Will the Giants defense look any different with interim DC vs. New England? | Blue Rush Week 13

Will the Giants defense look any different with interim DC vs. New England? | Blue Rush Week 13

Is it Jackson Dart or is it going to be Jameus Winston? Who’s going to be QB1 on Monday Night Football? And I feel like we have now entered the Twilight Zone. LA life after Shane Bowen has begun, but who is new defensive coordinator Charlie Bullen. Uh we’re going to dive into all that, y’all. This is Blue Rush by the New York Post Sports. Happy Thanksgiving week, everybody. Uh, hope you’re ready for some week 13 Giants Patriots action and that’s on Monday Night Football. It’s a prime time game. So, that means we’re going to get prime time Paul Schwarz joins us now for today’s episode. Uh, Paul, what’s going on, my man? Uh, I guess we can start. I mean, you you start, sir. You go ahead and start us off with this one. What are you What storyline or what story lines are left to talk about when it comes to the Giants? No, there are a lot there are. Look, in a lot of cities there the story lines are about playoff contention and you know uh um seating and things like that. Obviously there’s none of that with the Giants, but there’s plenty of storylines. You know, they’re still playing a game on Monday night. It’s hard to believe that it’s it’s it’s an extended week. The Giants have a their last prime time game, and it’s really remarkable. We haven’t even had the buy yet. I mean, it’s it’s it’s the the latest buy I can ever remember. And it’s just, you know, it’s going to be after 13 games. It’s it’s really not a buy. I mean, it’s almost a goodbye for the Giants, right? Their season’s almost over and we haven’t even had the buy yet. So, that’s interesting. Uh Thanksgiving, you know, right in the middle of this week puts a um um you know, a different vibe to this whole thing. But yeah, I mean um a few a few weeks ago it was um well, well, many weeks ago it was, okay, Jackson Dart’s going to start. Let’s see where that goes. Then a few weeks ago was okay, Dart can’t play. Jameus Winston’s going to play. Let’s see how that goes. And now, um you know, we had the uh Brian Dable following firing. So, it’s okay. We have a new head coach with Mike Kafka. Let’s see how that’s going to go. And yet another new wrinkle this week is we have a new defensive coordinator. Let’s see how that’s going to go. So, um you know, I will be interested to see if there’s any changes on defense this week. All right. First up to talk about first order of business is I guess Mike Kfka firing Shane Bowen. I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about that. I guess you know you’ve got sources in the building. you know, you’ve this is something that we’ve been keeping an eye on for a very long time. Mike Kfka finally pulled the trigger on that one. What was your initial thought of Shane Bowen being fired? And now that it’s, you know, a couple days have gone by, how do you feel about the Giants going into this Patriots matchup against a Drake May with Charlie Bullen as as defensive coordinator? Yeah, look, it had to happen. And um I I look, it could have happened. the Giants when they name an interim coach head coach, you know, they give that they don’t say, “Okay, um, you’re going to take over for for Brian Dable, but this is what is going to happen.” You know, they say, “Okay, what do you think should happen?” So, CFKA could have come in and said, “Okay, if I’m the interim coach, I can’t have Shane Bowen as my defensive coordinator. I got to make a change right now.” And ownership would have said, “Okay, if that’s what you feel, tell us.” And with Joe Shane involved, what is your plan? who’s the next in line and what do you think should happen and then if they it it was a cohesive coherent plan they would have gone with it. Um I like that Kfka said look I didn’t want to make any rash decisions. I didn’t want to go into this and just start firing guys left and right. Look he’s a coordinator. He knows how it is. So um you know I frankly and I wrote this after the first game Kfka coached with the Packers. I didn’t think that Shane Bowen was an issue at all. You know what I mean? The defense was okay. Um, I didn’t think, you know, the personnel was was was the the the groups the personnel groups I thought were fine. And at the end there, you know, he called for a blitz that should have gotten to Jordan Love and it didn’t with three one-on-one matchups. That’s on the players. That’s not on the coach. Um, and so, but this past week, look, you can’t um go to Detroit and blow another lead and blow another double-digit lead in the fourth quarter. So, I think it had to be done. And um, you know, can Charlie Bullan make a million schematic changes this week? He cannot. He gets an extra day to play with. That’s good. Um, my impressions of Charlie Bullan, I mean, he’s he’s he’s an effervescent guy. He’s a very good quote. He he had a lot of energy. He had more personality in the in the few times I’ve spoke to him than Shane Bowen did in two years I’ve spoken to him. So, does that make a difference? I don’t know. But, you know, Brandon, this was not a slam dunk. He’s never been a defensive coordinator before. He’s never called, you know, he’s never made defensive calls before in the NFL. He’s been in the NFL for 12 years, two years with the Giants, primarily always on um without outside linebackers. And you know, there were guys on the staff, you know, certainly um you know, um Emanuel, the um you know, secondaries coach, has called defenses for the Falcons. Um Andre um you know, the uh Andre Patterson, the defensive line coach, has been a co-defensive coordinator before in the league. So, you know, they had quote unquote more experience. Um, should they have gotten it? Look, this is this is um Mike Kfka’s call and he went with Charlie Bolan. I think he’ll be a spark and some energy. And um Brian Burns had good things to say about him. He said he’s really helped him and um you know, Brian Burns has had his best year with him. So he um Burns said look he would have been happy with whoever they picked because there’s experience there but he’s very thrilled it for Charlie Bullan because he’s a guy he knows very closely from working with him the last you know one and a half seasons and um we’ll see you know if anything it’s different and um it will be some energy some personality I think and you know at this point that’s a good thing when I look at it from a football standpoint Paul I think Kfka was kind of was was very overly generous to keeping Shane Bowen for even that one game. You know, I’ve seen I’ve been on staffs or not been on staffs or I’ve seen staffs or um that where the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator do not get along. So, if this were to happen on that staff and that this my my some of my father’s former staffs where that offensive coordinator and that defensive coordinator were going at it with all the MFS and curse words in the world on a sideline in front of ads, all of it. So if something would have happened to my father and he would have get gotten fired and one of those coordinators would have been bumped up, they would the other one would have been fired in a heartbeat. And you see that on a lot of coaching staffs because the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator, they game plan against each other more than anybody else in the in those leagues. You’re playing against these guys in the spring. you’re you’re game planning against these guys in the summer until the regular season comes and now it’s time to attack a different defense or a different offense. So, who else outside of Mike Kfka is going to know where the weaknesses are in a Shane Bowen defense? Where the the skeletons are buried in a in a Shane Bowen defense. And Mike Kfka kind of said something after that Green Bay game after they put up over 330 plus total yards. uh he said he wants the defense to attack and be aggressive. So that is him indirectly or subliminally telling you what’s wrong with the defense or what he thinks or how he thinks the defense can be fixed. Now, when it comes to Shane Bullan and passing up Marquan Emanuel and uh Andre uh uh uh Patterson, I I I guess it’s it’s because Marquan Emanuel has such a a hold on the secondary and he is he’s needed in that room. I’m guessing he looked at it to where it’s like, okay, you go ahead, you continue to control and you run that secondary room, we’ll bump Charlie Bullan up and then now Andre Patterson gets a little bit more responsibility when it comes to the Dline and the edge rushers, that linebackers, that sort of situation. But, uh, it’s just a terrible situation. It’s a bad situation for anyone to be in. But, player-wise, I want I know Brian Burns is saying all the right things. He’s done all the right things all year. Player-wise, I wonder if we see an extra effort in some of these guys. I’m going to keep my eye out on the Tay Banks. I’m going to keep an eye out on some of the guys that we’ve kind of looked at the film and called out their effort. I know it shouldn’t have to happen. A guy has to get fired. But now, I really want to see who steps up and who if it is a if it was a problem of the X’s and O’s, that really ruined it for the Jimmies and Joe’s. So now there’s not too many guys that can hide on this defense now because the coach has been fired, the Dcoordinator’s been fired. Now here’s a guy that Yeah, he had to listen to you probably come into his office and like, coach, we need to be doing this, we need to be doing that. Oh, I listen now. I got my opportunity to put you in that position. You better make the play or else got to go. You’re you’re right. As far as like when you take one guy, what are you what are you missing? Right. So yeah, if you take the secondary coach away, you know, you know who who who you want to, you know, rob Peter to pay Paul sort of thing, right? You don’t want to Okay, now we’re leaving that open. Now we’re leaving that, you know, with with a weakness there. Yeah. I mean, um, look, it’s a great opportunity for Charlie Bullen, you know. I mean, you know, nobody gets up every morning and says, I want to be an outside linebacker coach the rest of my life. You know what I mean? You know, everyone wants to be a coordinator and move up and move up. So, this is an audition for him as well. Like I said, he can’t do a million different things. Um, but he can do some different things and he can make, you know, he can, you know what he can do? He can maybe acquies to the head coach a little more where where if CFKA is in the headset and and he says, “We’re bringing pressure here, right, Charlie? We’re bringing pressure here now, right?” You know, you know, he doesn’t make the actual, you know, the head coach is not going to make the actual call, but he can say, “Look, I don’t want him sitting back there. I don’t want him patting the ball.” And then if you bring pressure and it doesn’t work, at least the defensive coordinator can say, “See, I tried, you know, I didn’t sit back. I mean, I I thought, look, it this is layers and layers, right? I mean, you know, everyone loves Wink Martindale, and he was a better a more effective defensive coordinator than Shane Bowen was, but Wink Martindale couldn’t stop the run either. I mean, the last year, I think they were they were 27th against the run. He didn’t stop the run. He he was had more pressure. He had more bombast. He had more bravado. You know, he was in charge of the defense, right? And the defense, you know, they like that about him. But, you know, Shane Bowen after after Jir Gibbs, who is still running, he’s still running, I think. You know, he’s actually still sprinting and and through Untouched, then at this point they’re last in the league in run defense. So, you know, his firing was warranted. It had to happen. And so, um, there will be no miracles here. Um, you know, we’ll see. You know, we’ll talk a little bit about the Patriots. They have some vulnerabilities now that maybe Charlie Bullan can, um, come back from. Maybe Kavon Thibido comes back. You know, sometimes also um, you know, this this was the anniversary of this was the anniversary of, um, in 20 um, what year was it when um, when um, um, Jim Fossil gave the um, you know, this team is going to the playoffs. I’m putting my chips to the center. That kind of that kind of thing. This was the an anniversary of the exact year that that happened. And um when Jim Fosil said that make you know you know the Giants were like seven and four and he knew they were playing the Cardinals the next week and the Cardinals were awful. So what happened? He he he said this team’s going to the playoffs when you know because they had lost a couple of games. They went in and they hammered the Cardinals. So, this is a kind of situation where you you you look, the Patriots are a good team with a really good quarterback, but they have some vulnerabilities and maybe the Giants can get some guys healthy and they can have a good game Monday night and everyone looks a little better because of the timing of this change. Um, we’ll see. We’ll see. Look, the the Patriots are good team. They’re in first place. Uh, so we’ll see what happens, but it it had to happen, you know. I mean, it it’s just like the Brian Dable thing had to happen because you can’t keep on losing games like that. Not that it was all on Brian Dable. It was not um you know there were deficiencies on this team. I mean I wrote in in um for our postports plus website that was you know it was um um you know it was out Wednesday morning that it is remarkable that this offensive line is playing pretty well. Not great but pretty well. And and the team is scoring and um you know uh they’re ninth in rushing. They’re they’re uh top 10 in total yards. They’re about 22nd in scoring. So, the scoring’s leg behind, but this is not a 2-10 offense. And for years, it was a 2-10 offense. It’s not a 2-10 offensive line. It’s not a 2-10 offense, but it’s a 2-10 defense. And that has compromised the whole season. So, the defensive coordinator had to be um let go because of that. All right, Paul, we’re going to go into the locker room now, see what the guys have to say about new defensive coordinator Charlie Bullan, and the possibility of Jackson Dart’s return being official. Uh, that’s all on London in the locker room. All right, London in the locker room with wide receiver Jell Robinson. Tay Banks called you Dale one time and I just I I’m always thinking my head. I wouldn’t call you Dale. All my teammates call me. About all of them just call me Dale. I really don’t hear Wandell too much in the building. Um, yeah. More so from the fans. That’s when I hear Wandell. So, all right. I’m the media guy, so I’ll say Juan Dell. But then the former player in me also wants to say Dell. You know how these London and locker rooms go. We always get you guys to show us something in your locker that’s a mustave. What you got for us? All right. I got plenty of cleats. That’s my must. Like um here. This This is what I’m actually going to wear this week. Let’s pull out these. Ah, so these are the Monday Night Football exclusives, right? So these are actually from Ohio State. Um one of the cleat guys I always buy buy some cleats from, they had these. If you know anything about cleats, one of the better cleats ever made right here. And then, you know, just some chrome and white, red chrome customs right here. I’m always going to have some some fresh cleats on the field. Um, no matter no matter the week, there’s always going to be something clean coming out. So, yeah, the things that are guaranteed in life, death, taxes, and Dale having some fresh cleats on his feet, ladies and gentlemen. The best cleat selection in this locker room. And you can argue with anybody and they they actually anybody will tell you that. They they’ll all tell you. So top two and you’re not two. Yeah, for sure. I’m top two and not two. I always have the best cleats in the locker room. That’s that’s kind of my thing. People got shoes and clothes, but you want to come talk about cleats, I got it. Brian Burns has cologne. Vandelle has the cleat game. I’m the cleat. I’m the cleat man. All right, let’s talk some football, man, because you’ve been absolutely balling. Uh Mike Kfka was talking about how impressed he was for you to go from the slot and then to still make plays on the perimeter on the outside. You’ve made a position switch from running back to receiver. So, what’s been harder to pick up and be successful at going from running back to receiver or slot receiver to the outside? Definitely the running back to the receiver. Uh once I started playing receiver, it was really, you know, playing inside and outside, especially in college. And so, um I had the experience of playing outside. I just didn’t really have too many opportunities of doing it in the NFL. Um, so, you know, just making sure I’m studying my opponents and stuff like that and um, knowing exactly who I’m going against and then it gets pretty easy from there. All right, Mike Kfka showed you some love. Now, let’s reciprocate that love. What have you seen from him these last two weeks as interim head coach, not only just on the offensive side of things, but just his his demeanor and overall leadership? I mean, he’s great. Um, you know, he’s real calm, but at the end of the day, he’s going to stay on us and be hard on us. Um, and you know, he’s just a great great offensive play caller. I think I think he’s a great offensive mind and um, just marrying up the run in the past game, making things look the exact same so that way defenses can’t um, get a beat on exactly what we want to do. Um, so you know, I love CF. I love CF to death. Does it surprise you that you guys have had around 900 yards of total offense the past two weeks? Uh, no, not one bit. I say I know the talent that we have in this room and um that we have in our offensive room and I know our O line’s going to always uh go out there and protect our running backs, our quarterbacks and do exactly what they need to do and um in the past game it’s just on us to go out there and get open. Dale, you’ve been here and involved in some offenses that it took about five weeks to get 900 yards total offense. now to have that offensive explosion this year but still not be able to win games and still have personal success like like at the end of the day when you sit in your locker after at the end not being able to close out a game as a team. Just take us through that feeling and that emotion. Man, I mean it’s it’s definitely tough um cuz you know we have we have the talent to go out there and win these games. It’s you know it’s just like we got to figure out a way to finish them. Um I saw something it’s like if we basically played for 58 minutes we’d have a couple more wins. Um, but at the end of the day, football’s a 60-minute game and you got to go out there and finish. But when you say figuring it out with what, five games left in the season, like, like what’s that process of you guys figuring it out? Um, I think it starts at practice, you know, just um having the mentality that you’re going to finish each and every rep, finish each and every practice the way that you need to. Um, can’t start out practice hot and then die down and get uh get slow at the end. So, um, just continue to just go on a climb and just continue to be great. personally. Uh I believe you’re at 774 yards receiving, having yourself a career year so far. Just kind of talk about and I said and then you know, let me let me digress. Let me go back a little bit. I see a guy I think I believe you worked with in the offseason. He he tweets and puts a lot of your routes that you guys worked on in the offseason and now you see yourself running that same route stem getting open and having that success. So just kind of take us back to the offseason, man. when you were putting in that work, did you know you were going to have a big year this year? Yeah, I definitely felt this was going to be my best year yet. And um just yeah, like you said, just the way that I had worked and um just all the work that I tried to put in throughout the offseason, just really not even taking a day off, not really even having a vacation, you know, um just making sure that I was just ultimately prepared for um each and every moment that I had this season. All right, man. Well, congrats on all the success. Good luck on Monday night, baby. Prime time. Can’t wait to see those cleats. You saw those here first. Remember that. Oh, yeah. appreciate you. All right, Paul, it’s not official yet if he’s going to return or not just yet, but looks like he is trending in the right direction. We got to tell you guys, we are filming this on a Wednesday, not Thursdays, like we normally do. So, I’m headed out to practice to see what’s going to go down if if Jackson Dart’s going to get ramped up. So, while right now we’re still waiting on that official word from the Giants, but Paul, it’s almost like I don’t know, call me crazy, but I’m okay if Jameus Winston stays as QB1. I am having a great time watching Jameus Winston. Uh, he’s not eating W’s, but he’s trying to eat W’s right now. But he’s I mean, I don’t Either way, whether it’s Jackson Dart or Jameus Winston, I am here to say that this offense is in good hands. You know, you are so transparent. You know, you know what? You know why you like Jameus Winston so much? Throws the ball down. He because he caught a pass that I don’t know if you would have scored a touchdown on. Huh? Come on. Look. Look. You great. That that catch was great. The spin was great. The the pirouette on the sideline was great. So, I think you’re looking at Jameus Winston and saying, “Look, I don’t care. Let Jackson Dark play quarterback, but I want Jameus running some patterns.” Right? That’s what you want him out there for. So So you’re saying Jamus has better Yakab ability than me? Cuz that was that was Yak right there, Paul. The way first and foremost the way he came back to the football. That’s what I try and teach these young kids, too. The spin move was was great. The stiff arm was great, but the end to get your knees up so he couldn’t swipe at the legs. This is the reason why a guy won the Heisman Trophy, why he was drafted to the majors in baseball. Jameus just he’s a He’s he’s an entertaining winner. Like he this guy is a winner and it’s again that’s why I’m okay. I know we talk about Jackson Dart’s development and we got to get him you know got to get him right for the next season at two and 10 Paul. I don’t I don’t I don’t care about no development. I just want to watch Jamus. Entertaining. Yes. Entertaining winner. I mean they lost the last two games with James. I know. I know. And and and his his career record in the NFL is a lot more losses than wins. Now, this I’m not knocking Jameus Winston, but let’s not make him to be John Elway here. You know what I mean? I mean, he’s he’s you know what? After watching those two games, you know what? And he’s signed for next year for like $4 million, right? Would I look at it and say he’s the best backup quarterback in the league. Okay, that’s what I that’s what I will say. And if he needs to start, he can go there and play winning brand of football. It was not his fault they lost the last two games. There’s no question about it. So, I’m not going to say, you know, you know, Jameus Winston could have the exact same games the last two games, and if the defense held up there, it’s end of the bargain. The Giants would have won one or two of those games. So, yes, Jameus Winston can still play. Um, you know, he’s not a goofball. He’s not some guy who’s just throwing the ball all over the place. You know, he could have had three or four interceptions against the Packers. Um, you know, he played uh he played a very solid game, more than solid. He played at times spectacularly in Detroit and deserved better. There’s no question about it. But look, they have five games left and we don’t need to learn more about Jameus Winston. We don’t we need to learn more about Jackson Dart. Um, you know, um, I asked Mike Kfka that, you know, if he’s ready, is he your starting quarterback? Because now, um, like we said, you know, Jamus played well. You know, maybe he’ll say, well, Ry J, but look, they didn’t win the games. If it would have been really fascinating if they won two games with Jameus Winston and now Jackson Dodge ready to come out of concussion protocol. Does he make the change or doesn’t he make the change? I think this season is very much about Jackson Dart. So, if he’s ready, I think he will. I I know he will start if he’s ready. Um they were cautious with him last week, but it’s really not even so much, you know, he did not it’s not like they he cleared concussion protocol and the Giants said that’s fine, but we’re sitting him. We’re not going to play him. He did not clear the protocol. So, this week he has to clear the protocol. You know, you can’t just snap like you can’t just snap your fingers and say, “Okay, he’s cleared of protocol. He has to not show symptoms.” Then he has to, you know, he has to have a full practice where it’s it’s quote unquote a contact practice. There’s really no contact for a quarterback, but they have to simulate some contact to see if he can withstand it. Then how does he feel afterwards? Then an independent neurologist has to say, “I clear him.” You know, I clear him. It’s like a designation like with a with a sword, you know. I dub thee cleared of the concussion protocol. You are now a night of the Giants round table, right? You know, you you have to do that. So, um I would certainly expect that this week and then um I would expect him to start and then it’s a fascinating kind of next chapter for Jackson Dard, right? You know, it was sitting on the bench, then it was starting, now it’s getting hurt, missing two games, learning and seeing what, you know, and then coming off a concussion and how is he going to handle it? Is he going to be, you know, the swashbuckler that we saw before? Is he going to be more cautious? You know, is he going to be in more self-preservation mode? So, this is a next chapter that we have to learn about. And, you know, I’m anxious to see that Monday night. Call me crazy, but I feel like Jameus Winston put a little pressure on Jackson Dart’s development and production. I feel like it’s he’s going to make him, I guess, try harder and not let the game come to him naturally because if we’re talking about two games with around 900 yards of total offense, we’ve been excited about Jackson Darden and what he’s been able to do with his feet, but we haven’t seen him sling it like that and get multiple wide receivers and tight ends and backs involved. So, I’m hoping and I love the handshake. I love the I Jamus is the perfect guy for Jackson Dart in his development without a doubt. Like you said, the best backup quarterback in the league, the best mentor in the league. And it’s almost like it’s making me rethink think the decision of bringing in Russell Wilson because I feel like now that that whole Russell Wilson experiment kind of put them in a bad position at the beginning of the year where you could have just went with the excitement of Jamus. But when we talk about Jackson Dart’s development, his possible return, and you’re going to speak more on this, we all saw it on Hard Knocks. Brian Dable wanted Drake May last year, and he’s almost in a a similar Jackson Dur’s almost in a similar situation of what Drake May went through last season. And now we really get to see what Drake May is and what he’s going to become. So, I mean, do you do you feel like the Giants have their Drake May and Jackson Dart? No, it’s an interesting way to put it, you know, because it’s Look, look, the Giants wanted wanted um um Jaden Daniels, you know, they they they they um you know, they couldn’t get him. They couldn’t get up to one to get him. They just they they couldn’t. Um and um they wanted Drake May. You know, we saw in in Hard Knocks where Joe Shane walked over at at Combine in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium, walked around the whole thing to go into the Patriots suite to talk to Elliot Wolf and just say, “What are you thinking? What are you thinking at three? What are you thinking?” And, you know, he was like, “Okay, just, you know, keep us in mind. Keep us in mind.” And then he came back and said, “Yeah, I don’t think uh they’re interested in in in trading that pick. You know, they’re going to they want Drake May.” And so um um but you know it’s interesting because Drake May last year you know had a pretty typical he didn’t start the season just like Jackson Dart didn’t start his rookie season right and they had a first year head coach Gerrod Mayo in in New England and then you know at certain point they said okay we’re going to play Drake May right and Drake May had some growing pains there’s no question he he the team wasn’t very good he had some real highlights but he had some low lightss and think of it if you’re Gerrod Mayo you broke in that car, right? You know, you know, I don’t know, Brandon, do you remember or you I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember, you know, you buy jeans now that are already broken in, right? You know, you put on you buy a nice new pair of jeans, they already feel comfortable. I remember buying a brand new pair of Levis’s, they were hard as a rock. You know, you had to wash them. You know, it wasn’t it wasn’t this pre-worn kind of cotton, you know what I mean? There’s no It was just It was Levis’s, you know? It was like So, you you wore them the first day and you’re like walking around like Frankenstein. Oh, man. Then you w wash them. Then you wash them. Then you wash them. Finally. Uh now these are broken in. You know, so Gerard Mayo broke in Drake May for who? For Mike Rabel who comes in as as you know to save the day in year two. He’s a terrific coach. He gets the broken in product and Drake May you know at certain points this year was they were talking about him as an MVP candidate. Um he will get some votes for MVP. So, um, you know, Jackson D is probably playing better as a rookie than Drake May played as a rookie. So, that is the exciting part of all this that you say the Patriots were not a good team, breaking in a rookie quarterback last year. This year, they have a a secondear quarterback who completely looks the part and they’re a really good team with a new head coach. The Giants will have a new head coach next year. either it’s Mike Kfka, you know, the odds are no that they will have a new head coach with a broken in quarterback just like Drake May was for Mike Vrabel. So, it will be fascinating to see what happens. You know, you know, the new head coach comes in and he doesn’t have to go through these growing pains with with Jackson Dart. And really, the growing pains have not been too painful. He’s been terrific, but he will be, you know, you assume he’ll be a better quarterback week one next year than he is right now. And so, um, yeah, it just goes to show what what a a new quarterback and you know, one point you made just going back, you keep on saying, “Call me crazy.” Second time you said that, I mean, if you want me to, I will, but I don’t think you’re making crazy points. You’re making good points. Is that what Jameus Winston showed us these last two weeks, it’s like it’s not only Jackson Dart, right? It’s like the offense got much better because of Jackson Dart. The offense got much better because you had good quarterback play, right? You know, they could run the ball better. You know, Juan Delale Robinson looks like a guy who can get downfield. Um, you know, Isaiah Hajins the last two weeks is making plays. So, you have a capable quarterback and an offensive line that can give him time. It’s not just Jackson Dart as Superman. Jameus Winston also did some really good things with this offense. You know, 27 points in Detroit should be enough to win and they didn’t win. So, um, yeah, that’s the thing that any new coach you say, hey, there are pieces here with a good quarterback that it’s not terrible. Malik Neighbors is coming back. Cam Scataboo is coming back. You know, any head coach can look at this and say, you know what, that’s a good job. We have Jackson Dart, we have Neighbors, we have Scataboo. The offensive line, maybe we’ll tweak it a little bit. Not terrible. You know, in other years it was terrible. I think Pro Football Focus before last week had them ranked 14th in the league. What did we always say? Giants don’t need the best offensive line in the league. Just give them an average offensive line and they can be better. It’s a It’s probably an averageish offensive line right now and it’s a much better offense. It’s all kind of looking bad for Brian Dable if you if you kind of like play a little bit Monday morning quarterback and look back at it because like exactly everything you said about how the offense struggled in years before. Saquon goes has success somewhere else. Daniel Jones goes and he’s having success in Indie. Mike Kfka now steps up and now we have what in two games with him just being sole having sole control over the offense around 900 yards of total offense. So it everything is kind of trending in the right direction for Mike Kfka to be retained in some sort of capacity whether they got to throw extra money at him to make him into the offensive coordinator. Well, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re getting way ahead of that. You You would bring in a defensive guy. I’m bringing in a defensive guy, Paul, to clean that defense up and then Mike Cafka, you this is your offense. You You know what? I I I look, you’re the son of a coach. You know how coaches think. I don’t know any guys coming in and saying, “Okay, I’m keeping Mike Cafka.” I mean, it could happen. It’s not crazy, but I’m keeping Mike Kfka, who has tre who has some tremendous loyalty. Now, is Mike Cafka gonna be like the head coach of the offense? You know, I mean, and and and any guy they bring in, and I I think it’s wrong to say, “I’m bringing in a defensive guy.” You got to bring in the best leader and the smartest guy, whether that’s an offensive guy or a defensive guy. Probably not going to be a special teams guy, but you got to bring in the best guy who’s a leader. And then his the next question is, who are you bringing in? So, let’s say you bring in a defensive guy, right? A guy who who was a defensive coordinator, and that’s where he made his bones, right? The first question you would ask him is, okay, what is your staff? I know for a fact the Giants are going to be very concerned with what is this guy who they’re bringing in. What is his staff going to look like? Okay, it’s imperative. Look what happened with you said, you know, this is making Brian Dable look bad. I think the worst thing Brian Dable did is not anything coaching wise. It was probably hiring Shane Bowen because that led to the problems. I have nothing against Shane Bowen, but and and the fact that you that you know Dable and Wink Martindelle could not work it out together. A lot of it was Wink, some of it was certainly Brian Dable. He’s hard on coaches. You know, Wink Martenddale didn’t want to be yelled at, okay? You know, he didn’t want to be yelled at and that’s all there is to it. You know, you can yell at the defensive quality control coach and you can yell at the DB’s coach. Wink Martindale didn’t want to be yelled at and looked at, you know, like that. And so there was there was a personality conflict there. Should that have been, you know, smoothed over? Maybe if Wink Martindale stayed with the defense have been better. Probably. They might have still not been able to stop the run. He was not perfect. So, you know, this is there’s a trickle down effect. But I I think to say I I just don’t see a guy coming in and saying, “Oh, yeah, Kfka, you know, CFKA’s now got some loyalty in the building and in the room, right? Do you want to be a you gotta be a pretty confident new guy to come into the building and say, “Yeah, I know half the team already likes this guy a lot and wants to play for him, but I’m gonna be the head coach now.” I It’s just, you know, these guys these guys have egos and these guys want to bring in their own guys. I I two and 10. You can’t have an ego at two and 10, Paul. Like everyone in that locker room the forget being like half these guys like Mike Cav, half these guys might be there. Oh, the new guy coming in, the new guy coming in is gonna have an ego. I can do this job. That’s why you’re hiring me. You know what I mean? And and this is who I want to run my offense. What about Mike Kfka? I mean, Mike Cafka doesn’t have a million, you know, he his tentacles go from Andy Reid, you know, he he, you know, which is a great a great tentacle, you know, it’s it’s the best, but you know, he doesn’t have a million, you know, he he’s he’s worked for the Chiefs and he’s worked for the Giants. He certainly knows plenty of people in the league. So, I think that, you know, any new guy coming in is gonna want to bring in his guy, you know, his guy. I can see that, you know, and and and and so, look, Mike Kfka has a chance to to to be retained as the the head coach, but not if he goes 0 and seven and not if he goes one and six, that’s an incredibly hard sell. You know, even if he scores points on offense, I mean, at some point, you have to win and turn things around. Now, this week is tough. After this week, right after this week, there’s a buy. Okay? And then the schedule. You have the Commanders, not a playoff team. You have the Vikings, not a playoff team. You have the Raiders, probably the worst team in the league. And you have the Cowboys, which, you know, certainly have been rejuvenated. Are the Cowboys playing for the playoff lives in that last game, or are they playing for nothing? We’ll see. So, there are games there. Does it is it going to make a big difference in the Giants season? No. But if if if if the Giants go into New England and play a really good game and lose, is anyone going to say the Giants lost to an inferior team? No. No. The Patriots could be the number one seed in the AFC, but if the Giants don’t aren’t able to beat the Commanders and the and and the um Vikings, uh the Vikings who have no quarterback and the Raiders, then you’re going to say, “What are we doing here with my CFKA?” You know what I mean? I mean, you know, you don’t need to be Vince Lombardi to beat those teams. So, you know, we have more football to play for those reasons, not for playoff reasons. Um, you know, I don’t buy, you know, you know, some fans are thinking lose lose fine what they did last week. I have a friend who told me I had no problem with the game in Detroit. They played hard, they had fun. You know, some of their good players played well and they lost and um it was competitive and the draft pick did, you know, you don’t need a quarterback. Don’t worry about the draft pick. Whether it’s two, three, four, five, don’t worry about the draft pick. Yeah. you and I say this I I understand it the fans say well you know I understand the players I deal with players right I talk to players andrew Thomas hasn’t smiled in months okay you know what I mean I mean don’t tell me that Andrew Thomas is fine with losing and then getting the second pick in the draft Brian Burns is playing his heart out these guys need to win some games for their own selfimage and own self-worth and the younger players players here need to win some games to show, you know, Drew Drew Phillips, you don’t think Drew Phillips needs to win some games so he can go into next year thinking, you know, we we have a good credible defense here. You know, Darius Alexander had two sacks last week. You think if he gets a couple of sacks in a game, they win. It’s not going to help him going into next year. I don’t buy this losing stuff. I really don’t. Plus, it helps when you go out to the club that night cuz whether you if you only got two wins on the season, you got 10 losses. You going to the club 10 times, it’s like you’re drinking your sorrows away, not the two times you get to go to the club and you’re dancing because you feel good that you actually won on the week. And that was young 24, 23 year old me, you know, speaking. But I never went through that in the NFL. I won on every team I was with in the NFL. So, I don’t know what that feels like to win to lose 10 games in the season. It has to be getting at these guys. And you’ve mentioned how Darius Alexander wants to finish strong. You mentioned the rest of the schedule uh and how the Giants have the opportunity to finish strong. That goes right into your final thought, Paul. Can the Giants 2026 be the Patriots in 2025? I mean, as I mentioned, there are some there are some breadcrumbs that you can follow there. You know, a first year quarterback becoming a secondyear quarterback, a new head coach, no matter, you know, who it is. We don’t know who it’s going to be, but somebody, right? You know, I mean, I don’t know if there’s a Mike Vrabel out there. You know, if there was a Mike Vrabel out there, that would be great. you know, Mike Greybel was a handmade, you know, ready-made patriot through and through who was a winning winning head coach in in in Tennessee and, you know, with the Titans and then brought his whole his whole shtick, you know, in a good way. I mean, his whole tough guy uh you know, proven head coach to to a team that was and also the Patriots spent an unbelievable amount of money in free agency and fortified that defense tremendously. Now, the Giants don’t have that kind of money in in in free agency to spend, but they will have a quarterback on a rookie deal, and that is golden. That is golden. You have two or three years with this guy making very little money, so you can spend it other places. Um, I don’t know if they can be at this point the number one seed in the NF NFC next year, like the uh the uh I don’t think that at all, but um I think the Giants are not a total rebuild that is going to take years and years here. They have their quarterback. They have a number one wide receiver coming back. They have some pieces on defense and they certainly need more and they need a better coordinator. But I think the Giants can go from, you know, two and 10 this year to six and six next year. I I don’t I don’t think that’s crazy. I really don’t. After 12 games, a lot has to happen. We’ll see. I’m not saying 10 and two, but the Giants can be a a a respectable contenderish team next year with the right pieces as long as Jackson Darts keep Jackson Dart keeps ascending. I I think that I really do. They say the NY and New York Giants stands for next year because we that’s that’s just all we’ve been talking about at this point of the season. Uh year in year out, but hopefully 2026 is the Giants here. Hopefully they can get a prime time win Monday Night Football against Drake May and the New England Patriots. Uh Paul, thanks for uh coming on today. Thank you guys for for for hanging out with us. Happy Thanksgiving. Get your stuff in. Get all that good good stuff. And then I guess we uh What are we fast? You par you are faster cuz I’m going to go on a three three-day 72-hour water fast after Thanksgiving. You in Why? Why? To lose it all to to lose everything that I gain. You know what you’re doing? What? What are you doing? The three day. 70 72 hours. Three days. All water. Really? No. You’re not gonna You’re not gonna eat for three days and just drink water? Just drink water. Shredding season. Paul, how much are you planning on eating on Thanksgiving? A lot. A lot. We we we get down at the London household and since my dad’s team didn’t make it to the playoffs, he’s going to be making barbecue chicken. So, you know, no turkey. My grand my grandma does that. She does a turkey. She does a turkey. But it sounds terrific. And I will overeat on Thanksgiving. I It’s my favorite, you know, meal of the se of the year. I love it. I love it all. Um and I will overeat and then I will chill out for a couple of days. And I will drink water for 72 hours, but I will not only drink water. I guarantee you that. All right. Well, I’m going to see if I can hold up to that. My sister’s the health nut, the family, so she’s the one that gets us to that. So, thank you guys for watching this week 13 blue rush for Paul Schwarz. I’m Brandon London. Thanks for watching.

On an all new episode of Blue Rush, Paul Schwartz and Brandon London discuss the firing of defensive coordinator Shane Bowen and what they expect from interim Charlie Bullen against the AFC #1 seed, New England Patriots.

Plus, Brandon is in the Giants locker room talking to WR Wan’Dale Robinson, breakdown the QB situation with Jaxson Dart still in concussion protocol at the time of recording, and if NYG can make a NE like jump next season.

0:00 Intro
0:45 What Storylines Are Left This Season?
2:10 Mike Kafka Fires Shane Bowen
13:22 London In The Locker Room with Wan’Dale Robinson!
18:43 Jameis Winston or Jaxson Dart?
25:04 Do the Giants Have Their Drake Maye In Jaxson Dart?
37:12 Can The Giants Make A Patriots Like Jump Next Season?

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