Hey, big blue banter listener. Would you like an extra $500? That's a lot of cash! Go to bluewirepods.com/survey and complete the Blue Wire Audience Survey about you and your podcast-listening habits for a chance to win a $500 gift card. The survey will help create a better advertising experience for audiences and, in turn, help this show. That's BluewirePods.com/survey, where all you have to do is answer some simple questions for a chance to win $500. Make sure to read the full terms and disclaimer, plus complete the survey for a chance to win. BluewirePods.com/survey. The link is also in the show notes of this episode. Welcome back! It's the big blue bed to New York Giants football podcast. I'm Dan Schnier. Join me as always, my co-snick Folado and a reoccurring guest, one of our favorite guests, a great breakdown when he's been on the show. It's former wide receiver, Anthony Armstrong. Anthony, let us know where everyone can find your work before we get this thing started. Man, I like you started out with that. I appreciate you having me at-rated Armstrong. I'm simplified as it. If you type it in, you'll find me, so at-rated Armstrong, come help me. Anthony, Anthony, Anthony. So, the commanders and the New York Giants quite familiar with each other. You guys, before I get into Jayden Daniels and the offense, I want to ask, what's the overall feel around the commanders franchise right now? You guys have a complete change of the guard with Dan Quinn coming in. You have Jayden Daniels now, as you're starting quarterback. So, what's the feel for this team right now? Man, it's quite confident. I mean, obviously, the week one performance against Tampa isn't what you were expecting to come out, but all ever since that sale happened, everything is like the clouds been blown away, and it's just like, okay, everything's kind of falling into place. Like, the draft was pretty good. You just got to wait and see how those guys paying out, but there's almost like nothing's been going wrong. Okay? Now, you just need the on-field performance to match up, and you're sitting in a good place where you feel, and we're talking off air, like, you feel like, okay, there's a future to this, and we're willing to be patient with how it's going. The past 20 years, 25 years, where the organization has been, find the shiniest Ferrari and put it in there and see if it's going to work, and it's like, bro, you got to hunt the engine. Like, it's not going to work like that. So things are different now. It's been changed from the inside out. You almost had a damn near full roster rehaul. I think there's a few more pieces that they need to address, but Adam Peters has done a great job in the first year, and command is feeling pretty good about it. Yeah, there's just such a different feel around the commanders right now, because they have Jaden Daniels, and because they have new ownership, and because they have a new general manager. And I like a lot of the things that he's done so far on the draft. I like to trade back to get extra talent in the middle rounds there, and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, I wanted to start here, talk to you a little bit about the wide receiver position. The position you play, the position you know the most. There are two things I want to start with. One, the new system with Cliff Kingsbury. I'll be honest, Anthony, I've been very critical of Cliff Kingsbury as an offensive coordinator. It's not the system that I like. I don't like horizontal raid. And there's one thing that really bothers me, and it's that Terry McLaurin, I looked at the stats last week, lined up almost every snap in one position, wasn't moved into the slot, wasn't moved around, no pre-snap motion. I was wondering if one, you think this is going to be designed for less of a season or things could mix around. And then I have another question on a different receiver. Well I hope it's not what you're going to see all year. I'm banging the table and saying Terry McLaurin needs ten plus target to gain. And five of them have to be those like, oh man, you snuck him into that. It needs to be five, like Justin Jefferson gets five easy targets. Just give him the rock. Okay, get your guy started, especially in this matchup with Deontay Banks, I don't want him starting to talk. All right? Because the dude, he's coming in with a chip on the shoulder, he's got a lot of confidence. And Terry's had good games against this team, but I don't want it to be where it's like, man, we need a big play to get the energy going. Get him his targets early, and I feel you on the horizontal raid. We felt a lot of this last year with Eric B. Enemy. Just a lot of try to catch it, and maybe you can turn and get up field, man, bust somebody tail deep please. I need to see a deep threat. I'm looking for a secondary option to show up for Washington this game. And he's got such a natural throwing arm. Jayden Daniels, he should be the type of offense that look at what Brian Kelly did with him last year. That was a very vertically oriented offense, and they came really close, McLaurin and Jayden Daniels. I watched that play a couple of times on film to hitting it, and we won that big play. And that's going to happen soon. It's just a timing thing. It's a chemistry thing. The second part of the receiver question I wanted to ask you is a player is getting a lot of buzz. A player I was very high on, higher than consensus when I watched his tape. I think he's going to be a really big steal for the commanders, and that's Luke McCaffery. I'm starting to see him get a little bit of buzz from the coaching staff this week. Maybe they're feeling like maybe this could be the breakout game. What have you seen from Luke McCaffery, converted quarterback? Does he understand space? How to beat zone? What are some of the things you like about him? Man, he's like a Swiss army knife, you know, and when you got the bloodline of McCaffery, you know, even his mom, I think his mom wasn't an Olympian as well, so like everybody's an athlete. Oh, hey, no pressure, kid. Here you go. There's been new positions in the NFL. I mean, you can see the trust has been built with him. I mean, you see clips where they're handing him the ball and you're out of the backfield, and it leaves me to believe there's a lot of creativity that could be unleashed, but you can't put everything on somebody's plate all at once, you know. I think that it's, I think he's a guy that you're going to have to scheme open early, and then if you find something that he's good at, just keep putting him in that position, you know, just keep working that as he grows in this position. I wouldn't say he needs to be starting outside right now, but he isn't dreaming and somebody to pay attention to just moving forward just because of his versatility. You saw they were going to attempt a throwback pass in that game and, you know, to play that card so early, you know, I may not want to have done it, but they were trying to create some momentum going against Tampa. So you played that card now, the Giants got to pay attention to it and everybody else does it. I'm interested to see how Luke's going to develop, especially in this receiving court. He's staying on the receiver room. So Terry McLaurin, absolute stud. You guys spent a first round pick on Jahan Dodson, who is no longer there. Can you just walk our audience through what exactly happened with Jahan Dodson and why is he now a Philadelphia equal? Man, so the, I feel like the, Jahan's rookie season, absolutely electric. I mean, jumped out seven touchdowns, then he got hurt and then kind of lost some momentum from there. But in that last season, you know, with Eric being in me coming in at OC, just, it wasn't really working. You, y'all understand giving him 85 sacks. Like when you give him up 65 sacks, you're in the third and forever a lot and you get to be predictable. And it's hard to, it's hard to really get the most out of your players when you're working from such a deficit. And I feel like that Jahan just got, it was caught up in a bad situation. You get to sophomore, sophomore slump combined with, you know, not getting the ball as effectively as you did the previous years, different OC, just, you know, a lot of things get stacked up against you. For him right now, I think Philly got a steal because you're going to have him go into a situation where he doesn't have to be the number one guy, he's going to be one-on-one coverage. You've got A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith outside, so three first round picks over there. I think he can have some success over there, but honestly, man, you're getting to, I don't want to say bad situation, just sometimes things just, you know, the dominoes fall and the chips fall where they may, and it's kind of best for you to get a fresh start. So I'm happy for him to be a Philly, but he don't need to ball out whenever Philly plays Washington. Keeping on the offensive side of the ball, Anthony, so we know what's coming. It's a horizontal rate. It's Cliff Kingsbury. The Giants are going to have to tackle. That's, when you're playing this style of offense, the exterior guys, DBs are going to have to tackle, and that's going to be a big focus, I'm sure, for the coaches this week. But one thing I want to ask you about, because it's something that was so concerning in the preseason, and I look at the talent on paper when I go to our lads and look at the depth chart, and it's confusing to me that this could be your starting offensive line. But how did the offensive line hold up in week one? I know there was a lot of projection that Washington would have the worst or second worst or third worst line could derail things. The Giants did not create pressure in week one against the Minnesota offensive line. It's a big point of emphasis for week two, so there are going to be opportunities for this deliner. Has the O line outperformed what the expectations were? Man, I think you have a combination of that quicker play calling and athletic quarterback who is quick to make a decision to say, "I'm not going to hang out back here. I'm going to go ahead and run." That helped the offensive line. I'm still going to go back and look at the end zone copy, just to see, but they only gave up two sacks against Tampa, and Todd Bowles liked to send some pressure, so two sacks, I'm fine with that. I think that that's good. I'm getting the ball out quickly helping your quarterback. I think that that's good, but the way to avoid y'all's defensive line from getting after and then really testing this offensive line is turning around and handing that sucker to Brian Robinson. You're going to have to run the ball to help mix some things up and take that pressure off of Jaden Daniels in this offensive line because you know, to cave on Thibodeau and Brian Burns going up against rookie Brandon Coleman and Andrew Wiley. That's one of the ones where coach makes a play call, he's probably got his fingers and toes crossed. He's like, "Okay, man, it's a seven-step drop. We need this one to hold up." So those guys are brought in to rush the passion. They're not brought in to stop the run. I would love to see this offense get physical first and try to batter down that defensive line because if they get the pin areas back, it could get ugly, but have they improved enough? I don't know. It's too early to see, but this is the hell of a test this week. Were they able to generate any push at the point of attack against Tampa Bay? That's awesome. Yeah. I saw a little bit, a few plays here and there. The play call still went a little bit past heavy just because of the score, but I did see some Brandon Coleman kind of washing down the whole entire edge. I'm interested to see how he holds up because he does get his feet set in the ground quickly. He'll get back and be set and the sack he gave up was a push pull. So the guy was long armed and pushed him and then pulled himself and pulled himself through. If you're nimble on your feet, I think you can handle that a little bit more. This is coming from a receiver, but I watch a lot of online tape. It's more interesting, I guess, in watching routes all day, but nonetheless, it's going to be a hell of a matchup. You're going to see your Brandon Coleman is an NFL level left tackle in this league and if he is, Washington got to steal moving forward for years to come. I want to stay on the interior offensive line before we get to Jane Daniels, the exciting player that we really want to talk about, but the interior offensive line, the commanders just signed Sam Cosme to a pretty large deal. Used to be an off the tackle kicked inside. How was his transition to the inside? I know it's been a couple seasons now. How is that manifested and also what's the overall opinion of Nick Allegretti, Tyler Biotish and Sam Cosme because they have a tall task trying to block 97 Dexter Lawrence this Sunday. Man, Sam Cosme, Dan Quinn called him a commander through and through. He's somebody that you want on your offensive line. When you go back to Brandon's sheriff and him coming through Washington, everybody hated the fact that he did not stay, right? He was your toughest, best offensive line and then he went down to Jacksonville to be able to re-sign Sam Cosme and keep him in the building is big, especially with how you take this organization is going to be going forward. You want that guy to be after he wants to be physical. He wants to push people in the mouth and run the ball, so I think he's a big leader across his offensive line. Him and Tyler Biotish have been the two, they were the two starters that were out of the gate that Dan Quinn wrote and sharpie. These are your starters at center and right guard. Everybody else is in flux, right? When you talk about that, now you, you know, Biotish I think is going to be holding it down. His veteran being able to communicate with Jaden, helping with protection, I think he's going to be good. Allegretti, I think he's coming in. I would feel because your recent, recent chief's acquisition in Andrew Wiley kind of shake you for a season. Then you go back to that same store and pick up something else, everybody's like, "Well, let's see if this is still going to be good produce or not." I think so far it's been good, right? I mean, you got to think having those vets and I think strategically having those vets are big for Brandon Coleman, okay? They built it outright, still something to prove, but so far I think two sacks, people are fine, but Andrew Wiley was something that people were paying attention to if Cornelius Lucas was going to be moving in to that right tackle spot or not. But I think so far one weekend, he's okay. It's interesting because I said last week when we previewed the Vikings game that if Dexter Lawrence can dominate the interior, the Giants were going to win that football game and Dexter Lawrence did dominate the interior. The Vikings have got Bradbury at a smaller center and I know the commanders had some issues on the interior offensive line that's where I'm focused, but ultimately it didn't matter because the Giants threw a pick six from their quarterback and they threw a pick in the red zone and the offense was completely inept which negates anything that can be done on the defensive side of the ball. But before we get to that, the Giants offense and where they're at and now they rebound and that's always a tough subject these days, let's talk about Jay and Dan, there's a little bit more and I want to, so when Nick and I went into this offseason Anthony, we knew the Giants were in the market for a quarterback. Some fans didn't want to buy it for a while but it was, the tea leaves are obvious. So we broke down every quarterback, we watched a lot of Jay and Daniel's tape, we also watched a lot of neighbors tape which allows you to watch even more Jay and Daniel's tape. I think both Nick and I were impressed with what he put on the field, impressed, I personally think I like the most about Jay and Daniel's is his release, I just think he has such a smooth release and it gets out quick, there's no wasted movement and that to me is so valuable on the quarterback. But we also had our concerns, the main one being like just the longevity of his quarterback at his size but also there were a lot of situations where from a pressure to sack rate scenario and when he was pressure in that pocket he would just put his head down and he would run. So we're looking for him to kind of make plays while he's scrambling with his arm and it seemed like a lot of time he would run. Has there been any focus or emphasis on that from the coaches and what did you see in week one in this regard when he was pressure? Could we know Todd Bowls sent a lot of pressures, was it always kind of decision was to run or did he make some plays where he was kind of scrambling? Man a lot of them were just get out of there and avoid the pressure, he had a great score against the pressure. I want to say he was pressure about 47% of the time, almost 50% by Bowls but he was able to handle it well, got the ball out quickly, about 2.23 seconds so one of the lowest in the league, the good thing about it, the guy knows where he wants to go with the football and as many people I've been able to talk to about Jay and Daniel, the guy stays cool and calm and is able to make good and clear decisions so that's how you handle the blitz. If somebody is going to put pressure on you, you have to tax them a couple of times and then that DC is going to say, "Hey, don't blitz no more." We can't blitz anymore because he's gashing us and so I'm interested to see how this game is going to play out in that regard. We've seen how generally young quarterbacks are going to see exotic looks, right? Everything's brand new, the regular season is not anything like the preseason. This season is middle school, cover three, simple stuff, you've got people rolling and dropping and that can affect your decision making. When we talked about the sacks, Jayden's athleticism in the pocket, I think helps the offensive line where there could be deficiencies or mismatches. I think Jayden has the ability he's shown it to get the hell out the pocket and at least go get 10-15 yards, we can clean this up later. I don't think you can live like that in this league because there's going to be spies in the linebacker who run for three. That can be shut down a little bit but I would love to see him play from the pocket more. Dan Quinn said it too. He wants him to play from the pocket more and if he's able to do that, then that's when we get the shots down field and you get some more plays that way but I don't want him running as much. 88 yards, I'm glad he could do it but please don't make this a weekly occurrence. And take some of those shots down field too by the college, he was just getting abused out there. So Austin Echler is now a Washington commander. He played 53% of the snaps. Do you think that was more of a product of the game script or do you think this is more of a split back type of back field? I'm trying to judge how exactly are the commanders going to use the combination of Brian Robinson and Austin Echler because I think Echler only had two carries in the game but he still played 53% of the snaps. I think you are going to see a pretty even split but the tempo and how the game plays out will determine. Like you said, when you're down by a good couple scores, you're going to have to put your Austin Echler in who can catch it and run and go get some tubs. I would see Brian Robinson being a heavy 20-20 guy, even goal line to the opposite 2015, just being able to run the ball. If the running game is rocking, then you're going to see him get maybe up through upwards of 18-20 carries against New York. Him lead the way with 53% of the offensive snaps and then bringing in Echler in third down situations, red zone, stuff like that for mismatches. I think that it could decide, he said, "Hey Coach, man, I really need to be about 45% of the carries. I don't want to be out there that often." He drives off of being in that split set. Give me a little bit less Austin Echler, a little bit more Brian Robinson is probably what they were going to try to put on the play, put on the menu. I think that's probably the plan for them always, but I will say this because I watched some tape from Washington's offense this week. I was surprised because look, he played injured last year. I think this happens a lot with athletes in the NFL. They put on tape an injured season and everyone's just like, "Oh, that's what they are now," and even especially if you're at an advanced age, they're like an advanced age, I call it for a running back it is, sadly that's what it is, but they'll really bury you in the... I watched tape in the last week now that he's had this offseason recover and just be fully healthy. He had his juice back. There was one play where I was like, "Damn, that was prime, Austin Echler gets so low to the ground. The center grabby, those cuts, that ability to position his body and then go vertical." I was like, "This guy's going to be a problem for the Giants. People aren't expecting it going into this game, but he will be." I mean, he creates mismatches out of the backfield and once again, it goes back to the creativity on offense. All these things go together, it's like, "You want to be creative on offense, but do we have the time to be creative on offense?" You know what I'm saying? You can't heat people up all the time, but if you make them pay for it, then you can kind of start to dictate, but it's going to be a good chess match. I mean, this has always been a tough, tough, tough match up between these two teams and I'm like, "Yeah, Sunday's not going to be any easier," but it's funny because they're rivals at this point, but a lot of people from Giants fans are like, "Oh, I don't consider Washington rivals. I'm sure Washington says the same thing about the Giants, considering how bad both teams have been," but this is actually the rivalry at this point. Neither team can say it's the Eagles or the Cowboys, we don't beat them often. This is the one, every year it's close, every year it's a game and the Giants have had their number to be honest, but it's not by a lot, it's like good games every time. There's only one place you can hear a three-time national championship winning head coach, a Heisman Trophy winning running back and national champion, and someone to keep everything on the tracks. Every week, no Triven Meyer running back Mark Ingram than me, Rob Stone, get into what matters most to you. We take you inside the biggest moments in college football while having some fun bringing you guests from all over sports and entertainment. Watch Triple Option on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up everybody? It's Jerry Ferrara. I've got a new podcast called Throwbacks with Heisman Trophy winner Matt Liner, where we will be talking about all things sports, all things pop culture, and all things about our lives. From football locker rooms to Hollywood green rooms, we've got you covered, where your weekly destination for the games you want to hear about, and the stories you won't forget. 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Speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan, additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply. It's even mobile for details. Recently, this is the only match that the Giants can look at and be like, "We have their number! Holy crap! Giant and have a huge number. That's insane. Daniel Jones calls out against Washington. 5-1-1. Are you kidding me? 5-1-1. And I think that comes into play though. He's 5-1-1 against Washington, but now you got Dan Quinn. He's 0-4 against Dan Quinn. Yeah. Great point. 1-7 against Dallas. So just taking that brain trust and saying, "We're going to install this software." You would hope. Right? You would hope. Yeah. You wouldn't. We wouldn't. I would hope, right? One thing I saw from the game against Tampa for Washington's defense, their DBs were getting a little bit too influenced by their eyes and staying on people who weren't paying attention to some DBs garage receivers getting over the top of corner routes and smashes. So it's Dave Ball, I think he says he's taking a play call and he's going to be able to put people in position to take advantage of that and see if he can get people open. I mean, Emmanuel Forbes has been a target for teams. Like, you got to show up, right? You got to have to show up. B.S. J. Benjamin St. Juice. He's going to have to show up as well. So it's not going to be an easy test. These guys can fly. So I really want to see how that DB room is going to show up for Washington. I had five miscommunications when I went through and charted the defense. Two or three of them, Baker Mayfield, didn't even target the miscommunication. And it's just a lot of switch releases. It's something that Brian Dable has used quite a bit through his time here as the play call or play designer with the New York Giants real quick before we get to the defense. And I wanted to ask you about the tight end position because Cliff King's very loves him. Some Zach Hertz and Zach Hertz played, I think, like 71% of the snaps. So what's going on with the tight end position? We know Bates, John Bates, love that guy out of Boise State. He's going to be that blocking tight end. But is Benson not have a role, Benson it? Does he have a role? And are we going to see Zach Hertz kill the Giants again like he used to when he was evil? I do think Benson has a role. He kind of falls in that Luke McCaffrey category where he can do a lot of everything. But John Bates brings you more on field consistency when it comes to blocking, right? And that's one part that's about this offense that I like the versatility. But I hate the fact that this one guy only can do this. This is his best thing. So then I have to scheme seven plays for him. So then whenever he comes on the field, they're like, "Hey, he's running deep. He only runs slants inside and DB's are good at that." I mean, we catch it. They're going to catch it. And they're going to say, "Hey, this guy comes in for seven plays and six of them are slants. All right, I'm going to scoot inside." You know, I mean, so those things happen. The fact that if you can put John Bates on the field more frequently, then he's going to be out there. So I would like to see him actually get some more attention and make some more plays because if he can make plays with his hands and catching the ball, it just makes the offense that much more dangerous. But you always going to rely on Zach Hertz. I mean, hey, he's been doing a few years. He's a reliable target and he's got a good relationship with Jayden. Yeah. Is that Bates? Sorry, Dan. Do you think Bates has the type of skill set as he's shown that at all to be an adept receiver in the national football league? We've had a couple of plays here and there, but I mean, he's still going to lead with that physicality. And there's always going to be a place for that in this game, especially as, you know, Benson is more of that H-backed guy, slightly more receivers, but he's still, you know, bigger. He's a bigger body guy, but you don't think him as an inline blocker, right? If we got the way that they're going to have to run the ball Sunday, I need John Bates out there. You know, I don't need, I don't need Benson on the edge. Maybe he can be a wink and then do a double T, but like at the point, K-Von Tippido, Brian Burns, I need, I need John Bates to Zach Hertz. And you make an excellent point about just being multiple as an offense when you do, and the Giants have had this in the past, specifically, I think about the Jason Garrett years, we just bring these guys on like these wide receivers and you know they're in there to block and then they motion them in and it's like, all right, now you've tipped off your play completely. Yeah. At least have to build off that. That's what the McPhee's do of the world do, they'll build off of that and they'll run play action off of that. You know, no mix it in, but I agree with you on that point. I want to flip it over the other side of the ball though. I obviously had a chance and so did Nick to watch Baker Mayfield last week against this Washington team. Now, either Baker Mayfield has evolved into one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, and I do want to give him credit because he's really improved this game. I mean, some of the things that Nick and I talked about before you jumped on this podcast are just so, it's so crazy because we watch one quarterback play, mostly Daniel Jones and you see Baker who doesn't, you know, a lot of people before this year were saying, "Daniel Jones, a better quarterback than Baker Mayfield." Of course, he's a better quarterback. Mayfield is signing with the Rams in the middle of the season and then he goes to the Tampa for three and a half million dollar one year contract. But like, you watch the tape and it's like these quarterbacks don't even look like they're in the same world right now from how confident they are, how quick the release is from Baker Mayfield, how decisive he is in quick game, the footwork, the square in your shoulders is getting yourself, your feet and your shoulders aligned to the target simple things like that at the quarterback position that the Giants have struggled with and then even just the arm talent, like getting the ball out on the D-path and putting the ball in good spots. These are all things that it looked like he did on tape. Now, how much is the credit to Baker and the system they're running, which is a new system losing canals and how much is the discredits to just a new scheme on, you know, Dan Quim we love and we've talked about the lot but a new scheme with a lot of let's say, I don't want to say questionable Anthony, but talent that hasn't really at least developed yet on the back. Yeah, I would say that the Washington's defense is kind of similar to New York's receiving core, young, unproven, you know, you got some talent, potential talent there. I do think a lot of it is, I mean, you're going against a veteran receiving core and a veteran quarterback, right, Baker, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, those are vets. Then Liam Cohen coming over from the Rams, like we mentioned how the Rams are able to you know, scheme people open, so that's just a tough match up on my show. I was like, look, do you remember when the USA Olympic team would always go against the college all-stars, right? And as exciting as it was to see like these college seniors go up against Jordan, you knew Jordan and all them guys were going to wear them dudes out, right? And that's kind of how it was. I'm like, okay, you're going up against tough match up, the scheme, the releases, you mentioned the miscommunications, like nobody knows in week one what you're going to get. And now they're going to throw these Uno cards and reverses and draw tools and you're like, damn, okay, we're confused. Now we can watch table. We can learn from this. So hopefully Washington has learned and they can come back and try to take advantage of going against what you would think is a lower quarterback, but statistics show Daniel Jones has good games and wins against Washington. So throw those stats out the window. It doesn't even matter anymore. You just got to show up and get better right now. Like who's going to really show up, right? Who's going to show up? Do we have a feel for the identity of what Dan Quinn wants to do this season with this personnel grouping because he's not historically known as this blitz happy type of defensive coordinator in week one, down heavy, of course, they blitz that 41.2% of their defensive plays, which ranked fourth highest in the league. Do you think that was more of a product of the game script or do you think we're going to see more pressure and more blitzing from Dan Quinn because the secondary is a little bit, as Dan said, maybe not proven from a developmental standpoint? I think that you're seeing the defense that knows that it has to be 11 people all on one string to really get the most out of it, right? I mean, your, your, your, your horses are in the middle defensive tackles, but they're not going to win one on one like Aaron Donnell. They're a big bull Russian guys that mean it could be real. Deron Payne can do that, but a little double team can help slow some of those things down. You don't have that premier past Russia, no shade to Doran Armstrong, great last name. But you know, like there's a mixture of how they're going to get pressure. Jamie Davis, is it going to be Frankie Louvoo, where you have an Samra still as a quan Martin? So overall, if you're doing all those things on defense, you have to communicate your ass right. You have to say, okay, I'm blitzing from this side. That means I need to cover this because, you know, everybody has to be on a string. And if it's mismatched, or if you tell it in a hard count situation, like Samra still in the make of Mayfield, now you got to be able to bounce back from that because people know what you're doing. So it's going to come as a group that has to grow together. They really have to grow together and get more reps. I don't think you're going to see, it's not like one Mike Parsons out there. It could be three or four people having four to five sacks to, to really outline how this defense is going to play. But if the front can get some pressure in the secondary is in the right position, it could get exciting. And I think that's where you're looking at for Dave Quinn. They want to be fast. They want to be aggressive and they want to fly around. And I think they're going to have to create some confusion with some versatility in that back end. Yeah, go ahead, Nick. Dan, I'm excited to see how Brian Dave will use his personnel package on offense because when you look at what they did against Minnesota, they used a lot of 12 personnel and it was like, oh, man, a lot of 12, a 13 personnel, the Buccaneers, they use 11 personnel 85% of the time with a lead. And it seemed like they understood they couldn't run the football all that well. They had the one Bucky Irving 31 yard run, but outside of that, or even with that, they averaged 3.7 yards per carry was really just that one run. Washington clamped down on the Buccaneers with a lead and Baker was just able to carve them up with the quick passing attacks. So do you think this is going to really fall on the shoulders of Daniel Jones? Do you think there's going to be much rushing room for Devin Singletary and this giant rushing attack that really didn't get anything going on Sunday against Minnesota? There should not be any rushing at all. Nothing at all. Maybe something on the edge, but that interior should be shut down. I would love to see second and long, third and long be the common place for New York going in this game for their offense. I think that trying to run, you're going to try to have to run the ball because that's what you do. But if I'm out there paying attention as offensive coordinator, I know where my weak points are. It's everything else. It's not dealing with Bobby Wagner and all of his friends up front. It's dealing with those secondary players. So if you got Devin Singletary, this may not be the day to have him on your fantasy roster because I don't think he's going to get a lot of production, but it's that secondary that scares me the most. Yeah, in my opinion, I just think from watching last week, Nick and Anthony, the Giants run game is not where it needs to be right now and this is not just because they lost Saquon Barkley. It's because they have a new system in here and not a new system on offense, but they have a new offensive line coach in here and the blocking scheme is completely different and they weren't really generating much up front. John Michael Schmitz playing through a shoulder injury, the interior offensive line was really built to protect the past, Ben Rotten, not really to protect the past, but really didn't look good in week one. The interior is just not getting the push. Andrew Thomas, athlete, but not always been a better pass protector than run blocker and on the right side of Luminor, better pass protector than run blocker. This is not going to be the union, in my opinion, that is moving guys on the ground. So I'm with you, Nick and Anthony, I think if I'm Brian Dable, I go back and take a page out of my old Buffalo Bills playbook and something the Giants also did against the Vikings before and just go pass heavy in this game script, really pass heavy. Now it's going to rely on Jones because he's going to have to look more comfortable to operate that quick game and he's going to have to put these defensive backs in tough spots. But I don't see how the run game, I don't see how trying to, and then last week they did, man, like they tried those quarterback design runs with Daniel Jones that went nowhere Nick and went two times in a row, it killed a drive, so I just don't think that's the play for this week. Now neither do I, and I want to extrapolate on those ideas a little bit more. The Giants ran a lot of two by two sets, I think they ran it most at 47%, they only ran three by one sets at a 33%, and the Buccaneers ran three by one sets, they're high with their 11 personnel package at a 45% clip, and those were where a lot of the miscommunications came against Washington, and a lot of those came from condensed sets. Everybody inside the number, and when they weren't inside the numbers, the player who initially, before the snap was outside the numbers, would motion in, and then they would snap the football, he would become the two, and that would create a miscommunication. So Anthony, I want to ask you with this match type of defense, when you guys are in middle of the field closed, cover three, or even quarters, it seemed like you guys were in middle of the field closed a lot, and then would rotate and gain a lot of depth. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but do you think the, just the communication overall for this young secondary, did you see on film that that was just easily picked apart by Baker Mayfield, we alluded a little bit to it before with the miscommunications, because that was very evident, and was that a problem throughout training camp for Dan Quinn and these young DBs? Yeah, I'll start with the training camp portion of it, I don't think it was, I don't think it was so much of a problem in training camp, because like I said, you see in bare bones vanilla, they ain't got three flavors in training camp in preseason, nobody runs anything exotic. So now when you're, unless they don't know what they showed in those joint practices, what was happening there, but this is the first time you get to see this, anybody's offensive, Tampa's offense, and Washington's defense, so they really weren't, I don't wanna, it's not an excuse to say they weren't prepared, they didn't know what they were gonna see, but frankly, you didn't know what you're gonna expect, and so if you go in you thinking, okay, well maybe they're gonna run outside leverage, because the last time they were run outside, and now they run inside, so you know, you kind of gotta, you gotta take your licks, and this is a big learning experience, I hope all week they sat there and watched tape and said, okay, hey, if this happens, number one, this is how you're gonna coach it up, so ultimately you didn't see it in preseason, but the three by one set can create a lot of confusion like you already mentioned, because sending people in every which way, and if they're manning a lot, sometimes I saw it was a lot of man in these condensed sets, and frankly, if I'm playing mad, I'm not the best man player, but if it's condensed set and you're playing man, you're gonna get yourself in some trouble, because people are crossing, you're gonna run into people, and now you're just giving up instant leverage, unless you got somebody that's gonna get up there and just disrupt everything, you can't really do it from all, so you have to play, in my opinion, play a zone, but know where everybody's going and where you're gonna pick people up from, so ultimately, I do expect Brian Dayball to look at the tape and say, this is at exact play, put it in our offense this week, and see if Washington can fix it, if not, then he's maybe giving us a gift over here in Washington, but I would expect to see a lot of those exact same exact looks just to try to find ways to create openness and separation for these players. It's interesting too, because you mentioned Liam Cohen comes over from the Rams, and I'm a huge fan of Liam Cohen, I know Nick and I watched him with Will Evans, and he was just so much better than Will Evans was playing at a level he's never played at before and hasn't repeated, but part of why I find that interesting is because he comes over from the Rams, and it's like, that's their whole DNA, that's what McVade does, those tight condensed splits, get the guys motioning into those. It's not necessarily Ben Dable's DNA, he's done it at times in the Vikings playoff game, like there were some really good switch releases, really good examples of this, but it's not exactly what the offense has always been, so I'll be curious if you're right there, Anthony, if Dable's gonna take a page and look at the tape against him and be like, we have this, we just have to use this. Yeah, I mean, if you know that this is your quarterback or else you gotta wait until April to pick a new one, you better get the most out of it, because if you gotta pick a new one in April, you probably gotta get a new house, right, both of y'all are gone, there's gonna be a new head coach and a new quarterback in Big Blue, if we've been real, so why not, right? Like, you're at the point where it's like, hey man, I'm taking over play call and I'm gonna be responsible for this ship going up or down, let's open this thing up and try to see what the previous teams have done. It seems crazy for Dan and I to come here after watching week one and say, yeah, we need to put all this on Daniel Jones shoulders, and Daniel Jones is the win as his game after the way Daniel Jones played, but that's the, that's what I took away from watching Washington against Tampa Bay, because there's just, there were so many holes, there's so much to be exploited from all the things that we've discussed on this podcast. I want to ask you one more defensive question, and it's about Bobby Wagner, Bobby Wagner. Look, I have the utmost respect for Bobby Wagner. He's been one of the more underrated players as my time as an adult. I think he is my age, to be honest, so I look at him, I'm like, yo, you're still out there rocking it. I'm a Bobby Wagner. So how do you look, Anthony, and he sees that just true leader. It seems to be in his DNA, that true leader of this defense. Man, he looked good. It was weird seeing that 54 out there in the burgundy. Honestly, it was weird to see Echler. It was weird to see all of these names of players that you would never consider going to Washington and they're like, wow, they're actually here, like, wow, this is real life. So I think that he's going to bring that calm in presence. I mean, he's a very young defense, right? And I've called for it. They've needed a leader that's going to shut the door and say, hey, folks, this is not how we play football in the NFL. We need to get right. And after week one, he's got to be that vocal leader. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't, you know, saying, hey, everybody, let's look at this tape. Let's do this all together and get on the same page because something special could happen. He's going to bring that level of maturity to an extremely young linebacker in core. You know, Frankie Louvoo, he's going to bring that energy, Jaymond Davis, is now he's playing defensive end. But having Bobby wagging to being able to move people around, there's already been some great players on Washington, but there hasn't been that vocal leader that they've needed since London Fletcher has been running around. So now that he's there, it brings a breath of fresh air, at least you feel like you're going to be pointed in the right direction on defense. I will say this on that front while I agree with you from that standpoint, it's very important. I think it's going to help with communication, it's going to help with the run game. At times last year, when we got a chance to break down his tapes, especially when they played the Giants, he did look a little bit slow from a in space standpoint in the passing game. He's obviously an older player. I saw a breakdown of one, one plan, all 22 that left from last week where I forget who it was. It was either Rashad White or Bucky Irving, but they got one of them going on a screen game. It was a really rough rep for Wagner. This is an area where I actually think the Giants need to focus as well. We talked a lot about doing a lot of what the Bucks did last week with those condensed splits. I think they really need to figure out how to get the screen game going and really need to figure out how to get, in my opinion, Tracy or even Singletary or whoever is out there matched up against Wagner to be honest, one on one in man, because these are just opportunities that I'm the coach I'm looking for. But we'll see, because the Washington, those this is coming as well, and they're probably scheme around that. But what are your thoughts on what you've seen from Wagner in space? I did see that screen, and I was like, ooh, that didn't look right. That didn't look good. I was like, hey, man, I feel it. I'm speaking from 41, like I run a mile or two, and I'm like, I'm down for two or three days. I'm like, hey, I'm on the short term IR, so I get it with Bobby. Ultimately, it's one of those ones where you hope, I want to say you hope he's not in those positions to get one on one, but they're going to happen from time to time. Yeah, you got to take, you want to take your child's, but the dude did leave the league in tackles last year. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So the week one against a shifty young running back against a 30-something-year-old, I'm going to take the short, the young guy, like, but across the middle, Versailles, White and Crew, they probably wouldn't want to have to deal with Bobby Wagner, everything's all square. So in space, Sherry may be a little bit of a liability, but I'm going to take that years of experience and that leadership over all of that, and in this situation, you do until somebody else shows that they can be a better pastor if it is. And Giants fans, one matchup that I'm not looking forward to is Daron Payne against John Michael Schmitz. So I wanted to ask you, Anthony, did we see a lot of Daron Payne at one or nose technique in Dan Quinn's defense? Or was he kicked out more towards, like, the three or the four-eye shade? May I tell you, I got to go look at the close end zone to get better numbers on that, but I will say I've mentioned it before, the versatility across the defensive line is something to pay attention to. Y'all noticed week one, Chiefs Ravens, Chris Jones had said, "Oh, here's a rookie right here at left tackle. I'm going to line up at left defensive line." Like, that's the type of versatility that I think you're going to see, or versatility, I should say, that you're going to see from this defense. You may see, John, Daron Payne out on a tackle at some instance, if that matchup looks good. You have three defensive tackles in the middle and the one end and the line background on the opposite side. So where he lines up and where everybody lines up at, I think it's going to be a crapshoot until you find that right matchup. So if they're able to create a one-on-one where he can get an edge on a guard or on a center, then let him line up at that one or a nose. But also know that John Allen, right on somebody's head, is not going to be easy now. You're going to have to tap a guard to help me out, right, one or the other. And then that's going to do nothing but free things up. And when you add in the DBs that are blitzing, so that communication across the offensive line can help free up Daron Payne, help freeze up somebody else. But I expect that Daron Payne to have a big day. And that's such an astute point by you, because it's the defense, right? It's like Dan Quinn comes over. Look at what he did with a prospect like Michael Parsons. He turned him into an edge. Like this was Kyle was an off-ball linebacker at Penn State. I'm trying to go over to him in Davis right now. He's trying to do it again with Jimin Davis, somebody who's career. Remember the Giants almost drafted Jimin Davis. It was him or Tony. Unbelievable. I know Jimin Davis, I'm not trying to knock it, but it's been a tough start to his career. And I hope Dan Quinn can find a way to use him and revive it. But somehow he's one of the only, Tony's one of the only guys that would have been a better victim Tony, slightly better victim Tony, or I said that wrong, but Tony's only slightly worse of a pick. But it's interesting to see if you can convert Jimin Davis to that. Anything else we need to know about Dan Quinn Stevens before he gets to the predictions part of the show? Oh man, you know, those safeties are something that are going to be getting active. Jeremy Chinsp is a lot of time up at the line of scrimmage and in the box as well. So you talked about matchups with tight ends. It should be more safeties that are going to match up with tight ends bigger ones. I would like to see rather than, you know, saying we're still, it's like 5-9-5-10 going up against a big 6-3-6-4 tight end. So interested to see how those matchups happen. Are they able to handle Malik neighbors just overall as a unit because they need to bounce back and to have success, you're going to have to get your hands on the football. So that's what they've been preaching. Get your hands on the football and I think this is the week to get it started. Before we get into the predictions, Anthony, you played wide receiver in the National Football League. Can you just give our audience your opinions on Malik neighbors? Malik neighbors, he's an uber talented guy. Like he's got all the skill sets and then he's coming from the right school. So if you want to compare him with Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase, you're not wrong in doing so because he's put up those type of numbers. And he's got some speed, he's got routes, he's got hands, the game against the Texans. Like they were just throwing the ball to him any which way and he was making those plays and those type of catches. So he's going to bring you some excitement. He's going to bring you some big plays. But he's kind of like in that Terry category, he's best used if you use it often. Get him to rock early, make it easy, that way he's happy and then the big plays will come from there. But don't start until week three, we don't need anything right now. But I think Malik neighbors is a talented player. He was one of those ones where if something wonky would have happened and Washington ended up with him, I wouldn't have been mad. We did just say we'll figure out the quarterback position later, but I'm glad we got Jaden. All right, let's get into some predictions here. Nick and I were god awful on our predictions last week for what happened in the Giants in week one. We're going to try to be better this week, Anthony, we're going to let you start this off. Give me your score prediction for this game. All right. Well, I'm going to say this. You talk about having an awful week one. I was in a survivor league. I picked Cincinnati. I did. So I am no longer in the survivor league. I like I signed up late and then I was out just as fast. So I was like, I should have just forgot to pay. But that's easy to hear over there. For me, where this is a Washington's a one point favorite, I do think that it needs to be a dominating performance from Washington. I think that they need to win by two or three touchdowns, frankly, to really show that they're going to be, you know, to hold it down against this team because the history shows with this close and it's tight. There's a good chance it could be a tie or the Giants are going to get a W. So whatever it is, I need to be by two touchdowns or more for Washington. So you picked the number 34 to 20, anything above from there, but I need Washington to score some points. If that happens, New York might just fall apart. Yeah. That would be absolutely terrible for the New York Giants. Now, I feel like right now, Ronald McDonald, Krusty, I feel like John Wayne Gacy, I feel like a freaking clown because for whatever reason, I'm about to select the New York football Giants. I think the matchup against the Minnesota Vikings was a very bad matchup for Daniel Jones for this offense. I'm not making excuses for them. I don't think the Giants are all that talented, but I think the youth of Washington will be exploited by Brian Dable. I feel again, like a clown that, you know, I feel like Pennywise that I'm selecting the Giants here, but I am going to go with the Giants. I think it's going to be relatively low scoring, but I'm going to go 20 to 17 New York Giants. They will keep it close and the Giants will find a way to win the football game and I'm going to go and start putting my makeup on now. I'll see. Yeah. Yeah. Look, if you had asked me this question, no, let's see, six days ago, I would have predicted the Giants would actually win by multiple scores. That's where I was at going into the season. No offense to Washington. They're a younger team. I don't love their talent on the defense side of the ball. And I think ultimately on the offensive side of the ball, it's a rookie and he's going to have some growing pains. But that was when I thought the Giants would have confidence on the offensive side of the ball. And from what I saw last week with Daniel Jones, it was the most uncomfortable he's ever looked, including the Monday night football game against Tampa. It was the footwork was just unbelievably off. It was not connected at all to the upper half. He was not getting his feet towards the target, the shoulders were getting towards the target. It looked like somebody was just cooked and rattled. And somebody mentioned the David Carr syndrome. It looked like that. Now, that's one week. He could totally look like a different player this week. And I think there's a chance of that, but is it enough of a chance? I think it's even a higher chance than 50%, 60, maybe 65. But if there's even just a 35% chance that Daniel Jones could be what he was last week and just unconfident and Dan Quinn, like you said, has had success against him. If it's that version, they can't win a football game against any team. It doesn't matter. You might even play Georgia and lose if your quarterback is that rattled and we're grounding balls. I mean, he missed a six yard flat on the first throw of the game. He missed the six yard throw to the flat. Now, I'm talking about to travel six yards in the air, and it was low and at the feet of the running back. And the reason he did it is because he didn't get his feet around and he didn't get his shoulders around. He kind of just winged it like this. There were multi balls over the middle of the field that bounced the receiver. This is like scary type stuff. And again, I don't think I think there's a 65% chance he won't be that guy again, Anthony. But if there's a 35% chance, it's hard for me to predict the Giants will win. I think they'll still be able to stop this defense better than they stop Minnesota. So I'm thinking maybe it's going to be like 20 to 13 Washington. What are the chances? What are better chances than Daniel? What drew lock drew lock is in the game where Washington blows them out. Oh, if you had to pick between those two things, well, I think they're kind of mutually probably going together. Don't get it depends on how that how them points came from white. If there's no big six, if they're going to, what did I see the stat that there's been more pick sixes than touchdown passes to Giants players since he signed a contract. Now, where I can say he that year he played well enough to deserve the contract, I think deep down, I was like, they really don't need to resign and like they really kind of need to not do it. But you're in a league where it's like one side of it is like, well, do you what else are you going to get, right? Or do you just deal with what you got? And I think right now they chose to deal with what you got, but we'll see what happens. I mean, Nick said it best before this podcast, Nick, you said, and I'll let you speak to us if you want to, but said it would have taken a lot of God, I don't even know the word to use a family friendly show, but I'll just use it balls to move on from them after that point. But ultimately, it would have been there or at least to let them just test the market after that. Right? Because are we sure that anybody was interested in signing that profile of a player with a neck to neck injury and whatever the hell was going on and also just really inconsistent play. But it's so rare that we see GM's make that kind of ballsy move where like, you just took this playoff, you won a game, we still don't believe in you long term, we'll let you hit the market. And, you know, because you said it, like what was their option other than that? The crazy thing is like Tyrod Taylor outplayed him on film last year. Nick and I broke down the team. A lot of Giants fans, some of the homers disagree with that and they say, oh, he had all this stuff around him. He didn't have that great of a situation around him. Tyrod Taylor, he had a better situation than Jones, but it wasn't that great. At least straight up to outplayed him. I mean, if you look at the numbers from a clean pocket, Tyrod Taylor was the eight best EPA of any quarterback from a clean pocket last year. That takes out all the pressures, all the bad situations. Damn Jones was 42nd and Danny, and Tommy DeVito was 43rd. So that's what you were dealing with last year. So it kind of was like, if you don't have that option, you could have just kept, Taylor was under contract for eight million or nine million that cap space to build the line, use that cap space to build other stuff. And who knows what would happen after that? Look, look, you go on a whole other rant with that because I've said that so many times. I feel like a lot of times these organizations, they want to get the quote unquote franchise quarterback franchise quarterback. I'm like, bro, you've been chasing this franchise quarterback for 20 years. Build a team for once, right? Build a team. And I mean, we talked about Washington with the draft and free agency. Adam Peters has done a hell of a job flipping this roster. There's a couple of players left that are from a previous regime. One of them you re-signed in Sam Cosby. One of them is your punter. You know, like there's a couple of pieces that are left, a couple of DBs, and some of them, frankly, may not be here after next season. He's done a good job flipping this roster. For what it's worth, New York is they've, y'all have, they picked up pieces. Is it all coming jilled together yet? No, not at all. There's a lot of, a lot of turmoil going on over there. But if they get it right, it could be trouble, but it ain't going to be right now. It was a pure Solanimous move. That's the way I described it from Joe Shane. But I understand it given the context at the time, but it would have took so much balls for him to move on from Daniel Jones. But they set up that move though, previously, by signing Tyrod Taylor to the two year deal because they expected them to suck and they didn't pick up Daniel Jones's fifth year option. So that move, that blueprint was there, but they saw the success from the 2022 season and said, we can build upon that. They saw the development of Jones and said, we can seize upon that and they couldn't. And that failed and they're still living in that hell right now. Man, that word, "Pucilanimous" that Nick just used, he was in 50 minutes trying to figure out where he could insert that into the show and he found it. I'm going to look at the minutes to talk about like a year. I'm going to look that one up. He sounded like Don King. That was like that. That was the fair. That, y'all. Blended right there. Thank you to everybody for listening to the podcast. One more time, though, Anthony. Let everybody know where they can find your work. Y'all can hit me up on all social media @ratedarmstrong and check out the show @beliefcommanders. I got a Philly fan that listens to that show. So y'all big blue folks, come over there and listen to me, man. We talk good ball. I don't just bash people all day. We try to break some stuff down, but yeah. @beliefcommanders for the show @ratedarmstrong, that's me. Hell yeah. Thank you to everybody tuning in. Please like and subscribe and rate our show as well and have a great rest of your weekend. Go Giants. Hi, Drew and Jonathan Scott here, reminding you that a lot of lives firsts are better with help from American family insurance, like your first home expansion, or your first big lightning strike. There's a first for everything. Get the right home policy at the right price with the right help from American families agents. Life's better when you're under American families roof. Ensure carefully, dream fearlessly. Get a quote and find an agent at amfam.com.
