- 10 months ago
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00:00Cold day here at Quest Diagnostics Training Center here in East Rutherford,
00:10New Jersey. Paul Giants has wrapped up their garbage bag day. Obviously the biggest news,
00:14Joe Shane has been retained by ownership as the GM. He just got through speaking to us,
00:21the media. I hand it to you sir, your biggest takeaways from Joe Shane's press conference.
00:26Well, no huge surprise if you're reading the New York Post. All signs seem to point to Joe
00:30Shane coming back. Now you say they won four games. Why is he coming back? Well, ownership
00:36said when they fired Brian Dable on November 10th, we feel that Joe has put together a good,
00:40young nucleus of players. What does that tell you? That tell you ownership thinks they were not
00:45being coached up to the level of their talent. Now that remains to be seen. Joe Shane said he
00:51was honored and humbled to be, you know, coming back here. You know, he knows when you win three
00:56games and four games, it's not a done deal that you're going to come back. So I think he should
01:00be honored and humbled and maybe certainly fortunate that he has a patient ownership that will allow him
01:06to come back and finish the job. It was interesting that Joe admitted, you know, he made mistakes as a
01:12first time GM, um, admitted that, you know, looking back on it higher of signing Daniel Jones to a two
01:18year contract extension did not work out. Um, there were other things that, you know, right,
01:24Saquon's, uh, well, he didn't mention Saquon Barkley. I don't think he thinks, no, I didn't
01:28mention it, but I think that was, that was a stumble. Well, I don't, I don't think he thinks it
01:32was a mistake. I don't, I don't, but I do think there are, um, things he admitted that he did,
01:38um, that he would not do again. He's a first time GM. See, that's one of the big problems in
01:43this profession is that in, in, in, in football is that you hire a first time head coach. And then
01:49after a couple of years, you get rid of him because he's learning on the job, a first time
01:54head coach is going to learn on the job. You're going to learn on your job for the first time.
01:58I'm going to learn on my job for the first time. So you hire a first time GM in Joe Shane. And then
02:03after a couple of missteps, you say, you're out now fans will say that's four years. That's too long.
02:08Yeah. Okay. Fans can say what they think. This is what ownership decided to do. And, um, um,
02:14you know, Joe Shane said, he's ready to roll. He's got a long list of, uh, head coach candidates
02:18and they're going to start interviews this week. So, uh, and, uh, Mike Kafka will be one of those
02:24interviews. I don't think he's certainly the favorite to win this job, but he will be one
02:28of the interviews and let's stay on this coaching search. Cause there were a lot of questions asked
02:32about it and he was very open with a lot of it. I know he talked about it could be a coordinator,
02:36whether it be offensive, defensive. And he even mentioned maybe checking out some,
02:40some college guys as well, when it comes to that, uh, availability. But he did say that
02:46this time, this process is different than his first time. Cause he didn't even have a staff
02:51underneath them. Now he said he's had a, what a seven week runway to be able to go and kind of,
02:56kind of look at guys and that they're going to, he's going upstairs right now to speak to ownership
03:01and lay out some sort of plan. What does that plan look like, Paul, to you?
03:08Well, I think they're going to value experience. I really do. This does not feel to me that,
03:13um, let's take a flyer on a first time coordinator and see if it works. Uh, they tried that with Brian
03:18Dable, who was a very, you know, four years ago was a very highly regarded offensive coordinator.
03:23And ultimately it did not work. Now I'm not saying they're not going to hire a coordinator who's never
03:27been a head coach, but I think they would like to, if they can find someone with experience.
03:33Um, you know, Joe Shane said, it's very important to get someone who can work with Jackson Dart.
03:38That does not mean you disqualify all the defensive guys. It just doesn't mean that that's,
03:42you know, it's a very narrow minded way to go. We have a young quarterback. We got to get an
03:47offensive coordinator. No, you know, you have to get a really good head coach. And if he's a,
03:53from a guy from a defensive background, the first question is who is your offensive coordinator
03:58going to be? Absolutely. What do you think of Jackson Dart and who will you bring in
04:02to help develop this guy? Um, the one thing I think the giants really felt with Brian Dable from year
04:08one to year two to year three and into year four is his staff did not get better. And, and there's no
04:14question that Wink Martindale, who was not a perfect defensive coordinator, but he was better than Shane
04:20Bullard. And if Wink Martindale was here still, if they would have mended that relationship that
04:26they, that had that fallout, that they wouldn't have blown five fourth quarter leads. They just
04:31wouldn't have. Agree. Agree. Because look what happened. They put in a first time defensive
04:34coordinator in Charlie Bullen. And after a, you know, a little bit of a growing period,
04:39Abdul Carter played better. Um, Bobby O'Carrikay played better. Yes. They stopped the run better.
04:44They weren't great, but they were better. Yes. And, and, and, uh, uh, Joe, I think, um,
04:49Joe Shane said, was it Joe Shane or was it, um, Kafka? I forget. Uh, I think it was Kafka that
04:54Charlie Bullen simplified things. Kafka said that. Simplified. The guys knew how to play faster
04:59because they knew where to be. And this is a guy, Charlie Bullen has never been a coordinator
05:03and was just, you know, a battlefield promotion to get it. So that is the key. Um, it's not all about
05:09Jackson Dart. And Joe Shane's also said something interesting, which is not surprising that the,
05:13the candidates or the candidates representatives that he has spoken to think this is a very good
05:18job. And every one of them said, yes, I'm on board with Jackson Dart. You know what I mean?
05:23I mean, look, coaches, your father is a coach, right? If you, I'm sure your father thinks a lot
05:30differently. He wakes up in the morning and talks to you when he has a quarterback or when he thinks
05:34he doesn't have a quarterback, right? Yeah.
05:36When he has a quarterback, he thinks he's got something.
05:40Absolutely. Because you can evaluate things. You can evaluate talent. And you also got a guy
05:43that can get you out of trouble. Yeah.
05:45Because whether your coordinator, your offensive coordinator could be, you know,
05:49it could be the worst play call in the world. But how many times have we seen a quarterback
05:53like a Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady or Josh Allen be able to improvise, play a little bit off script
05:59and make a play to keep the chains moving or to come up with some sort of big play in a huge moment
06:04of a football game. So without the quarterback position, you can't evaluate anything. So the fact
06:09that he has that in place, and I think all of New York, there's a consensus agreement that Jackson
06:15Darrell is the guy going forward. Boom. That's the check mark that's put in place.
06:20On a rookie contract.
06:21On a rookie deal, Paul, this is, you know, if you would say to any coach or especially a GM,
06:27what do you want when you wake up in the morning in the world? I want a rookie quarterback who I
06:31believe in on a rookie contractor. Because you're not paying him Daniel Jones $40 million a year.
06:37You're paying him relative peanuts in the NFL. And you have, you have probably a two or three year,
06:45I would say a two year window now to, look, if Jackson Dart is what they want and they win,
06:50after a year, after two or three years, you're gonna have to pay. You're gonna have to pay three
06:54years. You got two more years of cheap labor for Jackson Dart. And that's what any GM wants. Now you
06:58can sign guys and fill other holes, not worry about paying the quarterback $50 million.
07:03Another thing I heard Joe Shane and Mike Kafka talk about is leadership. You know,
07:07Mike Kafka obviously talked about leading these men, obviously getting the two win,
07:11the back-to-back wins to eat in the season off on a good note. Joe Shane, when he was asked about
07:16what they would be looking for in terms of attributes for the new head coach, would the
07:21leadership be one of those qualities? He said, yes. But it takes me into when we were in the locker
07:26room earlier talking to the players. You spoke with Van Roten. I spoke with Tyrone Tracy Jr.
07:32When we asked them what attributes or key qualities do you want in this next head coach,
07:40every single one of those guys said leadership, leader of men. Tyrone Tracy Jr. used the word,
07:46I want a dog. There's something there, Paul, when it comes to this next head coach. That's why I'm seeing
07:54it being a veteran coach with some sort of experience because it seems like the players want someone that's
08:00going to hold them accountable and right this ship. And it's just like, I don't care how you come in.
08:05You can be Bobby Knight with your approach if you need to be, but do what you have to do to hold
08:10every player in this building accountable so we can win. In another word, details. So we can win on
08:16the details to not lose these games. Yeah. I mean, Joe Shane mentioned football acumen,
08:21but I think, which is important, but I agree with you. Sometimes I think that is too much of a,
08:27of a priority, football acumen. You know, when you watch a game and people say, oh, that guy
08:33should get a head coaching job. And it's based on him calling a great game on defense
08:38as a defensive coordinator. Okay. That means he's a great defensive coordinator.
08:42Now we have to investigate it to see, I asked Joe Shane this, right? And he admitted it's one of the
08:47hardest things to take that hot coordinator, the Ben Johnson, right? The Ben Johnson, who was a
08:52terrific offensive coordinator and say, he is going to be a great head coach. Now, after one year,
08:58he's a great head coach, but those are more misses than hits. It is very, very difficult. Steve Spagnuolo
09:05was a great defensive coordinator and is now with the Chiefs, a hall of fame defensive coordinator.
09:11He was not a very good head coach with the Rams. Now there were reasons for that. I get it. Everyone
09:15looks dumb when you don't have a quarterback. I get it, but it's the hardest thing. So I agree with
09:21you that, oh, let's get the offensive pointer because his, his offense looks really good. Well,
09:26maybe he just has a really good quarterback and he really got offensive line. You have to look
09:30beyond that and say, who is a leader of men? Greg Van Roten, who's been in the league, you know,
09:36with Doug, what, 10, 12 years, said, I want, I like the CEO. I don't want a guy whose head is
09:42buried in here. I want a guy who's commanding the whole thing and he knows he can give it off to,
09:47you know, his, his, his coordinators and things like that. Look, Mike Kafka this year,
09:51the big thing he did, right? One of the biggest things he did was he benched Abdul Carter twice.
09:56Okay. So now the giants know if we bring in Mike Kafka to be our head coach, that's how he handles
10:03discipline and any other team that may interview him for head coach that they say, well, how would
10:08you handle discipline? He would say, look what I did. This is the third pick in the draft. And I
10:12sat him and, and, and he played better afterwards. So that's accountability. I agree with you. We think
10:18players don't want accountability. They don't. Did any players complain about what Kafka did to
10:24Absolutely not. Absolutely not. They say he's coming down on him. He's only a kid.
10:28Right? And you look at guys like Brian Burns and the Dexter Lawrences, you almost want
10:33Mike Kafka. You almost thank him for doing that because we always talk about, oh, what's the
10:37senior leadership like? What's the vets going to do? I can only tell a guy so much. The vets aren't
10:42going to bench your kid. I can't bench you. You can't bench you. I can tell you. Hey,
10:45hey, come on, man. You got to be on time. Come on, bro. Come on, let's go. Let's go, man. I can't take
10:49money out of your child. I can't reprimand you the way that NFL players
10:54want that accountability to happen. Wrap us up here, Paul, because it was a 2025 season that
10:59we came in. A lot of people came into it with a lot of hype, a lot of excitement,
11:04and here we are today at Garbage Bag Day. Your final thoughts on this season?
11:09First of all, we have to change it. There's no more garbage bags. It's boxes now.
11:12Okay, boxes. You have to call it Boxing Day. We're economically friendly now.
11:16Boxing Day, right. Yeah, they do all that stuff. So to me, I would say this. If you told me
11:21four or five months ago, you read me, Jackson Dart's the rookie they drafted. Look at these
11:27stats. I would say, man, the Giants had a pretty good year. They found a rookie quarterback. So
11:32there's a dichotomy there. Excellent rookie, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions and nine
11:37rushing touchdowns. That's a heck of a lot of production. He was really good. The team was
11:41really bad. The offense was pretty good. The defense was pretty bad. So they have to fix this now.
11:46They have their quarterback, but that doesn't mean everything. So the key thing, Joe Shane is back.
11:51He has to find the right head coder. It's easy to say. It's hard to do. A new head coach and some
11:58tweaks to this roster and the Giants can flip the script in 2026. But it all starts with finding
12:03the right guy. All right, let's hope. That's a wrap on the 2025 Blue Rush. Thank you guys for
12:08watching with us. For Paul Schwartz, I'm Brandon London. Thanks for watching. Blue Rush.