a little bit. So I was trying to figure out did Okareake not scrape over Muis like you were supposed to or was Mua supposed to get outside into the hole and force the running back into Bobby? He probably was supposed to do what exactly what he did, which is hit it thicken inside. You know, people call it spill, but it’s really thickening inside. And Bobby Bobby is literally scraping clean off the clean off his butt. Okay. That I mean, I don’t know, but watching it on film how Muisau took it on, that’s what it looks like it was supposed to be, assuming he took it on the right way, right? I mean, it it’s hard to to know exactly what they’re trying to And and again folks, this by the way, this goes back to the Steve Spagnolo quote that was all over the internet the other day where if you don’t know what the guys are told in the meeting room and what to do on a specific play, it’s very difficult to to know who’s right and who’s wrong. That’s why when I look at things, it’s like I I I see it and I see what we’re seeing, but it’s like I don’t know who you know someone was in the wrong place. It’s just hard to know which guy messed it up. But no, I got you. And the thing with And by the way, guys, this comes from someone that played the position. Yeah. So regular people watching at home, like how are we supposed to figure this stuff out? You can’t. Anyway, go ahead. And and also too, it’s hard to be an eraser at middle linebacker when everything’s right in front of you. You know, it’s easy to do it when you’re coming back deep, you know, 8 10 12 yards deep. But when you’re up in the thick of it, three, four yards away and things are happening, maybe he didn’t I don’t want to say he didn’t see it cuz he saw it. He’s moving over that way, but maybe Muis did hit it now. He was supposed to he tried to adjust to it a little too late. You can’t do that in the NFL. These backs are too fast and they’re too good. You know, so like playing with guys that do certain things like you start learning the things that they do. It’s like, “Oh, he was supposed to spill that but he didn’t or he’s supposed to box that but he didn’t.” It’s like, “All right, now that I know that he does stuff like that, I can play accordingly.” You know what I mean? Like I’m playing with Snacks Harrison, right? OV JBP. JBP, I love JBP. JP will go rogue every now and again. It’s like a They would go rogue. knowing J knowing JP’s personality that is maybe the least surprising thing I’ve ever heard as you are start building that connection with these you start learning how to play with these guys and Mau hasn’t got that much playing time you know I mean he has but I mean it’s been Micah McFaden and Bobby Carrick basically for two years straight two and a half years two two and a half years and Muis has been so I think the familiarity with Muasau and how to play with him because that’s the thing it was it’s one of those guys mistakes I think looking at that play. It’s either Misau hit it too much inside or Bobby O’ Carried didn’t scrape good enough cuz he was where he was supposed to be, but he didn’t get to the hole. The hole was there and big, but he he got a little too nosy inside. So, I don’t know. I don’t know who was wrong on that play, but that’s what I’m talking about. That’s gap integrity, right? Bobby, somebody wasn’t in their gap. And and that’s the plays you don’t really see in the defensive backs, they’re waiting on tackles, which is they’re not going to win those. like uh Adbo, he’s got to attack that, right? A lot of times he not just that play when receivers catch passes in front of him, he’s just kind of waiting for them because he maybe he’s afraid to miss the tackle, but you don’t have no power. Like we saw that on a play earlier in the game when Omarian Hampton basically took him for a ride for about eight yards because Adbo was kind of just standing there and tried to wrap him instead of attacking, right? You got to think about these running backs, right? Hampton, Barkclays, all of the Scatable these guys squat for lunch. You know what I mean? Like these guys squatting four or 500 pounds. DBs weigh what 190 to 205. They can they can put you and your your teammate on their back and carry it. And a DVO is actually a pretty big corner, too. But but it doesn’t matter if you’re not playing with momentum, right? You’re sitting there waiting on it. And I’ve seen that happen, not just from him, but from other players where they’re they’re breaking down a little too much and they have no power and running backs are kind of running through them. I don’t really see that from other positions, but the defensive backs for the Giants, I see them breaking down a little bit too much and not having the run through, right? Cuz look, a lot of people I I don’t say a lot of people, but some people are scared to miss tackles because they don’t want to go in there. But the thing is, when you go in there fast, you might make it, if you do it the right way, you send them back to the defense, to the rest of your defense, right? And you, but if you wait, you’re allowing them to gain yards. These guys are fast. They’re explosive. You can’t catch a guy in the league and make them go backwards. You’re going to go backwards. You were an engineering major, right, in college, you said, for a little bit. What does force equal? Momentum. No, but that the formula force equals MC². I don’t know. Mass times acceleration. Mass time acceleration. Right. No, but but it goes to your point, right? The force you generate is a dB. It’s your size combined with how fast you’re going up. Force is mass times acceleration, right? So, to your point, you got to make sure you get that. If you if you have less mass than the running back, you got to bring it. You know what you need? You need more acceleration. You got to bring it. And and that’s how you end up with some of those guys. And and and those guys, look, and I tell young guys that I coach, young DBs all the time, MC Squared, I love you, man. You’re great. Um the the young guys like I I got a guy playing for uh Long Island, uh Rhode Island, Long Long Long Island University, one Liu. They play Florida. They play Florida week one. I told him I said, “Do not hit those running backs up top. Don’t do it. You go low on them every single time because these guys are 205, 210, 220 lbs. You’re 190, 180. You’re going to lose. But if you attack them and you attack their legs and you hit them low, now you have them thinking about trying to run you over. Now, they might hesitate a little bit. Think about Brandon Jacobs, right? You can’t hit that dude up top. You cannot do it. But when you start hitting them low, now you slow Brandon Jacobs down cuz now he’s like, “Oh, is he going to go on my knees? I can’t run him over cuz I’m getting my legs chopped.” You give guys something else to think about, you know, and the Giants need to employ that on their defense. They have to. All right, let’s go to Dave Cranford. He’s up next. Excellent call, Tim. Thank you very much. Dave, you’re on Big Blue Kickoff Live. You’re on line two with John Schel and Jonathan Casillas. Dave, what’s going on? Hey, it’s good to talk both of you guys, man. And it’s a very weird feeling to be in this uh, you know, second game here of the dart era where, you know, a lot of people are picking us and there’s a lot of expectations. I’m just not used to it, you know? It’s just a different different feeling going into this game. Makes me a little nervous. Does it make you feel any better that Las Vegas has the Giants as underdogs? Does that make you feel better about it? That makes me feel a little bit better, John. Makes me feel a little bit better. But I did I did want to mention just a couple a couple folks and and a couple thoughts and get you guys thoughts on it. And um I think one of the guys that man had an unbelievable game um on on uh you know against the Chargers that doesn’t um that’s kind of quietly come back is is Andrew Thomas, man. And I think it’s just so easy to you know he’s sort of um you know plays the sort of position where when you don’t hear his name you love it. That’s that’s what that’s what a left tackle wants, right? Like u you really never heard went up against a pretty strong dude in Bud Dri um you know all game long and I think he’s had a great impact on the line and and and I um you know I know everyone’s happy to have him back. No, Dave, it is amazing. The guy had not stepped on a football field for a year and in a game and a half he has not a lot of pressure. He’s been flawless. He’s been great in the pass game. He’s been great in the run game. Uh he has been fantastic. Uh and he’s been he’s been Andrew Thomas. He’s been Andrew Thomas. It’s been great. And and he had a little nice fumble recovery on the one yard line which also helped a potential game saving fumble recovery. By the way, 100 110%. Um the the thing about Jackson Dart is I’m I’ll be very fascinated and and I think that there’s going to be some interesting players that that will have some opportunities. I I do think, you know, obviously neighbors, you guys said it, John, you said it pretty clear uh from day one with this. you know, there’s there’s no way to to to, you know, um minimize the impact of losing the neighbors and saying that you’re gonna, you know, next man up, all that sort of stuff. Sure. Sure. Sure. Okay. But it’s a huge change. Um and I do think it’s going to force the defenses to play much more of a of a one high. I don’t think Jackson Dart’s the sort of guy that you’re going to be able to spy with a linebacker. I think he’s actually, you know, too elusive one-on-one. if you notice him in the in his runs. Um, if there’s one guy in front of him, he’s going to make that one guy miss me. Um, I think it depends on the linebacker, Dave. I think some of the faster linebackers, like the guys that are like 225, 230, I think they could probably spine, but those bigger like Devin White style 250lb guys, they might have some trouble. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I I I think you’re going to see them drop that safety down for for that role in in in my opinion. But um and that just brings me to Jaylen Hyatt and I know we’ve talked about him. He’s been a really frustrating player. Um and and he’s got in my mind he has he has one major weakness. May he might have a couple, but he has one major weakness and that is he he can’t catch, you know, the contested ball. And if you look back at his college game, his big game against Alabama, he’s used to having used his speed in college and getting so much separation that his catches were were almost, you know, four yards wide open. He was wide open. They were just wide open. And he hasn’t been able to transition. You think about Malik Neighbors. What makes Malik Malik, it’s his contested catch ability. I mean, he’s great on all these other things, but it’s his cont he’s he’s unbelievable with the contested catch. So, I do think that um with their eyes on Dart, I do think it could open up for Sllayton and for Hyatt with their speed um at least to try to push that envelope um you know, from an offensive standpoint. And I’ll be I’ll be very interested to see if the Giants can at least, you know, put put some, you know, distance and back that defense up because they are going to stack the box. They’re ab absolutely going to try to take away that run and you’re going to have to do something to try to soften that up. So, I’d love to get you guys thoughts on that and um I’ll be listening to all your coverage. If you haven’t seen the Baldinger breakdowns or the interview with Charlie Weiss, anybody listening, you should get out there and listen to both with John. They were awesome. So, check in the mail. Have a great day. I appreciate it, man. You can find all those on the Giants podcast favorite podcast uh channel where wherever you subscribe to podcast giants.com Giants app Giants YouTube channel. Check those out. They were good interviews. Charlie West went up today. Baldi was earlier in the week. Go find them. They’re there. They’re awesome. Do you think it’s going to be Hyatt that gets the majority of the snaps? Um I mean it’ll be if they run the three wide receiver set. Well, that’s my second question. Do they lean into more 12 personnel? I would say yes. Yeah, because and it’s not just and 12 personnel folks is one running back, two tight ends. Two tight ends and and two receivers besides three uh receivers, one tight end, one running back. Yes, it depends what their thought process is on what they want to do, right? I think they’re going to try to run the ball. So, I do think they lean into 12 personnel a little bit more. Last week, the Giants ran a lot of 11 and the tight end was playing fullback and Hback. And by the way, I wish they would have they used that a lot on that first drive. I wish they would have stuck with it a little bit more because I thought it worked really well. I’m talking to Theo Johnson for the Friday huddle. That’s gonna be one of the big things I’m going to talk to him about because he was the fullback in a lot of those shotgun sets. Yep. He was. And then you got a guy and he he looks willing. He looks willing to block. He looks willing. And then you got a guy with like Cam Scout that look he runs with a a ferocious violent mindset. And I love it too cuz I I really think that’s kind of, you know, galvanizing the team. You know, not just Jackson, but also Cam Scatter. And then if you look at Abdul Carter, the way he’s playing, I think he’s the one that’s galvanizing the defense, right? And Burns, by the way, Burns, too. Yeah, I mean, Burns Burns is playing out of his gourd. There there was one play he was in space and whenever I see him outside of the the the like the tackle box or whatever, I’m like, what is he doing out there, right? He it was a zone. He it was a zone concept like play out in inside by receivers one and two. Played it perfectly. Made the tackle. I was like, bro, this dude’s even great in space. That’s twice I seen them in space making great plays and of course in front of the tackles they have no chance. Bro, I I ain’t gonna lie to you. Th that team on Sunday, it just looked different. The team looked different collectively offensively and defensively. They had a different type of swagger about them. They had a different type of presence. They had an early start which we don’t see from the Giants. We have We’ve The Giants dropped by two scores. Shel, when was that when was the last time it happened? by two scores. The Colts game last year and before then you’re looking at like week two, right? The 45 point output from that the Drew Lock which we never ever Where did that come from? But like we’ve never seen it and and that’s what it looked like. Like it it looked like this team was better than the Chargers. Like the way they played and attacked them is like we know you can’t throw the ball on us. Defense got press constant pressure. They they you know the way they didn’t take over the game at the end of the Dallas game. They took over the game against the Chargers. They the two takeaways that gave the offense the ball at the three yardd line. I know Jackson darts the story. The defense won that game. Absolutely. Let’s be real. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, cuz you got to think, right? And look, I I I can’t say shame on the Chargers because that’s their best player, Justin Herbert. It’s their best player. So, they they put it in their best player hands, but it worked for the Giants defense because they have three guys right now on that on that defensive line that you can’t block one-on-one. Yeah. They they’ve established themselves as that. You know, you can’t block Dexter Lawrence one-on-one. Not consistently. Maybe every once in a while. You surprise him, right? Zero is playing like a man possessed on every single possession. And Carter looks like he’s found his his groove now. You know, not too much off the ball linebacker last week. I don’t know the I know you know the snap count. I don’t know. But whenever he was on the ball, I know it was better. Right. Whenever he was on the ball though, and I’m sorry for Burns. I love Burns. Carter looks different than everyone. He moves faster. He’s quicker. He can get from the D gap to the A gap quickly. Like this. He’s He’s incredible. He’s He’s incredible. He moves different. Yeah. He He We’re starting to see him really kind of get into his form. Yeah. So So against the the Chiefs, 13 on the defensive line, 43 as an offball linebacker. You can swap those. 44 on the defensive line this week and only four at offball linebacker. That that Yeah, there you I mean, obviously the reason why he got drafted number three, but the Chiefs was just they were trying to like, all right, we got to figure something out position, which is who else would you play there besides him? So, it is what it is. Anyway, back to my original question after I took you off the track asking you about 12 personnel when they go 11, you think it’s going to be high? Oh, that was the was the question. That was the original question that I completely lost track of. Um, I do I do believe so. and and he talked about, oh, there’s a lot of things, you know, or one thing wrong with Hayyatt. The one thing wrong with anybody that’s not playing in the NFL, they haven’t gained the trust of their coaches. That’s that’s what it really come down to. And look, even sort at the end of what was it the week three game against the Chiefs, he gets in there, they get a chance to run a play, and him and Russell Wilson are on different pages. And and if you look at the Giants receivers, Theo Johnson, Wando Robinson, throw Malik Neighbors in there. I know he’s hurt right now. They’ve all dropped passes. So, it’s not about the drops. You know what I’m saying? It’s not about the drops. It’s other things like getting lined up, being in the right position where you’re supposed to be, being reliable. If the quarterback throws it to you one-on-one in a contested situation, do they trust you? Maybe not to win the make the catch, but at least don’t let the DB get a pick. You know what I mean? Yep. Yep. So, it’s that’s the main thing that he’s facing right now. Can he get off the line against press? Can you rely on him to beat press? Those are all problems that if they trust him, they’ll throw them out there and was like, “All right, he struggled this play. Do this next time.” Like you can get coached up, but if you’re if they can’t trust you, you don’t play. Like no matter what else people think is wrong with you, they have to trust you. Or if you’re out there and the quarterback doesn’t trust you, he just ain’t going to throw you the ball, right? Which but again, he’s not a big guy. So why is he out there? He’s not blocking. You know what I mean? Like so it’s like why why would you play him if you don’t trust him? So if we if he doesn’t play this weekend, that’s because he hasn’t built the trust up yet. Can it happen? I think so. I think he’s still young. And I do think he’ll be given the first shot. But again, look out for Bo Collins. Yeah. And look out for little Jordan Humphrey if he gets called up off the practice squad. So watch out for both of them. All right, let’s wrap things up today. Really good calls today. We haven’t taken a ton of Oh, we got two more. I’m sorry. Well, we we’ll get both guys in. Let’s go to Rob in New London first. Rob, what’s going on? Hey, John and JC. Super excited to talk to you today. How you doing, Rob? Please tell me you’re calling up. I see you got the Casillas uh Giants career question here. Are you going to talk about one of those 50point defensive games for me? Gosh, I blocked them from memory. I actually, you know, I’m glad that you brought that up and yes, I do have uh for JC. I want to talk about 2016 real quick. Um uh you know, actually I thought you guys I I was frustrated because if your offense had been a little bit better. I think your defense, especially your pass defense that year was elite and you could have been if you had snuck by we won’t talk about the boat trip. if you had beaten the Packers and like gotten things back to normal, I think you I think that team really could have made some noise in the playoffs. So, do you agree with that, JC, or what? And by the way, that was your best year, so congratulations on that one. Yeah, thank you. That’s pretty good call. Um, yeah. I mean, I I I’m like I feel like I should have had three w three rings, you know what I mean? Like that that team that 2016 team was a different team. And he says the offense wasn’t quite good enough. They well played offense. I’m sorry. You had a lot of lowscoring games. Oh, no, no, Rob. No, Rob, you are completely right. No, Rob, you’re right. The offense didn’t score a lot of points. And I’m not going to say not scoring a lot of points was by design. But I think Madoo knew the defense was so good. He didn’t have to open up the offense. Yeah. And you saw it against Green Bay. Eli still had it. Yeah. He was slinging that thing in that game. He was. It was. And and and that I feel like that was like the And I hate to say it, but like I was here for it. like Eli and 15 was really really good. Yeah. He said that the defense was terrible, right? So he had to be like 300 yards a game. Dude, remember Tom Coffin was going for it on fourth downs like crazy because he couldn’t stop anybody. No offense to you. He just knew if they gave the ball back. They they just knew if he gave the ball back Spag is our D coordinator, too. So give him some crap, too. Okay. Well, no. No. Well, here’s the thing. We We all know Spags is great and Tom is great, so it had to be the players fault, right? So, yeah. That’s that’s great. Any uh that that’s awesome. But anyway, it was a great time. You killed this week. Well, I’m sorry. Go ahead. No, I’ll go. You’re good, man. You’re fine. We’re just laughing. All right. Well, okay. So, in terms of this year’s team, you know, I got to tell you, I’m really excited because I think it’s because we don’t really know what this offense is going to look like because I think Jackson Dart is a weapon. I really do. And Cam Scataboo. I think they’re I think we could really punish if they make a mistake and we execute. I think we could really punish teams for making mistakes cuz I I I think we have a potentially explosive running game and I’d like to use the tight end in there as well. And I I think our defense the key is number one I I’d like to play more games to get that sample size bigger. I I just don’t think there’s enough cohesion yet. I think it’s getting there. But get a lead. I’m telling you, if we can get like 10 to 14 points, and I really think I’m so excited because I think this is possible now. I never want to see Russell Wilson again. That’s what I learned on Sunday after watching him. But I really think that if we can get ahead 10, 14 points, I think the running g the us being able to stop the run will take care of itself because they won’t be able to we’ll be up, right? Well, Rob, here’s the thing and appreciate the call. Really good question. I want to make sure we get to our call, our last call before we say goodbye. I love Cam Scataboo. I was thrilled when the Giants drafted him. I love this college tape. I don’t know if I would call him an explosive running back. He can make some big runs, but he’s a grinder. Yeah. Like he is going to grind out yards for you. Yeah. And you know, Malik Neighbors, so I I don’t know how, and this is kind of my worry now moving forward, how explosive can this offense be? I know Jackson Dart’s willing to throw the ball down the field. I know he’s got the arm to throw the ball down the field, but and Darius Slane has the speed to do it, too. But consistently enough, will you have enough explosive plays from this offense to consistently score enough points to Rob’s point, which I think is right on and the correct one, get leads so the pass rush can eat? Yeah, that that to me is my big question now that I’m going to be watching as the season goes along. Yeah, you win the toss, receive the ball instead of, you know, deferring to the second half. I’m just saying like it what I saw last week from the I just saw a different team than I’ve seen in a long time. But because they had a lead, you get to play differently. That’s what that looks like. When you have a lead, it looks like that. And you have defensive linemen that can eat true and and beat anybody one-on-one. You have to have a lead to do that. This is the thing with the Saints. I don’t think they care if they’re down. They’re going to run the football. They’re going to run the football. They have one of the best running backs in the league in Chimera. And that other kid, he’s been playing lights out, too. KJ Miller’s looked good, man. He has. He’s been playing really good ball. And Spencer Rattler, I feel like they don’t want they don’t want to put the game in his hands. I don’t feel like they will. You know, I don’t feel like they will. I feel like even if the game is out of whack, they’re still going to try to get the ball to Chimera, get the ball to their tight end, get the ball to a Spencer Rattler has been very decisive on him running the football. At least this what I saw from Buffalo and hearing the commentators talking about him being decisive going into it, he looked like it. So, think about like I’m telling you there’s a lot of similarities in these offenses from the Saints offense to the Giants offense. You have a young quarterback that can run the RPO game, right? That wants to be able to run the football, not just give the ball, but run the ball himself and wants to make plays downfield. He has a what, five touchdown to one interception ratio, but he doesn’t throw the ball down the field. You know what I mean? So, he’s a guy that, by the way, he’s he is the arm, too. He’s capable of it. He just hasn’t done it this year for whatever reason. I don’t know if this game is going to have a lot of big plays. No, I think you might be right. This is going to be like a three yards and a cloud of dust. I know. I know. Little boring. Might be a little slow. Well, I I should correct myself. It’ll be three yards and a cloud of rubber pellets, right? Exactly. and and and and if the Giants do get a lead though, then you not sit back, but you you just approach it differently, especially towards the end of the half, how you call the plays. And then at the end of the game, of course, the last, you know, you know, fourth quarter, if they’re up, they’re going to have to pass the ball, you know, and this is where the Giants is going to eat at. So caller, he had a great point. I truly think the the recipe for the Giants is trying to get a lead early and allowing the guys on your defense to do what they do best, which is rush the pass. You’re right. Giants have not gotten off to a lot of fast starts the last three years. Yeah. So, let’s let’s try to keep that going. All right. Wrapping up today will be Gary in Houston with an interesting question. Gary, what’s going on? Gary going once. Gary, where you at, bro? Gary, don’t do this. No. All right, Gary, thanks for the call. Yeah, Johnny Mac. Oh, Gary, you there? Gary, can you hear me? Yes. Is this Gary? It’s Darien. All right, Daren, I guess we’ll take your call to wrap things up. Darian, what’s going on? Hi. Yeah, I’m down in Houston. Um, I’m actually headed to the game this week. I used to live in Delaware, so I used to go to the Philly game every year. Yes, sir. So, I haven’t been able to to go, but um I had a quick question. So, uh, assuming Malik Neighbors wasn’t injured, uh, if you could add two players to this current Giants roster, one on offense and one on defense, any former Giant, uh, that you think could potentially turn this team into a playoff team or potential, uh, Super Bowl contender, what Giants, former Giant would they be? Is this all Wait, guy, hold on. Is this Darian, hold on. Is this alltime Giants or guys that are active now? No, all time. All time. Oh, gez. All right. Appreciate the call. That’s a great question though. It’s a good question. On offense, he said, right? He said either any I mean, you can’t not add Lawrence Taylor to any Giants team. Here’s the problem. You still You already have I know I already got so many. I know. I know. Who would I add? I’m thinking too. You got to add a great lineman. I’m thinking great guard. I would consider like a like a Leonard Marshall or like a maybe like a like a Lynval Joseph type or maybe like Snacks in his prime. Yeah. How about Jason Seorn in his prime? Yeah. Lock down Shutdown Corner. That wouldn’t be bad for you know what I’m going to go and you go I mean if you want to really go back you want to go and pick like Emil Tanell with his 50 career interceptions. You want to go back that far and pick a pick a defensive back. I’ll go Emilyn Tedell if you want. Um, but if you want to do more modern for the modern sensibilities of of of the younger folks. Um, I’ll go Seahhorn. I’ll add Seahhorn on defense. So, I’ll go offense. One of my favorite guys, guy I played with, Jeremy Shaki. Dude, he just That’s a good one. Imagine putting in with Scatoo. Dude, I’m not sure the locker room can handle that. You want a certain level of craziness in your locker room. You might get over that thin red line a little bit by having Dark Scaboo Shocky. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that would be entertaining though. Oh, very entertaining. That would be fun. Imagine Shocky, bro. Right now playing how the game is now with how they kind of let tight ends eat as much as they do now. Dude, that’s not That is not bad. That is not bad. All right. So that So now you pick your defensive player. my defensive player. I mean, it’s I would say LT. Let’s exclude LT because LT goes on he’s too easy. Yeah, he’s too easy and it’s hard to fit him here. I was trying to be more creative. Yeah. No, I feel you. Um, you like Harry Carson. I’m staying away from linebackers. Okay. No linebacker. Okay. Or if I do, it’ll be middle, but Harry Carson’s a middle, right? I like Harry. Who? I mean, I’m trying to think of safeties. Who was a I mean, you go Julian Love Xavier McKini even better than them. I like them, but I I mean, you want to go I mean, Everson Walls, he was a corner, but he was a guy that was able to get a lot of picks. Um I mean, you want to go back Let me do this because I played with him and he was really good when he was here, when he was young. Landon Collins. Oh, you want to go prime Landon Collins? His first couple years, I’m not going to lie to you, I played with great safeties. I played with Darren Sharper before all the extra stuff happened. He was amazing. 10 interceptions. Landon Darren Sharper owned Eli Manning. Yeah, he he was kill Landon his first two years in the league. Holy smokes, bro. Like I’m I’m played next to him and he almost played more like a linebacker than a safety. So I play Will and he played free and he would be coming down on the run support and I wouldn’t see him. I would hear him and I’m fitting up, you know, I’m locked in. I’m just hitting the guard. I’m hitting the fullback and all I hear is blow and it’s landing sending the running back to the sky. and he had a lot of interceptions. He had some sacks. Like he was a do everything guy. And and the reason why because I know some of the safeties that play for the Giants, but I seen Landon play, he was one of the best safeties I played with. When I’m talking about those couple years, how his career panned out, I don’t know. But when he was here, holy smokes, he was good. Okay, I know where I’m going here. As he said, assuming Malik Neighbors is healthy, I mean, I could argue you put like Hakee Knicks across from Malik Neighbors on this team. or Victor. Vic Vic is I would I would consider one of those two guys. That that would that would be my that would be my exciting one with the Tyrone Tracy injury. Pairing Tiki with Cam in the backfield. Yeah, that would also be a lot of fun. I have to give some love to my co-host Thunder and Lightning. But I I’m going to go more boring here. You know who I want? Give me Chris Sny. I was thinking him. Remember I said guard first. Give me Give me Chris Snne in prime. Right, left. Uh Chris played right guard. Right guard, right? No, no, wait. Was he Johnny Johnny M? No, he was right guard. Chris, right? Correct. Right or wrong? I’m I’m pretty sure he was right guard. Not Not the Chris Snee that’s in the building walk around at 250. I want him 320. We want We want Correct. That is absolutely correct. So, I would go I would go Chris. I think that’s what I would do. Um, and I think that’s who I would slide in there if I was to pick one guy to help the offense. I like it. I mean, could I pick Eli Manning or or could I pick could I pick Eli or Phil Sibs at quarterback? I’m assuming I’m assuming he doesn’t need quarterback. But I like that though because let’s be honest about this. The last few years the Giants guard play hasn’t been elite. It’s been good at times. It’s been porous, you know, uh I want to say consistently, but it’s been porous. And Chris, I mean, he’s a monster. Yeah, right. I was correct. He was right guard. Yeah. I didn’t want to fool myself there, but yes, he and he played how many plays am I looking at right there? Did that say Oh, well that was he played over a thousand snaps in 2010. Over a thousand snaps in both 2010 2011. I was just double checking. Um yeah, he was right next to Kareem McKenzie all those years. So, but yeah, I think I think those would be those would be the names that I would think about assuming you’re not on Shock’s fun. Shock I would love to see the Shocky Scataboo dynamic. That’s that that that would be something. I was I I covered shocki for a couple years actually. Just I worked here only for one year when he was here, but I was traveling with the team the other year. He was crazy. He’s a He was a character. Oh, he was crazy. You know, I had him in New Orleans. I know when he was there. Did I’m not going to say Did he decorate his locker in the same unique way in New Orleans as he did here? I don’t know. Okay. I’m not gonna I don’t I’ll talk to you after the show about that. All right. Um, but uh, so yeah, that’s Big Blue Kickoff Live. Give me your feel. You think like like a 17, 14, 20 to 17 type of game here? Is that what we’re looking at? I think so. I think so, too. Yep. I think it’s not as many possessions, I think, is going to happen. Yeah, JC, good stuff, my man. For Jonathan Casillas, I’m Josh. That’s Big Boo Kickoff Live presented by Cadillac, the official luxury vehicle of the Giant from the Hacksac Meridian Health podcast studio. Keep getting better. Uh, by the way, don’t forget, I should have brought up earlier, the 5K racing kids run presented by Quest, Sunday, September, uh, October 26, 9:00 a.m. It’s coming. Go get your tickets. Uh, giants.com/5K. That proceeds would benefit the Giants Foundation. It’s a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. You get a free t-shirt. You get a post-race festival with Giants Legends, a live DJ. Again, giants.com 5K. Go check it out. For JC, I’m Schmel. Tomorrow, it’s Dino and Scit. Check out Big Boo Kickoff Live on Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. with Mark Belus and I. And then Tiki and I have the pregame show on Sunday at 11:00 on the Fed. We’ll talk to you tomorrow. See you later.

John Schmeelk and Jonathan Casillas zero in on the Saints, discuss the offense, and take calls from fans. Presented by Cadillac.

0:00 – Zeroing in on the Saints
22:40 – Calls from Fans
37:00 – The Passing Game
46:13 – The Offense
53:00 – Giants History Question

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