Giants Legend Carl Banks Previews the 2025 Season

Giants Legend Carl Banks Previews the 2025 Season

Ladies and gentlemen, you hear him calling the games with Bob Papa, the great Carl Banks. How are you, sir? I’m good. How are you? I’m all right. I’m feeling all right. How are you feeling? Are you excited for another season? Oh, we got to bump Carl up. No, no, bump me down. Oh, bull you down. I’m sorry. Um, I am. I think it’s uh going to be an interesting year. Um, I don’t know where they’re going to end up, win, loss, but they are more talented team. M um and it, you know, looks like NFL football like when you when you watch it, it it just doesn’t look hard. Yeah. And you you know that was my take last year. Some of those games and you you were calling I felt bad for you to be honest with you cuz it wasn’t it wasn’t watchable football. It was non-competitive. Yeah. And you know they’ve got some stability on the offensive line as long as they have it. Obviously that always helps, but I think um with Russell there’s a leadership component that’s player driven now, right? Yeah. Right. And it’s player driven from someone who’s not in the peer group, if you will. He’s, you know, he’s been through it. He’s faced adversity, come out on the other side of it. He’s been a winner in this league. He’s a perennial Pro Bowler and a Super Bowl MVP. So when he speaks, it’s authentic, right? And the best part about it, and both Tiki and I can attest to it, if you can still play, your leadership, your words carry more weight, right? If it’s a guy just chattering and you look at him and you’re like, he can’t play. Yeah, that was great, but he can’t play. So, um, he can still play. He’s got a live arm and you know he’s he’s chronically positive and I you know some people call him corny, right? And I’ I’ve had lunch with him. It’s just who he is, right? And yeah, it’s organic. It’s authentic. It’s authentically who he is, right? And so you have these conversations and people like, “What did you think about it?” I’m like, “It’s just who he is.” Right. Right. I mean, if you have a problem with positivity then or if you’re somebody who’s always looking for the negative in it, you’re not going to find it anymore. Positive Tommy sitting right next to you. That’s positive Tommy’s mantra the whole time. But here’s the the operative question, Carl, is how much do we think he has left? Because I keep getting asked this question. What’s the offense going to look like? I don’t know. Russell Wilson could have 12 great games or or 10 or four. I have I don’t know the answer to that yet because of what we’ve seen over the last three years, one in Pittsburgh and two in Denver. Well, the one thing I’ve seen and I guess it’s the easiest thing to see with a quarterback is that his arm is still live. Yeah. I mean, he can drive it outside the numbers and the deep ball has never left him. Never never left him. Um so when you look at him in practice and he’s driving, you know, the out routes, I’m like, okay, he’s got a live arm. Now, he’s not going to be as mobile, but he can still get out of the way. um he can’t be sack adverse or or interception adverse. He’s going to have to take sacks when he needs to take them. He can’t be retreating like he used to because he doesn’t have that escapability. But you know, everybody is clamoring for uh Jackson Dart and I get it. But to have a team that has the luxury of bringing a quarterback along to be your future is a luxury these days, right? because they’ve got Jamus and they’ve got well they got Russell and then Jamus. So they got guys who can hold the rope and they can get him in, but there is a mandate to win. I don’t think anybody’s under the illusion that they can lose every game and say, “Hey, look, we got Jackson Dart, so we just can’t wait for him to get in.” Russell’s got to win games. They all have to win games. So that’s that’s a a given. How many? I don’t know. But it’s a better team. They’ve got better talent and it looks like football. Like offensively, it just doesn’t look like it’s a struggle every single play. Yeah. Forget offensively. I think defensively is where I’m most excited simply and it’s just personnel right now. We haven’t seen them all play together yet with Dex and obviously the edge rushers, Apple Carter being the one that they just drafted, the free agency uh free agents that they brought in second and third levels. It feels like this is going to be the Giants identity again. And that’s a good thing. Yeah. I mean, I know this is a a wide openen passing league nowadays, but you still got to have some toughness and I feel like the Giants did that this year. Yeah. So, it’s it’s going to be identified hopefully through defense, but I’m young enough to remember when there was a Jim Fossil offense and a Shawn Peyton led offense. 100% defense had its personality, but offense was kind of, you know, you guys were really putting up numbers. So, I like the balance. Um, again, like you have Roy Robinson Harris. Well, let’s put it this way. The Giants defense now has rotational depth where in the past it was just guys who could fill in. So, if Dexter went out, you could count on a 20 yard run. Right. No more. They have guys who they can rotate and really create different packages. Right. It’s not There’s no Jags, right? Right. There’s just a guy. Just a guy you’re throwing in there. There’s no expectation for him. just don’t look horrible. Nowadays, it feels like there is a lot of depth. Yeah. Everywhere really. The fact that you have legitimate competition with guys that, you know, not average guy versus a below average guy, which guy’s going to start, it’s like two starting caliber guys. You look at, you know, the quarterback position, um, just offensive line across the board. They’re going to put the best five guys out there and then the guys who back up are going to be good. So Marcus Bo who’s position apidextrous like left and right tackle. He goes, he switches and it’s just like like his brain automatically flips over and he does everything, you know, the same as he would if I don’t know what his strong position is, but he can play both. Um I thought he was a little better at right guard in the preseason. He felt more aggressive as a right guard and as a left guard. It’s just a different It’s a different animal playing left guard or left tackle. Left tackle. Um, James Hudson the third Mhm. brings personality and moxy to the offensive line. Like he fights anybody. He’ll bait you into What happened to Dak Prescott um last night? Jaylen Carter, he would bait somebody into doing that. He is totally that guy. Like he will bait you into anything. I mean, he had he had fights with most of the ant rushers in practice and it was just like for him, okay, yeah, come on. And then they’ll try something hard and then he slams them on their face. And it’s just interesting. I like I like that he brings that to their offense cuz I think offensive linemen, they need one a-hole in the group. Love, lovable to his teammate, but hate it everywhere else. I I I have this belief that we have cameras everywhere during these games. So, we saw Dak spit. We saw Jaylen Spit. How often will you spat out while you were playing in the NFL? I got one I have one score to settle. Oh, still. Still unsettled. Still, Carl, that was like 25 years. Yeah. Yeah. Washington Redskins. Yeah. Mark May. Mark. Put one right in my right. Yeah. So, and how’d you respond to it? Oh, we have our way. I couldn’t get back at him the way I wanted to. Sure. But so this is during a period where if an offense was pretty rough with you, you could literally look at film and cutting on interceptions were legal. So if we got an interception, we already knew who the guys we were going after. So the could be away from the ball and we go we go get you. We go take your legs out. We go head hunt you. So we just never that game we never got around to doing it again. But I got him a few times, but like I thought he crossed the line when he spit in my face. I never forgot that one. But um yeah, but I had my share of it. But that’s the one I I unsettled score right now. I don’t know if we can ever settle it now because we’re not in competition. Yeah. And he’s a good dude off the field. So, right. We’re talking to Carl Banks. Uh Giants kickoff this season on Sunday in Washington. Were you surprised? And it’s unofficial, but it seems like it’s going to happen. Were you surprised that Jackson Dart is actually going to be the backup, which means they can’t control his NFL debut? I mean, if something happens to Russ, he could play on Sunday. Did that surprise you? I think it’s No, it didn’t. I think it’s a strategic move because of so much that he showed during the um preseason, right? Maybe somebody think there’s a package coming in. Maybe there is a package for him. Maybe Sean says Sean keeps saying it. It could be. I I don’t know. But that’s something something else that um Washington has to prepare for. Right. If if it’s Jameus Winston and Russell Wil, you know what Jamus is, right? Right. This kid, you don’t know like I mean they’ve shown a lot of different things with him and so could be a package. I don’t know. But Washington now has to prepare for him. What has impressed you Brian Dable about him? Because with a young quarterback sometimes it’s yeah they were drafted high. He’s going to play eventually, but it seems from afar, obviously in my case, that Jackson Dart’s impressed everybody. He has gone into the season with a whoa, this kid has it. What’s impressed you? I think the it the kid has it. Um, and that doesn’t mean he’s mastered the game, but he comes in with a certain level of confidence, but a knowledge of the how football works. Right. Right. how to move in the pocket, how and there’s going to be things he hasn’t seen, but when you watch him, you’re like, he’s got it. Like, he’s he’s a guy that you know is going to be a good quarterback for your team, not he’s got potential. Oh, look at his arm. He can do well when he learns this. He’s a guy that that gets it. And you know, and it kind of speaks to when pundits are talking pre-draft and teams are not, pay attention to the guys they’re not talking to. Right. Right. Because um Brian Dable interviewed all those other guys four or five times. I don’t know what it was, but everybody just kept talking about the other guys and Jackson Gard was a guy that, yeah, maybe he’s a second rounder or whatever, but he’s football ready. And the thing that I like about him and why he’s I think he’s NFL ready or prepared is that he had pro coaching uh Charlie Weiss uh junior, right? They ran a pro system and um his his head coach. So I think he ran sort of a a pro offense Lifen and um I think their meetings how he processed football was through the eyes of guys who actually coached in the league. Yeah, I think you’ve probably seen this as well and this is an intangible. This isn’t a he’s got a big arm, he understands playbooks, things of that nature. But when you look at guys like Lamar Jackson, you look at guys like Josh Allen, forget what they do on the field, it’s their relationship with their team is so like real. Like Tommy Devito had this. He was an everyman. He you just everybody liked Tommy and he’ll um hopefully he never plays in in New England. We don’t have to see him go be successful someplace else. Be successful because you know if he could have the type of success as a backup that Tyrod Taylor had, he’s going to be making5$10 million for the next six years, eight years, right? And then he’s going to retire and be a super and I I would love that for him because you know it’s sometime at some point it’s like it’s time for you to leave the nest, right? He had graduate school um preparation so they prepared him for whatever. So, but if he stayed here, it would just be another guy and then another guy. Yeah. No, you’re right. But he leaves and you know, and Dave, he would be like the guy, the old reliable, right? Dable’s never going to get rid of him because he knows what he can do, right? But they’re going to always bring somebody else in now. He can go out and really maximize his his potential earning and playing as a viable NFL backup quarterback. I think you’re right about that. But my point was about the like his ability to have great relationships with people. And I think Jackson Dart has that kind of relatability to whoever the dude is, whether it’s the the black dude from the South or whether it’s the country boy from Midwest. Like he understands. Yeah. I mean, the relationship matters, especially when it comes to leader. Yeah. And that’s the beautiful part about when you have that type of quarterback because the position requires that you are neutral on issues, a problem solver in the locker room and you can you can navigate from click to click to click and go out to dinner, go out and have beers, go drink and everybody loves you because you are not taking sides but you’re settling disputes, right? and then you bring everybody together um for one goal. I I think that’s what’s great about him as a young kid. How good can Abdul Carter be? Um he’s got something special. He’s different. Um he he just everything’s different and I made the analogy and not the comparison but the analogy of you know I used Lawrence and I would practice all the time and we’d be standing and watching him do something and we ask him what did you do like or we watch him practice film and something happened what what what was that he’s like I don’t know I got to go I got to go back and look at it like like he’s that instinctively type of guy instinctive type of guy where he just things happen and he’s just he doesn’t overthink it. He’s a natural athlete and very very um instinctive, but man is he explosive. Right. Let’s break down this game against the Commanders down in down in DC. Obviously, Jaden Daniels was ridiculous a year ago, winning rookie of the year. Uh they’re one of the top run teams. A lot of that is simply because Jaden Daniels is going to is going to contribute. What’s what is the key if there was one? What do the Giants have to do to try to keep this thing close and then win it? Well, they they’ve had it close. Um it’s for the Giants. They’ve got to continue to pressure him, but they got to be better on the back end, which they are now. Um but here’s the thing that I ask, because the league normally does its homework, right? And and I’m going to say this, they probably going to hear it down in DC, but how many halfcourt short shots are you going to make this year? That’s a good point. I mean, they won about three or four games off of these freaking full court, you know, half court shots. Right. And not everybody is Steph Curry, right? Right. And I mean, not to say he’s not that talented, but like how many teams who’s going to have a guy mugging the crowd when the game is on the line, right? And he just throws, you know, he throws up a half court shot and it goes in. I think teams are going to be better prepared. I don’t know if they’re going to be less prepared or less up to the task, but I think they’re gonna they’re going to face competition where some of the things that they were able to get away with, they won’t be able to because now everyone knows that Washington’s a fourth quarter team. Yeah, there’s they you got to play them four quarters. So for the Giants, I would love to see them run the football um and keep him off the field as much as possible. And when he’s on the field, you still got to pressure him. You want him to make plays under the rest. He can make anything off platform, but if your back back end of your defense is better, then those plays become incompletions. And then that’s where kind of the frustration will get in. But I think the defense has enough speed to chase him when he when he breaks the pocket and, you know, so that it doesn’t become a 30 or 40 yard run that he had last year. You will hear more analysis like this on Sunday. Carl’s call on the game with Bob. Tiki is now doing pre and post. So, we are ready to go another NFL season. Carl, we appreciate you coming by. Thank you. Good to see you again. We didn’t talk about your jets. We got to hear something about that.

Evan and Tiki are LIVE from American Dream for the Giants season kickoff — and they’re joined by Giants legend Carl Banks to preview the 2025 season!

Carl Banks shares his insight on Brian Daboll’s squad, the rookies outlook, and what the Giants must do to get the season rolling on the right foot.

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