How Close Are New York Giants to Really Being Competitive?

0:00Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of The Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here, because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Day or Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite lockdown show, access to a members-only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. On today's Lockdown Giant Special episode, are the New York Giants a lot closer to being a competitive team than we think? You are Lockdown Giants, your daily New York Giants Podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast

1:03Network, your team every day. Hello New York Giants fans, and welcome to a special many edition of The Lockdown Giants Podcast. I am your host, Patricia Trayna. And on today's many episodes, how close are the Giants really to being a competitive team? What John Harbour, the head coach, talk about how he expects his team to win, how he expects his team to be in the postseason this year? But how close are they really to being in that spot? So we'll break that down. We'll look at the state of the roster, what still needs to be done, and reasons to believe. And what the Giants also need to show in order to prove that they are indeed close or maybe not close. So that's what we're going to cover on today. Show welcome on into everybody. All right, let's get into it. The Giants, why should we believe that they are closer to competing?

2:06We can start with the coaching staff. All right, you have heard me say on this program, if you are in every day, that coaching matters. And the proof the last few years has kind of been in the pudding, in that you look at the number of Giants players who have either been slow to develop or who have regressed. And you sit there and you say, what exactly are these guys being taught? How are they being developed? You look at guys who were with the Giants, who went to other teams and became really solid players. And you sit there and you say, what is going on with the coaching and the development? All right, I think it's been fair to question if the coaching across the board has been solid for the Giants. One of the things I have also said about the coaching is that you have had a mixture. You've had some guys who have been long time NFL veteran coaches.

3:08And you have had guys who have come in and never coaching the NFL before. They've been either college coaches or they've taken a sabbatical from coaching and then have come back. Folks, no disrespect to college coaches, but coaching in the NFL, not quite the same as coaching at the college level. You're dealing with different mindsets, different types of athletes, different levels of details and stuff. Some of those college coaches are really good. They don't get me wrong and they cover all that stuff. But a lot of them, you know, not so much so. So John Harbaugh in putting together his coaching staff, every single one of those guys who's going to lead a position group has done it before at the NFL level. A lot of those guys, or several I should say, have played the game at the NFL level. And if you don't think that's going to make a difference, then I don't know what to tell

4:09you, because I think it will. Now that being said, all right, we should hopefully see guys who have been slow to develop. And I'm thinking, you know, the John Michael Schmitz is up the world. Or guys who have regressed a little bit, because they have struggled in different schemes and what they've been asked for, like, you know, a Tyler Nuban, for example, or Deontay Banks, the hope is that those guys now, their arrows will start to point upward. All right, now, here's the other thing with the coaches. This coaching staff, I believe, based on something that John Harbaugh said at the owner's meeting this week, Harbaugh said, it's all about the players. One thing I would expect from this coaching staff that I think that they will deliver is that they will play to the player's strength, not to what they want the system to look like. All right, so let me explain what I mean by that.

5:10We have seen instances in past years with this team where the coaches have tried to jam a square peg into a round hole with no success. You can't do that and expect to be competitive. It just doesn't work that way. Your job as a coach is not only to teach, but to set your pupils up for the best possible success. That means not playing a guy out of position, like they did with, say, for example, Joshua Zoodoo. That means not asking a guy to do something that he's just not ready to do. Deontay Banks, you know, playing zone coverage. But the coaching just didn't get him ready for that. Not being desperate, I guess, is what I'm getting at. Because when you do that, now you're going to have more error. You're going to have more discouraged players, and it's just going to take its toll. Now, I'm not saying the coaches should totally avoid putting a player or challenging a player

6:15should say to do something new, absolutely, but make sure that that guy is ready to handle it. So I'm out there because, oh, my God, we don't have anybody out there. Or, oh, gosh, we've got to, you know, we've got to get the most out of this guy. You know, you just, you can't do that. You can't do that. That would be like, you know, asking me, I mean, I've never studied Italian even though I am Italian. That's like asking me to go stand up and give a speech in Italian. I couldn't do it because I didn't study it. I don't know it. I mean, I know words here and there, but I don't know enough to speak the language and give a speech. So I think this coaching staff has the right idea. All right. I also think this coaching staff in its expectations of the players, they're not going to let stuff slide. All right. Guys are going to be expected to be at practice on time, in meetings on time. They're going to be expected to be prepared. They're going to be expected to leave their egos and their brands at the door when they

7:16come into 1925 Giants Drive and they're going to be expected to be all about ball. And that's setting the tone right there. Now in terms of, you know, the other factors, why the Giants could be competitive, I would like to think gone will be the days of the blown fourth quarter leads by the defense. I think the defense is going to be a lot better. I think the scheme that, you know, based on what the North Wilson ran in Tennessee, I think that scheme is going to be a lot more exciting to watch and a lot more efficient. So I've got reason to hope there. And then, you know, the other thing besides the players, you know, in the makeup of the locker room, the Giants have the 17th easiest schedule, all right, or I'm sorry, the 17 hardest schedule in the lead. There's strength of schedule 4.98.

8:17There's strength of schedules 0.498. So that ranks 17th in terms of the hardest schedules in the lead. So that's certainly going to help, all right. So there are a lot of elements that you would think would suggest that are successful for the Giants more than, you know, winning just four games like they did last year or three games like they did the year before. But there are also things that the Giants are going to need to get on their side, some of which has to do with luck, some of which has to do with planning. So we will talk about those right after this. What are sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robinhood prediction markets. It's not you against the house, it's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robinhood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action.

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10:21We're talking about how close are the Giants really to being a competitive team? They have probably the best foundation that they have had years between the coaching staff and how the roster is being built between having core players at key positions. But it's not all about what they have, it's about what they're also going to need and some of it's going to be based on luck, some of it's just going to be based on planning. So let's talk about that in this segment, all right. So what do they need in order to be competitive? Well the number one thing, they've got to stay healthy, all right? They have got to stay healthy. This team for the last, I don't know how many years has ranked up there in the top 10, it's not the top five in being the most injured teams as far as man games lost. That has got to stop. You know, point blank. To that end, the guys that are coming off of injuries, Malik neighbors came scataboo, they need those guys to be what they were prior to their injuries.

11:23Might take some time, but hopefully not a whole lot. All right. What else do they need? They need continued growth of their players. You know, we talk about every year, about second year players that need to develop, third year players that need to develop, you can't have guys going up and down. You need the arrow to basically go be going up. All right, so Jackson Dart needs to continue developing. Theo Johnson needs to get rid of the drop sees problem that he had and continue developing. Kyler Nuban needs to get back on track and show more of the rookie year proest that he showed as opposed to looking so lost at times last year. All right. Darius Slayton's got to clean up the drops problem, all right. There's so many things that need to go in the opposite direction that this team just seem to, you know, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. This team on the field. So that progress that forward progress needs to be there. In order for this team to really be competitive, the mental errors need to be cut down.

12:25The pre-snap penalties that needs to go away, right, discipline, attention to detail, all things that just for whatever the reason have not been consistent year in and year out with this team. And, you know, speaking of consistency, the offensive line, which has been pretty good the last couple of years, they need to continue that. Now, they're going to probably have a new piece in their right guard. So, you know, that consistency needs to continue and get better, particularly in one, the run rushing offense, right. The run blocking was pedestrian for lack of a better term. Needs to get better. It's got to be better than pedestrian. And speaking of the run, the run defense, they better figure out how to stop the run. Now they've redone the linebacker group. Hopefully that will be better. Hopefully a healthy, extra Lawrence will make a difference. Dexter was not healthy last year.

13:28So these are all things they needed. Oh, by the way, one other thing I'll throw in there. Better special teams. They have to flip the field in their favor, whether they're going on offense or whether they're going on defense. They have to do a better job of flipping the field. The giants did not do a great job of that consistently. So there are things that definitely need to happen for the giants to be competitive. But again, the good news, folks, is that the core foundation is in place for that to all take place. It's just a matter of it all clicking together. It's a, you know, there's going to be setbacks. You know, you can't go through a season and expect everything to be perfect. But you want to have a plan B. You want to be able to overcome adversity because that's a true strength of character. And you just want to keep to your script, which, you know, your head coach, John Harball, has set for you. And the giants can do all that.

14:29This year is going to be a lot of fun to watch the games. It's going to be a lot of fun to talk about them. And let's just keep our fingers crossed that everything falls into place because giant fans, you are so long overdue and you deserve a winning football team. So hopefully the sheer John Harball makes good on his down to bring it to you. And we can all have happy Mondays when we talk about the game. All right, giant fans, that is going to do it for this edition of Lockdown Giants. Again, thank you so much for tuning in, spending part of your day with us, keeping it here all week long on the Lockdown Giants Podcast. We have plenty more episodes for you as we remain five days away free and available wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Until next time. Have a good one, everybody.

15:46Bye-bye.