Edwin Rosenberg asks: I have heard a lot about Sanders and Ward, but there is a quarterback I saw recently that was very impressive but not mentioned as a possible early pick in the 2025 draft. What about Kyle McCord from Syracuse perhaps the best move for the Giants is to give up its high pick, draft offensive line or defensive back player and draft a QB like McCord in a later round. Your thoughts?
Ed says: Edwin, Kyle McCord is looked at right now as a late-round pick. That’s not a guy you plan to try and build a franchise around. Can I see an argument for trading back in the first round, collecting extra picks and selecting someone like Jalen Milroe or Carson Beck? Sure. But, if you love Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward and you have a chance to draft the quarterback you truly love then you do it. Don’t get cute.
David Brenner asks: I mostly agree with you on keeping these guys at least for another year. If they do make a change at coach, what do you think of promoting Kafka to that position, which would mean less disruption for the entire organization?
Ed says: David, I think Mike Kafka might be on the list of candidates if the Giants fired Brian Daboll. I don’t really know how ownership sees Kafka or how GM Joe Schoen views Kafka. If Schoen felt that strongly about Kafka I would think he would have pushed back when Daboll decided to take over the offense.
Jerrold Abrom asks: Was wondering what you think about removing the current GM and HC and replacing them with Brandon Brown and Mike Kafka respectfully.
Teams were hot on Kafka last off season. Brandon is quickly making a name among up and coming GMs.
Why go searching without looking at the two in house that aspire to be great?
Ed says: Jerrold, I answered the Kafka part of this in the previous question. As for Brown, I have also wondered if perhaps ownership might think they have the wrong guy making the personnel decisions.
What we don’t know for certain is Brown’s exact role in the many personnel decisions that have been made. Is he stained by decisions Schoen has made that ownership may find fault with, or is he not held at least partly responsible for those?
If the Giants move on from Schoen how seriously they consider Brown will be fascinating.
Karl Oltz asks: I just finished reading this week’s mailbag, and in some of your responses you mentioned the 50/50 ownership between John Mara and Steve Tisch. Has there ever been, or is there now, any talk of Mara buying out Tisch? Maybe buying 1% of Tisch’s interest in the Giants? Would Tisch consider selling some or all of his interest in the team since he is pretty much uninvolved in the team? It seems to me it would make the decision-making process in the front office a lot easier, and ultimately help the team as a whole, if there was one majority owner.
Ed says: Karl, why would the Tisch family do that? Yes, having one owner would make the decision-making process cleaner. I can’t imagine the Tisch family saying something like, we will still pay 49% of everything, but we will step aside and let the Mara family control everything.
Walker Joyce asks: Now that Theo Johnson is on IR, will Daniel Bellinger take his place?
I’ve never understood Daniel’s situation. He had a very decent rookie year, even coming back from a serious, career-threatening injury. He seemed to be a dependable player who was just coming into his own when they replaced him with Johnson.
No disrespect to the latter, who does have potential, but it isn’t like the Giants found the next Bavaro. Meanwhile, the tight end has never seemed like a big part of Daboll’s offense.
So what gives? What haven’t we been told? How would you change this aspect?
Ed says: Walker, Daniel’s situation has been this: He is a perfectly fine player, but the Giants see Johnson as a superior athlete, superior receiver and a 260+ pounds a player with superior blocking and all-around potential. They think Johnson can become a special player. They see Chris Manhertz as a better blocker, justifiably since Manhertz has been one of the best in the league in that role for nearly a decade.
Of course Bellinger will play more now. The Giants claimed tight end Greg Dulcich off waivers last week, and he is an intriguing player who has been slowed by injuries the past couple of seasons. I can’t see Dulcich playing more than a few snaps.
As for what I would do differently, I will admit I was surprised at how quickly Johnson became TE1. I thought the Giants would go slower, but they chose to force-feed the kid.
James Stoll asks: Ed, given that another teardown is likely upon us with Schoen and Daboll possibly fired to boot, do you think trading away Dex and Thomas for high picks this offseason makes sense? Of course they are our two best players and losing both makes us immediately worse, but it appears we are a minimum of 3 years away from being remotely competitive and what will each be then? We can’t win with them and it’s hard to win less than 2 games per season. Does it makes best sense to tear it all down and start from scratch, especially if the ‘25 QB class continues to look as bad as it does?
Ed says: James, I think trading Andrew Thomas and Dexter Lawrence makes no sense at all. You need veteran leadership, even in a rebuild, and the cumulative effect of many of the moves made the past couple of years is that the Giants have lost too much of it.
The Giants need to get better on both lines, and trading away the best linemen they have on each side of the ball isn’t going to help that. When he is healthy, we know how good Thomas is. The fact that he is coming off a major injury means you would only get back pennies on the dollar. Can’t do that. Lawrence is the best defensive player the Giants have, he is in his prime, and he is a willing and capable leader who wants to be a Giant and help get things right. Trading him would be foolish.
Ryan Perry asks: With a potential top-2 or 3 draft pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, could you see the Giants trading * gasp * down for a future first round pick?
Ed says: Ryan, anything is possible. But, as I said above, if you like Ward or Sanders you stay there and pick your guy.
Martin Hand asks: Ed, I really believe we need to fortify our roster with bigger, stronger people…what do you think about signing a bridge QB and using all remaining resources for free agents and the draft on offensive and defensive lines? Possibly trade our first round pick for one later in the round and another couple in later rounds… It’s quite obvious that it doesn’t really matter who is throwing or carrying the ball if our lines can’t block or tackle…ask Saquon… who was it from the old school that said… “…this game is about blocking and tackling… “ … still rings true.
Ed says: Martin, as I said in the answer above I think trading down is possible. But, you have to make a move for a quarterback eventually. We are seeing in Chicago, Washington, New England and Denver how that young QB to be excited about can begin to change a team. If the Giants think they have a shot at that guy in this draft, they have to take it.
That said, I think I have always been clear that I believe in building a team from the inside out — from the lines out. Good playmakers can’t be taken advantage of without good offensive linemen, and good defensive backs can’t be maximized without a solid pass rush and run defense.
Those things have to be a priority this offseason. One of my criticisms of Joe Schoen has been not enough resources poured into the interior defensive line. It is also critical to get some young talent into the offensive line pipeline.
That said, you can’t use “all remaining resources” there. They need defensive backs. They need depth across the roster. They need to put premium resources into the lines, and I think that should be an annual goal, but you can’t just collect linemen.
Stephen Goodyear asks: Can Travis Hunter play DB in the NFL at his size? He is arguably the best player in the draft. A full-time CB and part-time WR?
Sign Darnold and draft Hunter No. 1?
Ed says: Stephen, Hunter is listed at 6-foot-1, 185 pounds. That’s not small for a cornerback. Draft analysts seem to believe he is the cornerback in the draft. Of course he can play that position in the NFL.
I keep saying this. If you have a quarterback you love within your grasp in the draft, you draft him. As far as Sam Darnold, this season is so far above anything else he has done in his career can you really trust it?
Matt Totaro asks: I read that Jerry Jones might consider bringing Deion Sanders in as the next head coach. If the Giants secure the number one pick in the draft and can guarantee selecting Shedeur Sanders, should they consider hiring Coach Prime as their head coach, assuming he’s interested?
Ed says: Matt, I have been asked this before. My stance will remain the same. I want nothing to do with this scenario. In my view, that is bringing the circus to town. The Giants have never intentionally done that, and I don’t think John Mara would do it now.
Chris Chianese asks: I see lots of post season 2025 talk about the draft, but the Giants face a schedule next season that would be daunting for one of the best teams, let alone a team picking high in the draft. Outside of our NFC East foes:
- Home – GB, KC, Chargers, Vikings, NFC West (could be a healthy SF)
- Away – Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Vegas, NFC East, NFC South
To add to the difficulty, that’s 8 home games and 9 on the road.
It’s easy to say, we will cross that bridge when we get to it, but the bridge that awaits will be a tough one to navigate successfully.
Thoughts?
Ed says: Chris, I don’t want to say ‘cross that bridge when you get to it,’ but I am not one of those people who cares to try and figure out the alleged difficulty of a schedule a year in advance. It’s pointless. Why worry about the difficulty of the 2025 schedule during the 2024 season?
Everybody likes to do game-by-game record predictions as soon as the schedule is released for a season — months before training camp even begins. We do it only because people read it and comment about it, not because it means anything. It doesn’t. Did anybody think a year ago that the Washington Commanders would be as good as they are now? Did anyone see 4-8 coming for the New Orleans Saints?
Even when a season begins, you don’t know which guys are going to be available to play in a given week — and that makes a huge difference.
You know when I worry about who the Giants are playing? The week they are playing them. Until then, it doesn’t matter.
Douglas Mollin asks: How would you explain this phenomenon — John Mara has had 5 HCs that he selected (4 plus Spags for 4 games). Their combined winning percentage is .356, 30th in the NFL over that time.
Ed says:
Let’s look quickly at each hiring cycle and see what choices the Giants had.
2016: Ben McAdoo — The other coaches hired that year were:
Doug Pederson (Philadelphia Eagles); Dirk Koetter (Tampa Bay Buccaneers); Adam Gase (Miami Dolphins); Chip Kelly (San Francisco 49ers); Hue Jackson (Cleveland Browns).
McAdoo looked like the hot, up-and-coming candidate. He interviewed with the Eagles and the Giants jumped, afraid to lose him. Pederson is the only hire that worked out.
2018: Pat Shurmur — The other coaches interviewed by the Giants were:
Steve Spagnuolo, Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, Steve Wilks, Eric Studesville.
Shurmur was hired to be the adult in the room after the debacle of 2017. He was that. Unfortunately, ownership quickly realized he was not a good head coach. McDaniels, Patricia and Wilks have all flopped as head coaches.
You could argue that maybe the Giants should have just given the job to Spagnuolo.
2020: Joe Judge — The other candidates were:
Matt Rhule, Mike McCarthy, McDaniels (again), Eric Bieniemy, Kris Richard, Wink Martindale
That was the year Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper basically stole Rhule from the Giants with a massive contract offer.
Like finding the right quarterback, it isn’t easy to get the right coach. You just keep swinging until you do. The Giants might be taking another swing in a few weeks.
John Mitchellasks: I noticed every week they talk about the number of missed tackles that the giants had. Watching other games I notice that many of the tacklers are trying to grab the ball instead of tackling the runner. Do you think this is part of the reason there are so many missed tackles and is there a statistic that shows the number of fumbles now as compared to previous seasons.
Ed says: John, that may be a small percentage of the reason. It is mostly poor technique and, sometimes, lack of a real desire to tackle physically. The Giants have forced 12 fumbles in 12 games this year. Last year, they forced 19 in 17 games. So, roughly the same.
Nick Volpe asks: I’ve been a Giants fan since 1964. I’ve seen a lot of bad teams and bad GM’s. I’m still of the opinion that Gettleman was the worse. Having said that, three years ago the Giants made the playoffs and won a playoff game with mostly Gettleman’s guys. Now two seasons later the Giants are probably the worse team in the league. A couple weeks ago, I heard an announcer say Xavier McKinney was the best free agent signing. We all know that is not true. It’s Saquon. My questions are how come good teams have salary cap money to sign good players at non-premium positions but the Giants do not? Is this still Gettleman’s fault? I’m thinking it is Schoen’s fault. Too many misses on draft picks resulting in the need to plug holes by over paying for average players. Also, apparently really bad evaluation of Daniel Jones.
Ed says: Nick, we’re beyond blaming Gettleman for the current mess. We have to be. I have been over and over and over the Jones stuff, and I still believe that after the 2022 season Joe Schoen had no choice but sign him. As publicly as John Mara had supported him, what else was the GM going to do after Jones’ best season?
I do think part of the issue is missing on draft picks. You only get so many picks, and when you miss on big ones (like Evan Neal) you do things like spend a lot of money to try and solidify the offensive line.
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