School is back and exporting goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks and more. Plus the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan and Adidas. Find your first day fits in store or online at dicks.com. >> 21, we weren't as excited as we are right now. There was some level of excitement after the Giants went out and sought Cideria's Tony and brought in a wide receiver in Kenny Gallaudet. But we were a little hesitant because Kenny Gallaudet's hip. Cuz we had some information about his hip injury. But it was still an upgrade over the 2020 season where it was really just Darius Slaton and a bunch of no name wide receivers, Sterling Shepard dealing with some injuries. So 2021, there was a little bit of excitement, not nearly the excitement that we have right now. 2017, I would say, was probably the last time. >> Yeah, you're right. And now the question becomes, is it fair for us to have this level excitement for the Swatter Supergroup? And I ask that question because it is a very unproven group. We are excited about things that haven't actually translated to the field. And I know I listened to the athletic. They did a podcast ranking each team's wide receiver group. And they had the Giants second to last. And the way that they described it was, why would I get excited? And I love Robert Mays. And he described it as, why would I get it be getting excited about one rookie receiver and the rest of the grouping unproven? Now, the reason I am excited, Nick, is that I feel like being proven, for example, is not exactly something that translates one to one. Like, if we had stats out of Wandao Robinson or we had stats at a Jalen Hyatt last year, everyone would be feeling such a different level of excitement for these players. But I'm not so sure stats last year translate one to one to stats this year. Because there were so many moments where the Giants passing in was just not functional last year due to the quarterback and offensive line play. And if I'm going to take that out on the receiver's stat production, it doesn't feel that genuine. It doesn't feel genuine, it's not the word. It doesn't feel that predictive to me. So use last year's stats with the situation at quarterback and O-line as it was to predict this year's stats. I'd rather use the tape. And on tape, I saw a lot of really good things from, I'm going to start with Jalen Hyatt. And I put a big thread out about a month ago, Nick, on Twitter, where I put up 12 to 14 plays of all 22 of Jalen Hyatt that showed different parts of the skillset he put on film last year. It wasn't just him, and now some of this was him winning vertically, stacking defensive backs, getting that step, using that extra year in speed. There is also moments like against the Patriots, where he showed stop and startability, he catches a drag route, it's third and ten. He needs to put his foot in the dirt, make that defender miss, restart and get up field for the first down and he does. There were examples with DeVito, where he's running across the field on a deep over, he has to catch away from his frame Jalen Hyatt. Extend to make that catch, concentrate to make that catch, and drag his toes and tap his toes in. Get a lot of toe tapping catches last year, to be completely honest, on the limited amount of reps he had. Now there are areas of his game that still have to improve, he has to get stronger. His play contact has to get his contact strength has to get stronger and he has to be able to beat press man, and that's something that he's going to face this year, especially if the snap percentage goes up. But all of those positive traits I saw on tape, some of those we didn't actually see, or we didn't actually know for sure we're going to happen. So to me, it's a step forward. And then on the second part, Wandao Robinson, well that, I think if you watch the tape, it's self-explanatory. The way he gets in and out of his breaks, the way he can create after the catch, some of those post-catch runs, some of those runs that were designed to him, that he was able to make defenders miss and also accelerate, and his ability to get in and out of breaks. I thought that was really on display at times. The Packers game, the game winning play, among many others, despite being, you know, less than one year removed from the ACL, until that Packers game. So to me, those two stand out as players that are more proven on film than the stat column shows, and it's a big reason why I'm so excited about this group. >> I'm glad you brought that up too. I mean, look, who had a worse situation than the New York Giants last year at quarterback, where they had to use three quarterbacks, Daniel Jones, Tommy DeVito and Ty Rod Taylor, and at offensive line, where Justin Pew had to come in, and he was like the savior of the entire situation. It was a disaster. That's obviously going to affect Jalen Hyatt, who a rookie wide receiver, and Wandao Robinson, a wide receiver recovering from a torn ACL. I remain high on both of these players, and to the Jalen Hyatt point, some of the issues with Jalen Hyatt was strength. At the catch point, he wants to be stronger when he has the football in his hands. He's been eating PB&J after PB&J, according to the John Schmelke interview. He's been trying to put on weight while being cognizant of the fact that he does not want to compromise his speed whatsoever. So we might see a different type of Jalen Hyatt, because I agree, I think he does need to be a little bit stronger at the catch point. And I'm hoping he gets more opportunity now that Malik neighbors is there, and the offensive line should be a little bit better for Daniel Jones, who Jalen Hyatt also brought up, said he looks amazing in his recovery. As of right now, looks like he's going to be ready for training campus. We've talked about and discussed previously, so I think we could see even a different type of Jalen Hyatt. And one, Wanda Robinson, he said, I felt confident in the Green Bay game, but I didn't really feel 100% until the off season. So now we might even see another one-day or Robinson. So we're seeing improved versions of players that we did not see last season maximize because of the situation around them, both of them being young players in a system that is very difficult, according to all those John Schmelke interviews, to pick up as we've already known. There are a few things there, Nick, I did want to unpack. The first being, you know, a lot of discussion we always see in these off seasons is like, who had it the worst? What quarterback had the worst situation? I never see it framed as what, because no one really cares about this stuff, but for this debate, it makes sense. What receiver group had the worst situation last year? And I think a strong case can be made. The Giants wide receiver court in 2023 had the worst situation. And I'll tell you why. First of all, Daniel Jones, who had a great season in 2022, played not arguably to me, most definitely the worst stretch of football of his entire career. Two touchdowns, six interceptions, fumbles, taking a million sacks, was just playing the worst football of his career. In part, because his offensive line was the worst offensive line, maybe in the history of football for that stretch of series. According to pro football focus, it genuinely was the worst offensive line of last season, of the season before, of season before that. So that's PFF, that's their grading service. Daniel Jones played the worst football of his career. So now these receivers have a quarterback going through his worst stretch of his career. The offensive line as bad as it can possibly get over the last five, maybe 10 years. And then a UDFA for some of those games as well. He did have Tyrod Taylor, who led the NFL in big time throw rate and minimized it. And I think it was, he led the NFL in big time throw rate and had the lowest interception rate or something crazy like that, Tyrod Taylor. But led the NFL in big, so he had a little bit of stretch of Tyrod, which helped. But even then, you still have the bad old line for that stretch. You still have that historically bad old line. And so this wide receiver corpse went through the worst possible situation. You can even imagine last year now, things are going to improve Daniel Jones is healthier. The offensive line, if they take that step forward, it's going to help Daniel Jones. Daniel Jones has a system better. Link neighbors are going to take away some of that tension, some of the coverage focused on him. Opens up stuff for the other receivers potentially. So I think that's really important to consider that this wide receiver core is just going to have a much better situation in 2024 to work with. But the other thing you mentioned about Wondell Nick, it really stood out to me because we don't know, a lot of the time as fans or as analysts, we don't really know the extent of what these players are going through from an injury standpoint. This was as clear as day watching Eli Man in his career. He had so many unreported injuries throughout his career. He just didn't tell the meaning about it. Nobody ever knows. And Wondell said something in that interview with John Schmunk that really stood out to me about how injured he was. He said, "The Packers game is where I felt the healthiest, and I needed a week of rest before that to stay off the knee." That was something that really interested me. Because he made it back so fast to play last year, Nick. He was on the field so much faster than anyone expected coming off that ACL. But the knee was bothering him in season, the point where he needed a week of rest to just come off at just the soreness of that knee. And so I don't know if what we got was even the best Wondell last year from a health standpoint. I'm really excited to see if there-- and we saw it a little bit in OTAs, right? He had that catch from Drew Lock where he really had really nice acceleration, which is a big part of his game post catch. But I think there could be a different level of his game that gets unlocked this year just from a health standpoint. Absolutely. He had seven targets, caught six of them for 79 yards against the Green Bay Packers. And I remember we discussed a lot of Wondell Robinson after that. He had a lot of interesting things to say in that interview. John Schmunk at one point asked Wondell Robinson about the wide receivers. And he was like, there's a lot of diverse skill sets, basically, is what Wondell was saying. But at the same time, he was talking about how interchangeable they were. So Schmunk kind of pushed him on that and asked him to elaborate. He's like, well, why do you think there are diverse skill sets? And they're also interchangeable. That seems to be a paradox. And Wondell was like, well, Brian Dable makes it work. Brian Dable is such a genius. He's able to construct an offense that is tough from a verbiage standpoint. And it's tough to really learn and identify things on what the defense is doing. But he puts these players into the best positions to succeed. And he understands how to use these diverse skill sets interchangeably. And it's not something that, just judging by a lot of things that you hear on the league, that every coach does. Like, Brian Dable, we didn't see it last year. We saw it in 2022. And now that he is calling plays, it seems like, right? I think we might see just more creativity because that middleman, unfortunately, being Mike Kafka, is no longer-- I don't want to say in the way of Brian Dable, because that makes him seem like he is, like he's not worth the job of being an offense coordinator. I don't want to suggest that. But Brian Dable, I saw a Stefan Diggs interview back from like 2020 or something where he was like, dude, this guy is just insane. The way he is able to know exactly where to put it. And Diggs is just praising Brian Dable. And he's humble about it. He always says, it's us. But we all know, the entire offense knows it's him. So with the progression of Wandael and the progression of Haya and the incoming Malik neighbors, and you have Darius Slater, and now you have these tight end room that's going to have to be more of a committee with Darren Waller no longer there, I just look at it. I'm saying, yo, we might see something significantly different from what we saw over the last two years with Brian Dable, because he is so damn talented as a play caller. And a play designer. And his offense is as complicated as it is because it puts these players into the best chance to have success. I love that point by Nick, because I just think about it from our selfish standpoint. It's going to be fun to break down tape for that. Like if we get more creativity on the offense, and I don't see why not, I think you're kind of right. And I think in a lot of ways, you know, because he made a point, he had a quote Wandael where he said, we come in a lot of the time, and we see some of the stuff he's been drawing up this offseason. We say, how did you come up with this? Like, that's what the receivers are saying to himself. He said, he's adapted so well to what we do well, including many neighbors in that during OTAs. And that was something he was talking about. All our skill sets are so interchangeable, but Brian Dable has done a really good job of understanding and coming up with just really creative stuff, which is going to be fun for us to break down, Nick. And it kind of works a lot into what I've talked about and mentioned this offseason. Like, you're looking for hope and height for the Giants in 2024. It's going to be a season where, you know, we're not going to be expecting a Super Bowl, but we've seen already with Brian Dable, you can go in with no expectations like they had in 2022 and make a surprising playoff run with a playoff win. He's already proven he can do that as a head coach of this team. And with basically the same core pieces, mine and Saikon Barkley adding Malik neighbors, and Brian Burns and other factors like that. But if this O line gets to a certain point, Nick, and all we need, all we need is like 15th to 17th best. I don't even need 14th or 13th or 12th, Nick. Give me like the 17th best O line. That's it. Just out to settle for 17 or 16th. We can get to that point. I've said this before and I really do truly believe this. We can make this offense quarterback proof. I really do believe Brian Dable's created him enough and now has enough talent at wide receiver. Some untapped with Hyatt and Wanda that I truly, truly believe in. Obviously neighbors. I don't think, I think that goes without saying. I had Tracy and some of these other guys, Slaton, even Hodgen's potentially Belanger. I think there's enough talent around him that if this O line could just get to mid-pack, it can be a very quarterback proof offense where you don't need one of these elite quarterbacks to get offensive production that we haven't seen. That could be honestly even better than the 2022 production we had, which was good, but if we really look deeper into it, Nick, was not that good. Let's have fun here. Say the Giants have this 17th best or however you want it. 17th graded offensive line in the league. Where is the ceiling of the New York Giants wide receiver core in the league? That's goes, yet that is where I'm trying to get to. I feel like, okay, I'll be honest, to get to the heights of all heights as a wide receiver core, you do need a great quarterback play. If you look at all the best receivers in the NFL, all the breakouts, it comes with the quarterback step on. Diggs had his breakout. Well, he was great before that, but he really unlocked new levels with Josh Allen. Nico Collins was a nobody. CJ Shroud got there. Nico Collins is an everybody. He's unbelievable now. So I mean, it's more than not. That's going to be the case. But there are offenses like the 49ers, for example, where these wide receivers are putting up big-time stats with a quarterback that is playing great football. I'm a bigger fan of Purdy than most are. I think Keith, the film says the story. I'm very high on him, but not everybody's high on him. Nick and a lot of people do believe it is a lot to do with the system there with Kyle Shanahan. And so in that case, it could be the same type of situation here. Why can't the Giants with Brian Dable now calling the plays and the actual weapons, not IU, Condebo, but Malik Neighbors, Juan Del Robinson, Jalen Hyatt, some actual weapons in the mix, why can't he be the guy who makes us a system type team, or like a team that the quarterback is part of the system and that type of thing? I think ceiling-wise, they can get inside the top 12 this year as an offense. That's where I'm at, too. I would say around 10, 12, possibly nine, but you need a lot of things to go your way. And this is such an unproven group. And I don't fault Robert Mays with the athletic for ranking the Giants as low as they did. I understand that. I still think it's just busting with potential, but that potential needs to be realized. It needs to be actualized. And it just seems like so often with the New York Giants, that I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer here, but so much with the New York Giants. Over the last decade, I would say, maybe even decade plus, there's been potential and it's just never actualized. But I'm hoping Brian Dable is that guy to actually put these guys in the right spot, so they can maximize their potential. And I think he at least has enough of a track record to suggest that's a possibility. I do too, because we've had our concerns with Dable, but if you look back at our last, our last year of podcasting Nick, most of our concerns are not related to how he draws up plays, how he schemes things, how he's able to create offensively. They're related to other aspects of being a head coach, which are fair to question. But we still believe, I know we still believe here, that he's one of the best schemers, one of our, one of the best offensive minds that you could possibly employ right now, if you're an NFL team. Maybe not the best, sure, that's like Kyle. And there's guys who are in the mix with him. Obviously, more guys are coming in the mix. Sean McVey is in there, but there's like new guys coming up. But he is in that elite tier, I think, when he's clicking as an offensive play designer and play caller. And the joint still have that. That's going to give them an opportunity to be a better offensive people realize. Over 25 years ago, on September 29th, 1998, we watched a brainy girl with curly hair drop everything to follow a guy she only kind of knew all the way to college. And so began Felicity. My name is Juliette Litman, and I'm a Felicity superfan. Join me, Amanda Foreman, who you may know better is Megan, the roommate, and Greg Grunberg, who you may also know as Sean Blunberg, as the three of us revisit our favorite moments from the show and talk to the people who help shape it. Listen to dear Felicity on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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And before undertaking the new health care regimen, include EE system. Let's talk a little bit about Malik Neighbors. Yeah, man, we got to dive into Malik Neighbors, man. I felt like he came-- What an interview. He came away great from that. I suggest anybody to go listen to the John Schmelt episode that we're talking about, where he basically interviews all of the wide receivers in the Giants, wide receiver room. And Malik Neighbors, you can tell that he has a certain level of maturity that not every rookie has, because he's like, look, I don't really fully comprehend the playbook, because essentially what he was saying, but I'm going to get there. And when I do get there, this offense, they're trying to make me the focal point of the offense, and I need to be able to comprehend this entire playbook in order to do that. He seems to really understand that and internalize that. And that's something that I want from my rookie. Know your faults, know what you have to do. And then all the other wide receivers praised him, said, oh, man, he's doing his best to get caught up with the playbook. Every veteran that we've heard discussed this playbook, I said that it's complicated. I think once the season rolls around, he is going to be ready. Maybe he's not going to fully comprehend it, but I don't know how many rookie wide receivers fully comprehend it when they come into the Giants building, when they come into a Brian Deble offense. So I just felt like his understanding of what he needs to do to be maximized by this offense was well articulated in that interview with John Schmelt. And I'm looking forward to seeing what this guy can do in training camp in a preseason, and then obviously into the regular season, not going to lie, Nick. I may have went from six to midnight when I heard Malik neighbors breaking down, running routes out of the 3.9 inches, baby. Let's go. Yeah, if I'm lucky, he said it gets crowded in there, but it helps with your route depth and temping when you're running routes from the slot. He said, when you're on an island, it's fun. When you get behind the DB, it's hard. But when you're in the, he said, when you're in the slot and you get behind the DB, it's hard for them to know where just where you are. And he says, you just have to know the defense they're in to maintain your leverage in the route. I mean, we've got a guy talking about defensive leverage, leverage within the route, tempoing his routes. Like these are the concepts we talk about, Nick. These are the things that we break down. And this dude knows all of them. He's thinking about them on every single route that he runs. We saw this on tape and we knew this. But I think this is the confirmation for fans who haven't really heard him talk football, talk depth in depth X and O's. Like let's be honest, the last first round receiver the Giants had in here would never have a conversation with John Schmelt like this. Let's just be honest about the situation. Not every receiver understands this stuff. Not every receiver thinks about this stuff. He's talking about things like, you know, I want to be the focal point in the offense. But to be that, I have to learn all the different spots and learn the type of terminology first. He understands his role within it. He says, I, he talked about this. This stood out to me, Nick, and it really got me excited as well. Again, maybe a six to midnight moment. He's talking about, he tries to find key details within each key details to help him remember his role on each play. Little shortcuts. I love that idea, dude. I was a big flash card guy back in the day. Whatever you need, you know, whatever little thing you can do to get you to understand your role and your within the routes and things of that nature, it's going to allow him to play faster. It's going to allow him to get on the field and become what he said. Because he said, they want me to be the focal point in the offense. And I also love, by the way, Nick, because you have some teams that have their rookies come in and they're like, oh, we'll work you in like Ricky Pierce all this year. He's not going to play much, but and that's okay. They got talent around him. But Brian Davele and Joe Shane, they know what they brought this dude in here to be. It's not going to be a slow start for Malik neighbors. He works his way in. He's going to be the focal point of this offense. He told us that and we know it now. And I just love that he brought that up as well. I love that he talked about playing multiple positions, understanding the playbook. And I loved two other things, Nick, that I think you've probably heard within this interview that I wanted to bring up. The first one is that he discussed how the two things, two most important things he's working on right now in Mike Grow, is one, they're putting a lot more releases in my pack. They're giving him a lot more of a release package off the line of scrimmage. And two, cleaning up his breaks in at the top of his route. What did we talk about when we broke him down after the draft, before the draft within our player, you know, when we did our player podcast. I'm a league neighbors of the prospect. We talked about those exact things being the areas of his game he needs to work on. So the Giants have identified this. They're working on with him already, starting in OTAs. He's going to have even more time during training game of the preseason to work on these specific areas of his game. The release package off the line of scrimmage, basically only for all you can find. And then one thing we didn't even talk about as much, Nick, but I felt like did need a little bit of cleaning up. How he gets in and out of his breaks at the top of the route. He also brought up intelligence several times and why certain plays are called burst certain coverages. He said, Mike Grow is really focusing on that. Because if you can conceptually understand what the defense is trying to do to you, then you can run better routes. You can cut off your route at a certain angle to get away from another coverage that is flowing over if it's his own cup. It's just understanding space. Really, it can be that simple. Understanding space, understanding leverage. And when you hear Isaiah Hodgin's talk about this offense, you know there are so many little calls within this offense that looks to manipulate the defense depending on their depth, depending on their leverage, if they're inside or outside. And then that's a tell for you to do a certain thing. And you and the quarterback will then be on the same page. And it doesn't even have to be spoken at the line of scrimmage because it's inculcated into that offense and onto these players. And that's something that I think not every offense does according to a lot of these. Look, I'm not in the NFL, right? But when you listen to a lot of these wide receivers and tight ends, as I brought up a little bit before on this podcast, they're saying, this is the most like Chris Mann hurts. I listened to the tight end one and we'll talk about this on the tight end podcast we do. He was like, yeah, I've been apart a lot of all offenses. This one's really complicated. This was quite a compliment. That's the reason why is because the defense has a variety of things they can do. The defense can do so many different things. Brian Dable has addressed those within his offense with certain calls to not allow that defense to be advantage of whatever play call you are doing. It's having answers to what the defense is trying to do. And those are woven within all throughout this offense. So it's really difficult if you're a wide receiver playing at like West Virginia, like Bryce Ford Wheaton was going and looking at like flashcards on the sidelines being like, oh, okay, I'm running a streak. Oh, I'm running a curl route. Oh, I'm doing this. And then you have Brian Dable's like, no, we'll see this guy's on the outside of you. I mean, you got to do this. There's always a seven yards or is that six yards? I don't know. You got a total of it. It's a lot more complex. Yeah, you're right. And it's exciting, Nick, because it reminds me of some ways. And people have their own opinions on this. But it reminds me of some ways of the Gilbright offense that run and shoot choice route option choice option route offense that the Giants had. And why I'm excited about that is, yeah, there were some bad moments within it when the quarterback and wire receiver wasn't on the same page. And it looked like he was just throwing an interception right to the defender, but really it was a wide receivers fault every time it happened. Eli, but when that click, dude, when that style of offense clicked and the receiver was on the same page as the quarterback, and they had that mental connection, which I'm obviously hoping Daniel Jones can develop with these guys playing within the system, getting another year, getting the full training camp, all things of that nature. It looked unstoppable. Like the Giants offense at times under Gilbright, especially 2011 in the blood looked unstoppable. And that is the upside of an offense like this, where you're focusing on a lot of it. It's very complicated from a thought process standpoint. And one thing he said, which also stood out to me, Nick, was that I feel like these coaches do a really good job of understanding the balance, right? Because he said it's not just an offense where you're just forced to overthink. He said the coaches, he said, "When the coaches are tight on a player, it causes them to think a lot." He said, "These coaches do the opposite. They let me play fast." So they found a way to kind of juggle that and find the happy medium between letting these receivers play fast, while also understanding that this offense, we're going to put a lot on your plate, and it's going to come down to where you're at from a mental standpoint. Are we going to do stat projections before the season? Do you think, Dan, that's something that we do? We do it every year. I'm very curious on where we're going to have Malik neighbors, man. I have an idea in my head already for neighbors. Yeah, you do. I mean, comprehending the offense fully. If he can play the slot, if he can play outside, if he can play the number three on a three-by-one set, number two, if he can be aligned in the backfield even, if he understands what to do against the defense on every single occasion versus every single defense, man, he can really be special in year one with this offense, with this offense aligned with this quarterback. So I mean, I remain very, very high on this player, and I'm very excited he's a New York giant. Yeah, I feel like I'm going to take him a lot in fantasy football, because he's still not moving that far up the board. There's a lot of hesitation based on, obviously, mostly from, you know, don't take this the wrong way Giants fans, but a lot of outside the organization, people fans or people who are fans of other teams think Daniel Jones is terrible and don't want to draft a receiver tied to him. And they also feel like neighbors may not get a lot of targets, going to be split around. That second part, I'm not so sure about. I think it's not going to be as split of a target share as people are projecting. I think neighbors might be that actual focal point from a target care standpoint, and that will change everything for its fans to stop. But we're not talking fantasy here. We're not against football. We're going to be the fulcrum of the offense. Dude, again, like we brought up Sigma Barkley not being here. Sigma Barkley is gone. This whole offense is going to be a lot different. There's probably going to be more passing attempts. I would imagine if the Giants, especially the Giants defense sucks for, I know we're trying to transition away from the fantasy, but the Giants defense also sucks. There's going to be more passing attempts, which is more than likely going to lead to more statistics for a player like Malik neighbors, who will be the fulcrum of the offense. I think I'm still very bullish on the defense. I think we're going to take a nice step forward. So true. I hope so too, but we don't really know what's going on with that cornerback position. It's a little risky and they're learning a new defense. There might be some communication issues, but we'll see. We'll see what happens there. All right, other receivers on this roster that we want to discuss. Let's get to kind of those secondary guys. I feel like we have this in tears. We have Malik neighbors in his own tier. At least this is how I have it. I don't want to speak for you. I have Malik neighbors in his own tier. Then I have tier two being Wandael and Hyatt. Now moving to tier three, where I think it's maybe a little unfair to not put Slaton in that tier, but I think there's a little bit more upside with Hyatt and Robinson over a Slaton type. I guess at the stage of their careers. So maybe it's a little bit more projection for me, but basing the upside. But that next tier of maybe Slaton, which we could put in this first year, but we haven't talked about them yet. Slaton, Isaiah Hodgens, Price Ford Wheaton, who's surprising a lot of people with a really strong OTAs after having a really good offseason last year, going to Jones this past couple of weeks to work out down with the receivers, being part of the team. Hodgens, Price Ford Wheaton, and Darius Slaton, and then a player we haven't really talked a lot about Nick, but he is on the roster. He used to be a great football player at one point in his career. It's Alan Robinson. So any thoughts, where do you want to start on those four guys? Bryce Ford Wheaton, I think this is something that we should consider, because we know he does have special teams value. Now we've heard that with so many guys on this roster, but he has been recovering from this torn ACL. He has been recovering with that torn ACL at the Giants facility with the Giants starting quarterback Daniel Jones. Now is there any sort of rapport? I know they're not out there working out extensively or anything, but is there any sort of rapport that can be developed between that young receiver and the Giants starting quarterback because they have gone this entire offseason working together, recovering from serious knee injuries? It's very plausible that there could be some rapport developed there. I do too, and that could play a big role by the way, but it'll be interesting though, like once we get to Camp Nick, because on that note that you brought up, because, okay, say Jones, and I'm hoping this is the case, because it's the only way for us to reach a ceiling as an offensive here, is ready for K1 of 11 on 11s in camp. It's not impossible at this point. He's progressed so fast through this ACL, dude. It's possible he could be ready day one. Then is he going to be able to get those reps with Bryce Ford-Weeden? Because it's hard for me to see Bryce Ford-Weeden, even to start camp being out, he might be working with the third group. He probably will be. I'm imagining Alan Robinson will probably be working ahead of him, because I think the path to the roster for Bryce Ford-Weeden is not necessarily going to come from being a wide receiver. It's going to come on special teams, and then he needs to prove himself. And when his number is called, if someone gets injured, he needs to step in and be that wide receiver. I still think the rapport can help him with Daniel Jones in general. I also liked how Bryce Ford-Weeden brought up some of the aspects of the game that he's been trying to work on, as he's recovered from this torn ACL. And it's basically attacking leverage, just understanding the terminology, the coverage, all the moving parts to the offense. He said he really hunkered down in the playbook to really master what Brian Dable's offense is, since he couldn't really get on the football field, and work out as he was recovering from that torn ACL. Yep, and he's a player who, we talked about a little bit last year, just crazy size speed freak. So you have upside through that when you have a size speed freak with him. I'm curious, what are your thoughts on where this offense is going to go for Darius Leighton? Because it's a different situation for him. He obviously reworked and retooled his contract a bit for make it more incentive-based. But they hadn't leaked neighbors in the Knicks, and they didn't have him in the mix last year. I did see something really interesting, though. It was on Twitter yesterday, the day before. The Giants were actually Nick even last year. And now maybe this is also partially because of the injuries at the tight end position, but they were top six in 11 personnel in three wide receiver sets, and now they added Malik neighbors to the mix. So I don't think that number is going to drop, despite being healthier at tight end. I would imagine that number is going to stay in the top 10, maybe even the top six again for 11 personnel three receiver sets. But where does Darius Leighton factor into that? I think Darius Leighton is going to be a key member of that now. I think it'll be a rotation with the four. Yeah, and Darius Leighton even brought that up in the Schmelke interview, too. He said, "Look, I want to play 70-80 snaps game, but I know it's not the best thing for the offense. We want to stay fresh. We want to go out there and be 50 snaps a game, rotate a bunch of competent guys, and even harken back to last year, Dan." And he said something to the effect of we were handicapped last season because quarterback situation with all the injuries, there was a lack of continuity on the offensive line, and there wasn't really a lot of healthy wide receivers, wide receivers who were up to speed enough to develop any sort of rapport or continuity in the wide receiver room, leading to a lot of snaps for certain wide receivers. I think this season, the Giants aren't going to have that issue because you have elite neighbors in town. You add it even someone like Alan Robinson. Look, I'm not excited about Alan Robinson. You know, I don't look at Alan Robinson and say, "Yeah, I want that guy to make the final roster." But I know Alan Robinson is a big body, an experienced guy who can be a big slot in certain situations who will definitely be a plus as a blocker. And that's something that could appeal to the Giants coaching staff, especially with the likes of a Wandao Robinson and a Jaylen Haya. We talk about how these guys are interchangeable. I think that is 100% true in the passing game. I don't know if that's 100% true as blockers. I think Jaylen Haya and Wanda Robinson block their asses off, and they really try. I'm not sold, or I don't know if the coaching staff is sold, that they are going to be as effective as a veteran wide receiver like Alan Robinson. Now, will that earn him a roster spot? I don't know. But again, it could be something that would entice the coaching staff to keep a player like that who was also a big body. But I think Isaiah Hodgins can fill that role too. And I still remain high on Isaiah Hodgins as that fourth or fifth wide receiver for this roster. There's a lot of depth at this wide receiver position, man. There really is. I mean, there are players like Isaiah Hodgins who put together really good tape in 2022. We really did. It's been lost in the mix somewhat. Last year's situation was such a disaster, but he played great football in 2022. And there's no reason to believe that he's just not the player he was then because he's young. So if anything, he'd be getting more into his prime. I mean, he discussed that as well. So he's going to work into the mix as well. It's going to be really interesting. I'm not to cut you off, but I wonder how much that ankle injury at the end of the 2022 season that carried into 2023. It looked nasty on that Vikings. Remember when you showed that picture on social media? I think it was purple. It was purple. And I think it really affected his rehab throughout the, or I don't even know if rehab just affected his approach to the 2023. And then in the interview with Schmelke, you're not to keep bringing it back to the Schmelke interview, but it was something I wanted to bring up. He said, hey, this off season, I just wanted to make sure my body was healthy and that I maintained healthy playing weight and like maintained muscle mass. So I think he's a player who might like, it's difficult for him to maintain that muscle mass when it is the off season, possibly. Maybe he's that kind of body type. And I don't know, it was something that I took away from what he was saying. And also I loved listening to him describe Brian Dable's office. I encourage everybody to go and listen to it. He understands it really well. He really does. Maybe that's because he obviously spends some time in Buffalo before that. But I mean, it helps when you're on the field and you know the offense the way that somebody like Hodgen's is, he's going to find soft spots and so on. And that's what we saw in 2022. Did a great job of that. And it's just, I like him on the field. I like the idea of Isaiah Aj on the field. It's helped for him to get on the field because this YRC record is depth. It's got a lot of depth to it. I said what I said, core, core there. No, I think you messed up like twice on this podcast once for sure. But you've been okay. The corpse, baby, the corpse of this wide receiver group, not what it was. It's a completely different corpse than they've ever had. A lot of talent, man. And I do think that if neighbors is what it seems to me, like he's going to be just listening to this interview, because I know the physical is there. It's about the mental. And he does earn that focal point of the offense. It's just going to be a nice little rotation they have behind him, where they can get in different cars and different situations. Hyatt may be in this spot. Wanda on this spot. Hodgens in this spot. Slating in this spot. Even Alan Robinson in Bryce Wartfield. Bryce Wheaton for potentially Ford Wheaton. There you go. There it is. And there's just options. It's a position that gets injured a lot. So I'm happy that they have this kind of depth. They just simply haven't had for a while. And I know one thing, Nick, from a consensus standpoint, there's always going to be one position or something like this where I'm higher on the consensus. And for me, this year, it's the Giants wide receiver court. Didn't work out last year with us on the edges. Fine. We got a little too overhyped about Ojilari. And he got hurt, too. He got hurt. I mean, but that, you know, our haters will say he's always hurt. So what were you guys thinking? Get it. But now there's injuries that could happen at wide receiver. And I don't feel like I feel like there's going to be an X-man up. And he's going to understand this offense. He's going to execute the role well. Look, and Malik neighbors definitely seems like he understands his limitations as of right now. But it doesn't necessarily mean he's going to fully comprehend it once the season rolls around. And that's something that can hold him back. I think he will. It seems like, you know, he's really dialed in according to what a lot of people are saying. But we've seen wide receivers not fully comprehend offenses, go into seasons and then not have the role that we originally anticipated. I don't think that's going to happen. But is it at least somewhat realistic that he may not have the comprehension of the offense that you would hope to maximize his beautiful, unique skill set? Yeah. I mean, that that's something that could happen. And then hopefully as the season would progress, he would be ready to compete at every spot along the offense. But that's something that could hold him back. Yeah, because this is a difficult offense, as we've said. All right, I'll end it on this, Nick. Let if the Giants offense breaks out this year. And by breakout, I don't mean they're now like the second best or first best offense the NFL. That's unrealistic to think about. We're talking about top 10. That to me is a true breakout. Giants can become one of the 10 best offense the NFL. Offensive line taking a huge step. That's a given. Daniel Jones taking a step forward. That's a given. What is next? Is it this receiver core playing at this? What kind of level do in your mind do they have to play out for the Giants and make that top 10 breakout? So I was just looking through some of the New York Giants that they were, I think, 31st in 2020, 30th in points four in 2021. And then they were 15th in 2022 and last year they were 30th again. So we've been hovering around that 30 number. So I would take anything over 15. What was your question? No, Dan? What role like if the Giants have this the season similar to 2022, no expectation going in, which is what we're going to have. And then beat all expectations, make the playoffs. Maybe you want to play off game. Maybe win two playoff games. Like what role what percentage of that is because the wider receiver play is at the point where it's at. Oh, it's so it's so tough for me to really answer that question. I'm going to say probably like 10% maybe 15% because for me, it would be offensive line quarterback defense to man. I think defense is a big reason. You also have play calling. So there's a lot that goes into that. But the wide receiver would I think 10% is still substantial. It's still substantial. I probably put it a little closer to 15 to 20. I just have an expectation in my head that when Malik neighbors can offer to this offense, if it clicks, it's something entirely different, entirely different than even what 2018 Barkley offered to this often. That's what 2018 Barkley racked up a shit ton of stats. They were cool. They were fun, but you know what? He was still relying on his shitty offensive line that was bad that year. The wider receiver ain't as reliant, especially if he gets open fast and starts working like he said, I'm working on my release package. That release package gets upgraded before the season and he feels comfortable with different release soft line screamers that are keeping these DBs off guard. Daniel Jones can just seat fast within two and a half seconds, get the ball out to neighbors. And that's it. He does the rest. We already saw this with Odell Beckham at one point in our Giants fandom. And the offense wasn't that functional, but Beckham was able to pull it through. And so I just feel like the neighbors factor in all this. And it's also like if neighbors is that guy that I'm prescribing him to potentially be, that means that Hyatt and Wandao, their jobs are so much easier, man. Like there's so much less attention. There's no coverage around them. There's so much space for them to work in. All right, man, I'm excited. I'm excited about the 11 personnel package in the New York Giants. I am. And I think they'll be heavy 11. So I'm excited to see that as well. Because that's what I've always wanted. I you got to be 11 in my mind to have a shot in the NFL long term to have a really lead offense. So anyway, that's a wide receiver position preview. We're excited about this group as you can obviously tell. Hopefully those expectations will be met. Time will tell. Thank you for tuning into Big Oubander podcast. A little preview of what content is that come. We're going to do a tight end preview next. We're also going to do a recap episode of the first hard knocks for the Giants, which is coming to you Tuesday night, July 2nd. We'll probably do a recap Wednesday or maybe Tuesday night after one of those two things. So thanks again for listening. Please subscribe. Please download. Please rate. Please do all the things that can help us grow the show. Have a great rest of your week. And we'll talk to you soon. [BLANK_AUDIO]
