Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on June 15, 2024, 11:25:44 AMIf his upper body strength was this big of a liability, how was this not picked up by scouts, including ours? Isn't strength a fairly black and white, easy thing to measure?

It's concerning to me that at 24 years old and 5 year of being in a serious Big 10 program, he came into the draft this physically weak. He couldn't get to the right strength in 5 years at school by age 24? But now he's going to play catch-up in one offseason?

It all sounds a little suspect to me. I hope it works out, as we need him. But I'm not sure how I understand how this was all missed last spring.

JMS had 26 reps on the bench.  That is considered good but not great for an NFL center

Imagine accomplishing all this and then having people say your popularity is because you are white.

Career highlights and awards
2× AP Player of the Year (2023, 2024)
2× Honda Sports Award (2023, 2024)
2x James E. Sullivan Award (2023, 2024)
2× John R. Wooden Award (2023, 2024)
2× Naismith College Player of the Year (2023, 2024)
2× USBWA National Player of the Year (2023, 2024)
2× Wade Trophy (2023, 2024)
3× Unanimous First-team All-American (2022–2024)
4× First-team All-American – USBWA (2021–2024)
3× First-team All-American – AP (2022–2024)
4× WBCA Coaches' All-American (2021–2024)
Second-team All-American – AP (2021)
3× Nancy Lieberman Award (2022–2024)
3× Dawn Staley Award (2021–2023)
USBWA National Co-Freshman of the Year (2021)
WBCA Co-Freshman of the Year (2021)
Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year (2023)
4× First-team All-Big Ten (2021–2024)
3× Big Ten Player of the Year (2022–2024)
Big Ten Freshman of the Year (2021)
3× Big Ten tournament MOP (2022–2024)
3× NCAA season scoring leader (2021, 2022, 2024)
3× NCAA season assists leader (2022–2024)
NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader
3x First-team Academic All-America (2022–2024)
2× Women's Basketball Academic All-American of the Year (2023, 2024)
Division I Academic All-American of the Year (2023)
No. 22 retired by Iowa Hawkeyes
McDonald's All-American (2020)
Iowa Miss Basketball (2020)
FIBA Under-19 World Cup MVP (2021)

https://www.bigblueview.com/2024/6/15/24178340/new-york-giants-roster-preview-wr-jalin-hyatt-ready-to-flex-his-muscles-on-the-field

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on June 15, 2024, 10:46:55 AMWas Deion left out deliberately? Because he would be my guy for sure. Maybe he was too obvious so they didn't include him to make it a tougher call.

Of this list, it would be Woodson for me. Some might even rank him above Deion. I wouldn't myself, but I think a case could be made. Either way he stands above the others for me.

I am very high on Sauce Gardner, and I think he has a chance to potentially be a top 5 all time corner, but we are a long way from that at this point. For this exercise, I would never choose uncertainty over certainty.

Woodson for me. He was absolutely tremendous.

I have no idea why he was left out.  I would have included him.

Hopefully, this WAS a problem.   The Giants' future hinges on the O-line issues being mostly due to poor coaching.

Quote from: Philosophers on June 15, 2024, 09:55:23 AMWasn't he supposedly a high floor/lower ceiling type prospect?  If yes he may not offer the enormous leap in development we need him to get to but may be more serviceable.  I may be wrong on this.

I believe you are correct, Joe

Quote from: Philosophers on June 15, 2024, 09:41:36 AMI dont know how football smart DJ is in being able to always understand the opposing defensive scheme/coverage/rush and being able to adjust to it.  Going to Duke means nothing to me in terms of this ability. 

Kafka has called Jones "smart".  His fellow QB and now QB coach Davis Webb called him "super smart."   Generally it's difficult to discern the FBI (football intelligence) of most NFL QBs.  I will say, though, that we have received more positive indicators for DJ's FBI than we have heard negative (which seems to come mostly from the fanbase).

https://x.com/BigBlueVCR/status/1801959088877650089

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on June 15, 2024, 09:04:23 AMBrady and Giselle had an iron-clad prenup. While it is fair to say her money benefited their joint lifestyle, it was never his money. They very much had their own money. Hence their divorce was a fairly easy one to quickly execute and finalize.

My point is, I'm not convinced that being temporarily married to Giselle influenced Brady's unselfishness in contract negotiations. I think he is a player who was willing to prioritize winning over going for max contract money.

They were married for 13 years (they got married in 2009).  While the prenup may lessen the argument to a degree, most players talk about earning generational wealth (being able to pass their wealth on to their family).  In terms of that goal, a prenup is essentially meaningless.  Tom could take less money, knowing his children would still benefit from the combination of his wealth and his wife's wealth (her net worth was twice that of Tom).  Plus, I have little doubt his wife's wealth helped to purchase the four homes the couple owned (again lessening Tom's need for money).

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on June 15, 2024, 08:40:19 AMCan't ask for cheaper. Not bad for a healthy 28 year old veteran with better than a 70 PFF grade last year. I doubt he'll be some big contributor, but he adds some depth and he's practically free.

I would also add that one thing Schoen has done a very good job with so far is the smaller ticket defensive back acquisitions. Pinnock and Morreau are good examples of this.

Pinnock was a last cut-down waiver wire pickup from the Jets.  That year, the Jets were overloading their roster to the point where they were forced to cut serviceable players to get down to their 53.   Schoen was fortunate that the Giants were high on the waiver wire at that point (5th)

Quote from: Bill Brown on June 15, 2024, 08:45:15 AMRobert Kraft said last night that one of the reasons the Patriots were successful was Brady was willing to take less money so that they could have the money to pay other players to put around him to be successful. When Brady's agent came in to ask for the next contract amount, Kraft said he would like him to cut it by 30% so he could get better people to surround him and Brady agreed. He said Brady realized he could make up the difference in money by all the endorsements he could do.

T. Lawrence just signed the largest QB contract in history but it will have an impact on the talent they will be able to pay to help him out.

Bill

In fairness to other QBs, not all QBs were married to women who make more money than they do.

https://x.com/DDuggan21/status/1801947540356809106

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on June 15, 2024, 08:06:43 AMI buy the coaching excuse to a degree, but only to a degree. Andrew Thomas managed to become an all-pro at age 23 with all this so-called terrible coaching that keeps getting blamed for the line's ineffectiveness. The fact that he was able to do that proves it can't only be the coaching.

The first year under Bobby Johnson seemed like an improvement.  That is what makes the bad coaching narrative seem to be a bit questionable.  There were two things different, though, between 2022 and 2023.  The Giants had an outstanding assistant O-line coach in 2022 in Tony Sprano Jr. (who left after the season to coach Colt's line, which did well in 2023).  They replaced Tony with the Holy Cross OC, Chris Smith.  I am not sure how much a lower-level college coach helped the unit.  The Giants also let two veteran linemen walk between 2022 and 2023 when Feliciano and Nick Gates signed with other teams.

The hope is that Carmen Bricillo (who had a track record of success with the Raiders) will do a better job than Johnson.  The Giant's new assistant O-line coach is a recently retired player, James Ferentz.  Ferentz is the classic, not the most physically talented, but got by on intelligence, work ethic, and grit.  He also received coaching from the Pats legendary O-line coach, Dante Scarnecchia (Bricillo also worked with Dante).  Admittedly, Marc Columbo and his antics might have soured us a bit on former players being coaches, but I believe he is still the exception, not the rule. 

So, I think it's not unreasonable to believe the Giants upgraded the coaching talent for their offensive line.  Still, we have seen over the years that coaching talent will only take you so far when it comes to the offensive line, you still need to have competent players.