Brian Burns Traded For, OL Signed, Barkley to the Eagles & McKinney to the Packers

In this action-packed episode of "2 Giant Goofballs: A NY Giants Podcast," Drew and Rob dissect the latest blockbuster trades, signings, and rumors surrounding the New York Giants and the rest of the NFL.

The big news of the day centers around the departures of two key Giants players. Saquon Barkley, the star running back, shockingly joins division rivals the Philadelphia Eagles on a lucrative 3-year deal worth $37.75 million, with the potential to max out at $46.75 million. Meanwhile, safety Xavier McKinney heads to the Green Bay Packers on a hefty 4-year contract worth $68 million, surpassing the transition tag value set by the Giants.

The Giants made a resounding splash in the opening hours of NFL free agency, shifting the narrative from potential departures to bold acquisitions. General Manager Joe Schoen orchestrated a major move to bolster the pass rush, trading with the Panthers for edge rusher Brian Burns and promptly signing him to a lucrative five-year, $150 million contract. In exchange, the Giants relinquished a 2024 second-round pick (No. 39 overall) and a 2025 fifth-round pick. Despite this, they still retain one second-round pick and hold the No. 6 overall selection in the upcoming draft, positioning themselves strategically for further roster enhancements.

The Giants also bolstered their offensive line by signing Jon Runyan Jr to a 3-year deal worth $30 million, with $17 million guaranteed. Additionally, they add versatility with the signing of G/T Jermaine Eluemunor to a 2-year, $14 million contract.

In the backfield, the Giants add depth by signing running back Devin Singletary to a 3-year deal worth $16.5 million, with the potential to max out at $19.5 million. They also secure the return of punt returner Gunner Olszewski and linebacker Carter Coughlin, while long snapper Casey Kreiter re-signs with the team.

Amidst the flurry of signings, the Giants explore potential additions, hosting cornerback Darious Williams for a visit and meeting with quarterback Russell Wilson before he ultimately signs with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Additionally, rumors swirl about the Giants' interest in quarterback prospect JJ McCarthy, adding intrigue to their offseason plans.

As the NFL announces compensatory picks, the Giants find themselves empty-handed in this department, setting the stage for further moves and maneuvers in the coming days and weeks.

Join Drew and Rob as they break down all the latest developments and speculate on the implications for the Giants' roster and outlook for the upcoming season on "2 Giant Goofballs: A NY Giants Podcast."

#nygiants #nfl #nflfreeagency

Transcript

Two Giant Goofballs, a New York Giants podcast. Are you a goofball that loves Giants football? If so, sit back and relax as we talk about the team that both excites and frustrates us so much. And now, here are your Goofball hosts, Drew and Rob. Welcome fellow goofballs to two giant goofballs and you work giants podcast. I am drew joined as always by. I'm me, Al Rob, with a whole bunch of giant news for you guys. Oh, it's an exciting day, Giants fans. You're not pumped up about today. Something's wrong. Whether it's positive pump or negative pump, we'll have that discussion. Or in the middle. This is like the most pumped up I've been since I had those shoes in the 90s. The Reebok pumps. Before we get started here, guys, if you haven't already, if you're new to the show, I know it's kind of an exciting day here in Giants history here. So some of you guys might be new. Hit that like, hit that subscribe, share it to a friend. Appreciate it very much in advance, guys. Let's go over everything going on here because today, woohoo! We had like... Yeah, so we tend to call this the free agent frenzy these first couple of days here, guys. So... let's kick off that free agent is my drug of choice handshakes better than my roller royce Oh, yes, it's time. It's time for that free agent's frenzy here. So we got a little bit negative, a little bit of positive, so... A little in between. I want the bad vibes going right off the bat, guys. I want those bad vibes going right off the bat. Let's break out the bad. Let's rip off the freaking Band-Aid. And then let's get into the good, guys, because, listen, it's time to get into the good life. You know, so first off, the big one, Saquon Barkley, basically been the face of the franchise here now for the last six years. Pretty much. Gone. And not just gone. Yeah. This is the part that hurts. Not that he's gone, it hurts. The fact that he just went across to Delaware. Yes. And turned around to the east and gave us the birds. He's like a George Washington we hate. yes yes god damn him um yeah so goes to the eagles signs a three-year 37.75 million dollar deal uh max is out of 46.75 got the deal he wanted let's be very frank guys this is the kind of deal he's wanted now for years you know you can talk trash about oh the giants offered him this last year we never heard guaranteed and that kind of stuff so in the end he got what he wanted he signed it pretty quickly so I mean let's be very frank this was like one of the biggest dominoes to drop early on here minus russell williston today so I mean that's you know the eagles came prepared the eagles came ready the eagles had their target and this was their target and it's funny because this was reported all during the week and I know we talked about in the show and I was like no way in hell like this there's yeah no way in hell he would want to ruin the legacy he has with the giants yeah when you talk about how you want to retire john how you want to do this this is not how you'd be remembered as an all-great giant is by going across the river No, no. And now him and Tiki Barber are like feuding on Twitter and everything. It's hilarious because like Tiki Barber just basically said F you to him. I'm not saying like me exaggerating like legit. That's what he said. And then all of a sudden, Saquon comes back to him because, you know, let's be honest, we know Tiki Barber isn't exactly the most favorite guy amongst a lot of Giants fans and Giants players. And he's definitely rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, you know. Yeah, let's not sugarcoat it. I've had the pleasure of meeting the guy as a child at events, and I got a chance to talk to him a few months ago as well on another show that I was happy to guest on. He's got enemies, let's be very frank, what he is. But yeah, him and Saquon are going at it, and it's like, wow. How things have changed in like 24 hours. You go, Mike. Yeah. Like part of the pitch for Saquon was stay here. Be part of Giants history. that was part of their pitch now obviously the part of the pitch that wasn't there was all this money that he wanted as well let's be very frank about it here but that was part of the pitch now what I find absolutely crazy is by all accounts the giants never even gave an offer guys which is crazy because like you would think that they would have some kind of mutual respect for like you know the possibility of hey shane I just met with the Eagles, and this is what they offered me. But none of that ever happened. To me, it's almost like, well, you know, that part of it might happen. But I think the Giants just flat out said, no, we're not matching that. That's too rich for our bloods. You know? And I think they knew they were nowhere close. And honestly, I don't think they wanted him. You know, we talked about it on Friday. We discussed as far as whether it was the right move to not tag these guys and all. I honestly think the Giants wanted to move on from Saquon. Part of the issue you have with Saquon, and it's not... Listen, I got no hate for Saquon even now. Even if I'm signing for the Eagles, I'm going to say right now, I have no hate for the man. I dislike he chose the Eagles of all places. I would wish he went to the Houston Texans from all, you know, reports weren't far off being second place money-wise. Listen... I would have been mad if he went to Vegas or anything like that. I would have actually loved it. Him and Pierce. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. But it's like the Eagles. This is a guy who has talked about, I want to be a giant for life. I want to be a giant for life. Clearly you didn't. You have to know the reputation that comes with going to Philadelphia, going to Dallas. Those are the two teams you just don't do. Exactly. And we talked about Academy, the George Washington reference before. No, this is Benedict freaking Arnold over here, dude. 100%. That's who this is. Treason. Yeah. Like, oh, it's not about money. I want to be a giant for life. Clearly, it was about money. And I don't blame him if it's about money. But I think... He's also short-sighted about the money as well because when you look at the fact that, you know, he would have made a lot more money if he could have come back in a couple years as a retired player and come back as an all-time great giant. You know, would it be a job in the media, a job within the Giants organization? He's done now. He's done. You're not going to get hired by SNY. You're not going to get hired by Fox in New York. You know. You're done, dude. You can't come back as a giant like that. That's just where you're at now. So it's like if you wanted to be that guy that cared about your legacy, which is how we all thought it was, that legacy is gone. Absolutely freaking gone. You're no longer an all-time great giant. You're not going to be thought of as that, whereas he's going to end up top five rushing yards all-time with the Giants right now. But he's not going to be thought of nearly like some of the guys that are on that list. And it's all because of this. Again, if he wanted the money, he should have gone to the Texans. Texans were offering very similar money. I think about a million dollars less a year by all accounts of what I heard. I honestly wonder if part of him wanted to stick it to the Giants. You have to think that. You almost have to think that because he knows out of the 29 other teams out there, Giants fans wouldn't have been upset. There's two teams. You and I talked about this before with my theory, and we were talking about the Rock at the time, and I still stick to what I'm saying. People who are overly nice up front in the public are typically not that way. Saquon's one of those guys so have we maybe misjudged him as being genuine and maybe this is him like him being a spiteful little bastard right now and saying you know what you guys didn't want to pay me those years I'm going to come back here once a year you're going to come to my home now once a year and I'm going to whoop on you yeah he's going to get through it against us like we're the commanders yeah But, I mean, that's what I kind of feel like here. So, listen, in the end, Saquon's gone. I appreciate all he did for this franchise. He was the face of the franchise for many years. I don't want to look back at this and be that bitter guy like that. But it does hurt that he chose, of all places, to go to the Eagles. It's like you said. You said it perfectly. There's two places you don't go. You don't go to the Eagles. and you don't go to the Cowboys. That's your two spots you're not allowed to go. You can go anywhere else. You can even go to the Commanders. Exactly. I would not be upset if you went to the Commanders. We don't hate the Commanders. I would be upset, but it wouldn't be the same, because it's literally F Philly. Give them the birds. Boom. You could have gone to the Jets. If you went to the Jets, even, I wouldn't have been upset. Yeah. Actually, I would have been happy for them to go to the Jets. I mean, they got pretty solid, but that's besides it. Yeah. At least he wouldn't have to move. But like I said, I really think the Giants wanted to move on. And it's no fault of Saquon, but when you have Saquon on your team, he's part of the focal point. You know, he becomes that guy who's, like, a big, huge part of your offense because he's that talented. And I think a lot of what he does is very old-school football. And I don't think that's what the Giants want to do anymore. I don't think the Giants want to have a running attack kind of offense. I think, honestly, the get-go, their plan was to let him go. And also, the next guy we're going to talk about as well because... You almost have to think that as well because, like, it's... We talked about this guy plenty of times. Yeah, he was the face of the offense. And if you wanted him, you wanted to have, let's say you draft a quarterback, hypothetically, we'll see what happens here. But if you draft the quarterback, that's the guy you want to be your face of the franchise. It's hard for him to do that as long as Saquon is there. Because Saquon demands touches, Saquon demands attention off the field and everything like that. How mad do you think Barkley, how mad do you think Shaq's going to be at Jalen Hurts with a one-yard line tush-push? Oh, God, taking all of his touchdowns, yeah. Yep. You know, part of what I think – he's got to realize as well as I think part of the allure of the Eagles is their offensive line, obviously, but you know, you also got obviously, uh, Kelsey retired, retiring, you know, you got some of that lines aging a little bit now as well. I mean, I'm not sure that this team doesn't take a step back. Plus, again, you got potential issues with A.J. Brown going on. You got, you know, Jalen Hurts turning the ball over at Dak Prescott levels. I mean, it's just like that's what you're dealing with there. And so what happened to the meltdown? Like the crazy thing is, is this meltdown? what we should expect going forward? Or do they go back to their old ways now? And it's a legitimate question, guys. And it's not even me trying to hate on the Eagles because look how bad they were. It wasn't like they went through a couple of games. That was like a third of the season. And then they got absolutely trampled on. by the Tampa Bay Bucks like no disrespect to the Tampa Bay Bucks because that's my hometown my new home area there living down here in Clearwater so it's like I can't hate on the Bucks I'll lose a lot of friends but it's like you know but it's like at the same point I gotta look there and go you know what That's the team you should have whooped. That's the team you should have beat the crap out of. And you got whooped instead. 100%. So... They... They played like a... Well, the thing is, too, they went 10-1, 11-1, and then won one game. The problem... It was all year. Everyone looked at the record like, oh, that's a great team. We actually watched Philadelphia's games. There were house of cards all year long. They were winning, squeaking out wins all year long. Kind of like what the Giants did the year prior. DeAndre Swift, who has left them in before this happened, he went over to the Bears. You know, we talked about him. That guy had a huge start to the season and then just dropped off the face of the earth. But now he's gone. What did the Eagles do the second they get an injury with Saquon? Because we all know injury-prone Saquon is. I know no one wanted to say when he was a giant, it was like, oh, you can't say that. He's a giant. I don't give a damn. He's injury-prone. It's not a disrespectful thing. I'm looking at the numbers. Numbers don't lie. He misses how many games in his career? He's played, what, two? He's played two full seasons. Yeah, he's played one. This is the way I like the wording of it. He's played one full season since his rookie year. Fair enough. It's true, though. It's not a wrong statement. But, I mean, he came... He came out of the gates and played the full season as a rookie. Yes, but I'm just saying. So you got, you know. So we said the same thing, just different language. Four of the last five years. Four of the last five years. That's where he was at. Gone. Yeah. What did he miss? Four games last year? And here's one of the key things I want you guys to remember with this. Of the six years we had him there, okay? We won one playoff game in one playoff appearance. Because I like how people are like, oh, my God, we lost Saquon. We're screwed. What's going to happen? We're going to be crap? We've been crap. We've been a bad team, guys. For the last decade now, we have been a bad team. And I think... Hey, hey, we can say below average, right? You'll be bad. No, I'm going to apologize. Point blank. We've been shit. But here's what I'm just saying. You cannot improve by keeping the same players. No. You've got to shake it up a little bit, okay? You've got to pretend it's a snow globe and shake it on up, okay? I mean, here's from the other side of the spot, too. I'm not trying to bring Taylor Swift into this conversation. But here's from the other side, too. Because, I mean, every story has two different sides to it. Barkley was a step player. Oh, no, yeah. A lot of teams want to build around a player like Barkley. I'll disagree with you there. I will disagree with you there. I think the Giants did it out of necessity because he was the only decent kind of player we had like that. But most teams know they will not build around a running back. The only team that does is San Francisco right now with CMC, but you can also sit there and say they have plenty of good receivers and stuff as well besides him. Tennessee Titans did that around Derrick Henry. That worked out great for them. How many rings they got? How many races did San Francisco have? Are you saying recently or long-term? Because we're talking long-term. Well, it's different long-term. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Some teams will build. The Cowboys, the NFC West. But, I mean, they go to championship games at least. I know. I'm just messing. I'm just messing. But, I mean... You don't want to build a team around a running back that's going to be, what, 28 as he enters this year coming up? He just turned 27, so he'll be 27, 28, and 29 in his contract they signed him on. On the downhill years of his career where he's already been injured. in his prime of his career. Are we allowed to say that now without getting yelled at? If he was a rookie, if it was Barkley during his rookie contract, that's something you build your team around. That's fine. You could do that. But now, in his latter years of his career, he's got to take his money and get it. I'm not mad at that. You've got to do what you've got to do. You've got to take care of your family, yourself and your family at the end of the day. But When it comes down to the football talk of it, we're going to draft a quarterback. There's no doubt in my mind. And like you said, you don't want a guy like Barkley taking all the hype, the fame, and not letting this guy develop. It's also, you don't want a guy who's not going to be there when you're ready to succeed to be part of that winning foundation. Because then you know in a year or two you're going to lose that piece of foundation and the whole house can come tumbling on down. Whereas the Eagles, it makes more sense because they're already at the place where they feel like they have a foundation and they're trying to win a ring. They want to get to half the rings we have. I had to throw it out there. I had to throw it out there. I'm sorry. I just read your dad's comments. That's gold. Oh, yes. I can totally get my sense of humor from. Let's go to some of the comments here. Let's talk about our second loss here because, guys, we have good news, I promise. I know we're only 20 minutes late in here. There's not some. I think there's a lot of good news. I really do. I'm kind of torn today, to be honest with you guys here. nimar says saquon barkley going to eagles herping today he heard a lot of people with that move he really did yeah connor says you're effing dead to me saquon um dead cow pukes were bad enough when the eagles too come on man uh connor says tiki would never have left for a arrival at the cows with the dirty birds or whatever you go what Have you been drinking, Connor? Wait, why am I even asking? Connor's always drinking. It says, Tiki Barber said it best. If you would have went to Texans or anywhere else besides Cow Pukes or Eagles, go anywhere you want, but not there, you're dead to me. Yeah, exactly. Well, these Tiki Barbers records are now safe. Screw you, Saquon. They were safe either way, guys. Saquon Barkley would have had to play for like five or six years to go ahead and break those records. Healthy years. And he's already slowing down. We've already seen that. Like, we talked about this, you know, all during the season. There are plays that you see him go through that, you know, rookie Saquon would have trashed right through and got a touchdown. But 26-year-old Saquon couldn't do it. And it's not a knock on him. Time wins every battle, guys. Yeah. Even last year, like, he would have ran through some of those plays. But, yeah. Yeah. Deb says, I hope we stuff him when we play him this season due to talking on the field. Yes, I would love that. I want him to have one of his really, really bad games, like twice against us every season. My dad, this is what we're saying. He's chuckling in the background there. Rob is. He says, Barkley sees himself equal to McCaffrey, but he goes down quicker than a $100 escort. yeah that's you know that's part of it like I said he doesn't have that burst he used to have he doesn't bounce off tackles like he used to at that point he's definitely not as listen go back guys I have a number thanks you what I'm hoping my dad doesn't have a hundred dollar escort to give you I'm just saying uh anyway um I challenge you guys to go back and watch his rookie season tape. Watch this tape from last year. Pick any game you want. You can pick a really good game if you want even. And try to tell me he's the same player. He's not. Again, not to take away from him, he's 80% of what he was, which is still better than 90% of the running backs in the league right now. Correct. He's not as fast, but that's also not saying he's still not a good player. He's so fast. He's so fast. But it's not to say he's not a good player. Let's rip the next band-aid off, guys. Packers signed safety Xavier McKinney to a four-year deal, $68 million. According to NFL.com's Mike Garofalo, the Giants would not go above the transition tag, which is $13.8 million is what that was. So... Yeah. Remember, we talked about this. We did our off-season plan. He got $17 million. Rob, what did we sign him for in our hypothetical off-season? $17 million. It's almost like we know what we're doing. It's so scary. The scary thing is Joe Shane doesn't believe in us. He wanted to go a different route. Joe, you can call us up, man. We'll help you out. The biggest thing is we talked about this ad nauseum, guys. At nauseam. In the end, the big thing for this was positional value, and it's going to make a whole lot more sense if we start going over the guys we did get and get out of this negativity zone and get back into the zone of positivity here. But Xavier McKinney plays safety. Again, we talked about it there, but besides, you could say, hypothetically, the Steelers with Troy Palomaro, name me a team that's been set up in their defense, set around a safety. Again, we even said, because I know we'll bring up the Ravens, who's the Ed Reed. That was set up around Ray Lewis. That was not set up around Ed Reed. 100%. So that is not a position. that you overpay for. This is not a position that you build around per se. It's a nice piece to have. Now, again, the Packers, maybe not to the same extent that the Eagles are in, they're in a winning mode. They went to the playoffs. They won a game last year. Kind of like we were last year. They also have a very young team on very young contracts. I think it has a little extra money to spend. Well, that and trying to take that next level. They also signed Josh Jacobs, the running back from the Vikings. Dropped Aaron Jones. So, yeah, they're making some moves here to try to get that next level. But in the end, you win two ways, guys. You win the trenches, and you have a damn good quarterback. That's how you win the NFL. That's never changed since day one of this game, basically. Back of the play on the leatherheads. This is how you win. You control the line of scrimmage. And you have a good quarterback. And you'll be fine. You'll figure out the rest from there. And I know everybody loves the receivers, the running backs, the corners, the safeties, all these big-name star players and stuff. But you know what makes each one of them good? A good quarterback. A good line. A good quarterback if they're on the offense. And a good line no matter which way they are because a line helps a receiver get open because it gives them more time. A line helps the corners not to cover for as long. All these things are because of having a good line, guys. And listen, let's be very frank. Our line is not the best. Our offensive line is shit. We know that. Let's be honest. Let's call it what it is. So our defensive line, you got Kayvon Thibodeau, who obviously is looking like a potential stud here in his second year in the league. And you got Dexter Lawrence. You got a little more to build around, but it's still a little weak overall, especially at the edge position. If you got these guys, McKinney and Saquon Barkley, it hampers your ability to fix the line. I mean, you'd be spending $30 million on these two players. Pretty much of what they got paid. Or we could get a couple guys, and we'll talk about it, for a lot cheaper. Yeah. Well, so far, we got one guy, but I'm just messing around because of the contract. We'll talk about that in a minute, though. But, I mean, let me put it this way to you guys. When you get down to the old Giants, the Eli Giants at that point, you look at the pass rushers on the defense. You look at Strahan, JPP, OCU Manura, Justin Tuck, Matthias Kiwanuka. They had some big, big names at that point. Now, now you go, okay, who was the great corner we had? Yeah. But I'm just saying, like, I was using it as a point. Like, the defensive line is what matters. You don't want to go crazy on a safety and then not have the pass for us to properly utilize them. So I think we just went, you know what? We want to fix the lines. We want to fix the trenches. And sorry, this is our amount we're willing to spend for you, McKinney. And this will be our first I Told You So of the podcast, by the way, because Rob and I had this discussion during the Wink Martindale saga. And we said very clearly... The Giants wanted to bring Wink back on their own terms, granted, but they wanted to bring Wink back. After McKinney made it very clear, I will not come back to the Giants if Wink is still there. And that didn't stop them from trying to get Wink back. The writing was on the wall. No one just turned around to read it. Correct. Correct. I still think we could refine him, but... I think so. It's kind of a shame to lose a 24-year-old talented player like that. You know? But that's where we're at, guys. That's where we're at. So within one fail-spoop, we have officially lost two big faces of this franchise. But two big faces of this franchise that, to be very honest, we haven't won anything with, guys. This isn't the team that we've, like, oh, my God, look when we won all these games with these guys. It's so sad to see them go. Like, no. No, not at all. That's not sad. Like, we're changing course here, guys. It's like, imagine if you were on a really, really crappy trip and someone's like, you know what? We're not going to go to Jackson, Mississippi instead. We're going to Disney. Turn left. or jackson florida or jackson florida jacksonville florida oh my god jacksonville florida oh my god jacksonville florida oh my god that place is such a shithole anyway I should be nice. We beat their butt last year. They're very nice and accommodating when we beat their butt, too. They were. Let's get into our positives, guys, though. Because, again, we lost two big faces here of this team. But we got more. We got some new faces here. But wait, there's more. The biggest face here. I don't just mean that poundage-wise. The Carolina Panthers this evening have traded to the Giants. Ed's rusher, Brian Burns. And I still got it. I can't believe this went down, guys. I really can't. I did not think this would go down at all. I knew the Giants would at least take a peek to see what the value was and that kind of stuff. And I'm kind of really mixed on this deal overall. But let's get into the play real quick, and I'll get into why I'm kind of mixed on it. Still just 25 years old, by the way, guys. Really, really young player. Came into the league at 20. That's how young he was when he got in. 23, 16 games, 50 tackles, 8 sacks, 18 QB hits, 74.1 PFF grade. 22, 16 games, 63 tackles, 12.5 sacks, 22 QB hits, went to the Pro Bowl. 21-17 games, 50 tackles, 9 sacks, 18 QB hits, and again, goes to the Pro Bowl. So he's going to the Pro Bowl, two out of the last three years as an edge rusher. But he's also never been that 15, 16 sack guy. He's had one year over 10. If you look at his numbers overall and the games, he's kind of like Kayvon in the fact that he's spurty. He'll go through spurts without any, and then all of a sudden go crazy and have four sacks in three games. Yeah, but he's also played with some pretty bad teams. And that was the next part of it. He's never had a guy like Kayvon next to him. Exactly. Except one year when he was still young and had developed into what he is now, when he had Hasan and Redick there the year before he went to the Eagles there. That's the only year he had a couple of guys with him. And he had nine sacks until that year, so it wasn't like he did nothing as a secondary guy. But It's just the money is the part that gets me to a certain degree here. The trade I like. So we give up a second-round pick. We gave up our second-round pick, just to be clear, because we have two second-round picks. The one from the Leonard Williams deal and the one that we originally had. We gave up the one we had, which is a little bit better of a pick, but who cares? It's still a 59 compared to 54, I think, right? Yeah, nothing crazy. Okay. we're giving them a fifth-round pick next year, and we're swapping fifth-round picks in this draft. That's nothing to give up to get a guy who's a really good player like that. The concern I have, and I already see a comment, I see you, Matt, there from Twitter, is the contract issue. But I think there's some smoke and mirrors here in this contract. And I got to say, it doesn't shock me because it never does. The ineptitude is sometimes of Giants media as a whole. I'll say it that way as opposed to knocking in particular individuals. But, you know, I tell you guys all the time, I'm disappointed in Giants media quite often. Hmm. If you look at the contract, it says five years maxes out $150 million. $87.5 million is guaranteed. That's what's been released, guys. Now, Brian Burns himself was rumored to be asking for $30 million a year. Now, again, I went to Jersey public schools here, but I believe $150 divided by five is $30 million. Correct me if I'm wrong, Rob, but you also went to Jersey school. I did go to Jersey school. You are absolutely right. Hey, what am I talking about? I live down in Florida now. I've seen really shitty schools. Jersey's got good schools, actually. But here's the thing. It maxes out at that. Now, when you look at edge rushers and what they got, Bryce Huff, the one he had one good year ever, basically. Three years, $51 million from the Eagles. Eagles going a little crazy here. Jonathan Greenard agreed to terms with the Vikings. I'm trying to see if I got it here. Four years, $76 million. $76 million. So another guy who's had basically like, I think two out of his five years were good pass rush wise. And that's it. Not to the level of Brian Burns. But you're seeing guys that aren't to his level getting $15, $20 million a year. Keep in mind, guys, again, we talked about this beforehand. The cap went up for everybody, not just for us. So what does that mean? Contracts go up. It's what they do. So it's hard for me to judge this entirely until the news comes out of what exactly this contract is. Because if it's five, let's say it's five years, $125 million with incentives that can make it go up to $150 million. Guys, that I'm okay with. That's not horrible. That is a legitimate number at $25 million a year, which is what these guys are getting now when they hit free agency. Even though we traded for them, we basically are paying them like a free agent. I don't think it's necessarily that bad of a deal. Again, depending on what the legit money is. And that's the problem we don't know. But even if we're a little bit off, let's say it's $130 million or $132 million or something. Again, a million dollars, a million and a half, whatever a year. Guys, this is what the value is for a top edge rusher. And this guy is considered a top edge rusher in the NFL. He's considered one of the best. He's considered to be... potentially the best Batman we've had since JPP. Like that's the kind of... The first time, that second time. Yes. That's the kind of player we're looking at here. You know, he's 25 years old. He's just going to start hitting his prime here, guys. Keep in mind, he's got seven more years probably of primeness coming. We just paid for five of them. And I guarantee you in two or three years, that contract is going to look like nothing. As the numbers keep going up and up and up. You get part of a cap space. You're probably kicking the can down the road a little bit. You get yourself a better deal. And you get them for that seven, eight years. I'm just wondering, like I said, what that real number is. Not the 150 max. I want to know what the real number is. This is what it is. Listen, if he gets all his incentives and gets $30 million a year, I don't care. Because that tells us he had a great year. Yep. If he had all his incentives. That's a good thing for all of us. Exactly. If you're going to tell me I'm going to get 15 sacks a season and be an all-pro and all this kind of stuff, then with the stuff you probably have to hit in order to get this kind of money, then yeah, I'm down. I have to see the details. I'm going to assume the Giants weren't idiots. I know it's a very dangerous assumption sometimes. oh that's a very dangerous assumption I'm gonna assume they weren't idiots and put in legit incentives to get all the money we didn't make it where it's simple you know two things he has to get five sacks and he has to get 10 touchdowns 10 tackles to get this money you know um But assuming that they did right by us like that and got them really like 125 at that point, then guys, you can't hate this trade. The only thing you can hate about it is if it turns out that losing that second second round pick stops us from getting a quarterback in this draft. That's the only thing that scares the crap out of me is that somebody's going to have a better package than we are to go up and get back into the end of that first round to go get the quarterback we want. Because I still think that's our best plan of action. But guys, we still have our first next year or second next year or a second this year. There's still other things we got. And now what we end up doing is we have the best combo we've had in a long time in that edge position, guys. We have two legitimate threats. to go hit the quarterback and smack the freaking ball out of his hands. And like we talked about, we did our offseason preview here, guys. Shameless plug. You should watch it still. Definitely. Aziz Ocalari is where he needs to be. He's now a depth piece. He's now a guy you throw out there and passing down to be an extra rusher out there. And I think it's a good role for him. And I think he's going to do well in it, assuming he can stay healthy. Because he's had trouble staying healthy the last couple of years. But he hasn't had trouble getting to the quarterback. That hasn't been his trouble, guys. You know, so I really think give him a year at this kind of role. See what he does. He'll be a free agent next year. Somebody will probably overpay him. Oh, there's a backup. He can probably be one hell of a starter and somebody won't realize that, you know, he's not going to be a guy. that we can put out there every single play and expect him to stay healthy. That's just not the way it is. It's not who he is. Let's get into some more comments here. We do have a couple more comments here, and then we're going to get into some other guys we added. We might even pay the bills real quick, guys, because we've got a lot to talk about here. Oh, my gosh. So much. My dad says he's never been a yards after contact runner. No, he really hasn't. Harlem Zone says, I'm surprised X got so much from Green Bay. I'm not. I'm really not. I thought 100% this is what he would get. And we got a bunch of names here, which I'm assuming Harlem Zone is trying to get some people into the chat there to watch the video, man. That's what I think is going on. I appreciate you, man. Definitely appreciate it. My dad says, good pass for us makes an average secondary look elite. 100%. Like I said, Corey Webster, those kind of guys weren't elite owners. But you didn't have to cover for very long because you were covering with Hall of Famers going after the quarterback. that's, it's, imagine having, you know, Tuck, you, Manura, Strahan running at you. Oh yeah. He would be there for show. Yeah. Harlem Zone says, do we draft J.J. McCarthy? That's a possibility. That's one of the things I can see the Giants doing is trading down a couple picks, trying to pick up a couple extra spots there and getting J.J. McCarthy. But it all depends on who they like. We've said with Gecko, it's a matter of who do they like and they better go get who they like. And you better be confident about it because this is offseason. It's going to decide the fate of Shane and David more than anything else. Go get the dude. We're skipping yours, Connor. My dad says let's hope the Giants put Burns back at DE instead of LB. Yeah, he's got to stop putting him in coverage. That's one of the things that the Panthers did a lot of. Before we started this up, I tried to go on to some of the Panthers' talk there to see what they were saying. And this is Sheena Quick, who is a content creator and beat writer for the Panthers. She said, yes, Brian Burns' sack production was down last year, but teams ran the ball and the clock because the Panthers were always losing. He was dropping back into coverage on third downs. Got to look beyond the numbers sometimes. I thought that was interesting. Here's someone who covered him. It's now basically covering for him on the way out the door. You don't see that very often. The one thing I like about that is that tells me that he's probably not a bad guy. And, you know, otherwise, why would they go ahead and talk like that? I mean, she has no reason to say that. She has nothing she wants out of him now. He's gone. He could do nothing for her anymore unless he wants to do one final interview on the way out. Matt says QB contract for Burns. Again, I got to see the full thing. I got to see the actual legit numbers. I'm not going to go based on this 150 numbers. 150 numbers for Gacy. Okay. It means nothing. I want to know the actual number. I want to know the actual number. Connor says, finally, good news. Burns is here. I wanted him in draft. He's got a motor. Got defensive end plus him and Tibbs. Uh-oh. Hey, we took John Runyon Sr. 's son. Take that, Philly. Bet his dad is like WTF. Yeah, his dad cares. The fans care more than the players care. Antonio says, can we still sign Aaron Jones? Of course we can. I don't know if he wants to. I don't know how much he has left. I say he's still a production actor, but I did hear that the Vikings and I think Dallas are both highly interested in him. That's why I was saying he's a pilot. Whatever. Yeah, I just don't know. I don't know how much he has left in the tank. That's where I'm at with him. And I'm just not too sure if that's who I want. I like what we got. We'll talk about it in a minute. I still think we might pick up one more. There's a name out there, Zach Moss, that I've thrown around before. I still think, due to connections with the front office and all, might be coming with us as well. Depending, obviously, on what he gets offered elsewhere. Matt says, love re-signing McFadden. Which McFadden are we talking about? Are we talking about Micah McFadden? Because he's under contract still. We didn't re-sign him. So let me know if I'm not understanding correct, Matt, though. Anthony says, any word on Isaiah Simmons? I want him back. And I haven't heard anything, but I don't think he's very high on the totem pole right now on first day of free agency kind of guy. I don't. Yeah, you're going to hear about that down the road. i do think I want him back but I i think it's all up to shane bowen like how how good of a fit can bowen make him in his defense and that's part of it this is this as much as a swiss army knife it's more like like you know we talk about the square peg in the round hole kind of thing he's like the starburst he's like the starburst peg and you got to try to figure out how to squeeze him into the holes because he doesn't fit any particular hole but he's so close to fitting so many holes My guy. I'm just saying. That's kind of a weird analogy to make, but that's what he is. He's a playboy. Gotcha. He's not quite quick enough to play safety. He's not quite big enough to play linebacker. He's not quite strong enough to play edge. He is deficient in all the areas he can play, yet he still holds value to all three of them. Yeah. But you have to have the right defense to set him in. And if the Giants don't think that he is a fit with Shane Bowen, his defense, then I don't want to waste a roster spot of money on him. But if they think they got a use for him, then yeah, why not? Bring him back. Let's go. Connor says, wish we got Huff too. Oh, well, I wanted that guy. You know what they paid him, by the way. Yeah, we went over that a minute ago, but it's also, again, a guy who's had one good season and never was really a starter, never played more than 40% of the snaps. I think that's going to potentially be a contract they regret, much like Jalen Hurts. Yeah, definitely Jalen Hurts. Blue City Empire Sports puts up and it says, did Barkley only sign with the Eagles just in spite of us Giant fans? I don't think it was in spite of Giants fans. Let me put it very clearly. It had nothing to do with spiting Giants fans. If he's spiting anybody, it's Joe Shane, Brian Dable, Amira. Yeah. Bruce Springsteen wasn't involved in this at all. You sure? Yes. Yes. See, you know, Bruce Springsteen was a free agent himself, right? Because he was born free. You sent him a gun. Snap. You sent him a gun. Yeah, exactly. He's going to kind of skip me. How dare thee? We're all adults. You don't like chocolate cake or poop. Anthony says, I have no problem with SB or X leaving. The only issue I have is Philly. Exactly. However, I do like what the Giants have done so far. Always a fan of the name on the front of the jersey, not the back. Damn straight. I'll tell you, I've had trouble the last few years trying to figure out who to get a jersey of lately. And I'm still rock and roll JPP jersey because I'm still like, I don't know. Even when I went to the Pro Bowl, I rocked the Eli jersey. But I'm like, who do I go with? Yeah. I'm honestly thinking the next one I get, probably an LT. It's like I'm scared of any current players. Yeah, it's funny because same thing. When we got DJ, I was high on him, but I'm like, I'm not going to buy a jersey. If you were high on DJ and we got him, you were high on him. I should have said high on him, but yeah. I wanted him to succeed. He was our quarterback. We all wanted him to succeed. Yeah. But I was like, I don't think I'm going to get to this. I didn't have enough confidence to buy it. Wanting DJ to succeed is like wanting to be a millionaire. It'd be great if it happened, but it's not going to. Just saying. We got a lot of comments coming through all of a sudden. He goes, I got to get the big blue Ant 72 jersey. I can't take your jersey from you. Now, what I have thought about doing is it'd be funny if me and Rob, especially we're talking about going to the game in Atlanta this year, potentially, if we got a couple of number two jerseys and put giant goofballs in the back of the name. I was about to say, we should get goofball jerseys. We should do that. That'd be funny as hell. I did get a custom-made jersey from my father and I like 15 years ago, which I still rock out. It has our last name on it. And then, of course, I was a child and I had to go with 69 because I thought it'd be funny to make my dad wear a 69 jersey. It is funny. And I was like, why'd you go with 69? And my father at the same time had two different answers, but we spit it out at the same time. So it made it even funnier. I was like, it was the only number they had. My dad's like, it was my old high school jersey. Big, sorry, Blue City Empire Sports says, if we can win a Super Bowl without Tiki Barber, we can win a Super Bowl without Barkley. It's happened before, it happened again. Yeah, listen, I don't think losing Barkley precludes us for anything. Honestly, of the two losses, I would have preferred to keep McKinney. I would have definitely preferred to keep McKinney. Matthew Alderson, are we in agreement that the Giants have bad ownership? I feel Mara is driving these ridiculous decisions. I don't think so. Honestly, I think that if Mara had his way, he would have thrown money at Barkley last year. I really do. um yeah joe shane I really think is driving this show and like I said I think we have to wait and see what happens to really have much of an opinion right now on things because a like I said we don't have the information on the brian burns contract fully yet but it's also again he's strengthening up the lines that's what he's doing that's how you win um And for whatever reason, we had some good guys here, but they weren't necessarily the guys to build around, to win around. So we need to get those guys. Matt says, agreed on the jersey. It's been a while since I've gotten a current player. Yeah, it's gotten to that point. Uh, blue city empire sports. I guess I have to throw away my Barkley t-shirt of the trash. Now you don't have to, you don't have to, that's a personal decision. I see guys like burning jerseys and putting them in the grills, stuff like that. Like that's a personal decision at that point, what you want to go with. And sometimes you want a shirt around the house in case you have to paint or something. I still rock my Jason Sehorne jersey sometimes. Okay, that's how far back I'm going. My Jason Sehorne jersey. I had an Ike Hilliard one in high school, too. I lost it. I don't know where that went. But, yeah, I go back. I go back a little bit here. Matthew says, but I read he was behind Payne DJ. I've heard of that as well. But, again, Joe Shane had the final call. Joe Shane's show, 100%. Anthony says, did I mention how much I love Tiki? He has a way with expressing most fans' feelings towards Super Bowl. Or Saquon Barkley. Or Saquon Barkley. Okay, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sure you've seen SBS Super Bowl. But yeah. No, he's 100% right. And I think for all the issues people have had with Tiki, I think today he kind of put himself back in the hearts and graces of some players there. I was going to say, redeemed himself a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. yeah anthony was on the show too when I was talking to uh you know tiki there and like I said I think I think tiki sometimes misunderstood because let's be very frank he's a very cocky guy he is I mean again I'm cocky I'm not knocking him when I say it that way he's a very cocky guy though and I think that just rubs some people the wrong way but you know what The guy is the greatest running back in Giants history. The guy should be in the Hall of Fame. I'm still saying that point blank. The biggest issue he had is he didn't have the best relationship with Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning on the way out. And that's what we're going to remember him for because of that kind of stuff. People forget how damn good of a player he was. Damn good. Let's see. Matt says, how do we feel about the O-line additions? We're going to talk about that coming up here next, actually. Blue City Empire Sports, no OBJ, no Barkley, and no Sterling Shepard. Yeah, this is the first time in quite a long time those three have all been gone. Anthony says, possibly burning my Barkley toilet paper. You should save that, okay? You never know when there's going to be a shortage of toilet paper again. He says, a.k.a. Jersey. Listen, again, toilet paper show. At least you get what you sell if you wipe your ass with it. Yeah, exactly. All right, let's pay the bills real quick, guys, and we're going to go to another new edition and see what we got going on. We got a lot of O-line editions. O-line. We got an O-line. We got an O-line. Align, align, align, align. Start the wave. Align, align. Enjoying the show? Looking for more goofball action? Consider a membership at buymeacoffee.com slash two giant goofballs. Memberships start at just $5 and give you additional goofball access. One-time support payments also available starting at just $3. Buymeacoffee.com slash two giant goofballs. I was going to say, I can see us, our ticker, and how many people we have watching us or listening to us live. And our singing, by the way, got us almost to 300, guys, that are watching us live right now. So, appreciate you guys. Again, if you haven't already, please do me a favor. Hit that like. Hit that subscribe. Much appreciation to you guys. Glad you guys are all here tonight. As we all do, we do hit that final 300 number there. uh let's get into the other additions we got going on here so first off the first one we did the giants in retaliation for the eagles signing saquon barkley we go out and sign john runyon jr like you're gonna take our running back we're taking your your offensive tackle son god damn it so three years 30 million dollars 17 million dollars guaranteed and whoo guys I hate to say it this way. You talk about an overpay. This is the overpay. This is the one I'm kind of like, wait, we did what? We got rid of Mark Lewinsky to re-sign Mark Lewinsky at a higher price? I'm just calling like it is, guys. Listen, John Running Jr., if you talk to guys who are Packers fans, will tell you he was one of the weakest players on the offensive line, which is a very good offensive line. So don't get me wrong. Their weakest player is still one of our best players. Exactly. You got it wrong. He's amazing at pass blocking, guys. Be very clear on that. You want to go into a third down to 10. This is a guy you feel confident. Whoever his guy is, he's going to hold it down and give the quarterback time to get someone open past that yardage line. But when you're in fourth and one, and you've got to run the ball up to the gut, this is the last guy you want. As good as he is against the pass, and he's really, really good in pass protection, he is absolutely horrendous in run blocking. I mean, literally the guy trips over his own feet practically. This is going to be a challenge for Brasillo. I really think this is the Giants saying to Brasillo, we got this guy. He's going to be great in pass protection. We need you to work in his footwork because that's what a lot of his issues is. It isn't his punch. He's got the right punch. You see him and you watch the film, and I got a chance. Look, we signed him earlier enough today, and I had to leave work early because I had a dentist appointment today, so I got a little chance after the dentist appointment to watch some stuff. You see he's got the punch right, and that's why he's so good at that pass pro because he's just like pop, and then he just keeps on pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. He's got that motion going. But when he goes and goes into a run blocking mode, It's like a drunk person playing Twister. It's that bad, guys. His footwork is his issue. I don't know if they plan to try to limit this by not having him leave his position too often. I don't know if they plan on just working on him. I don't know what the plan is, but there's got to be some kind of plan because that's a lot of money to give a guy. Here's what I also get, though. When you sign a guy who sucks at pass blocking, I said on run blocking, after you gave up your top end running back, it tells me. That hints where you're going. Tells me times are changing, guys. Times are changing. I really think you're going to see a much different offense in this Giants team. I think you're going to see, you know, table feel like he's unleashed. Like he's actually got the ability to run his offense, not his version of his offense with a star running back his offense. And I think that's what you're going to see a lot of. It's a lot more runs, a lot more, you know, dink and dunk passes to be used as a running game, that kind of stuff, more West Coast style. And that's what this is all about. I mean, let's be real. Dale came from Buffalo. He also helped get Josh Allen to go through the whole thing. Well, technically came from Canada. You're not wrong. Buffalo's close enough. South Canada. South Canada. In South Canada, he was born and raised. Getting snowed in all these days. Where all the chicken wings were ultimately glazed. And all the fans jumping through tables. But look at their offense. They had a good line. Josh Allen had time to throw. How many running backs have they had? at that time they had quite a few at that time they had quite a few at that time they had quite a few and well they had one primarily devon and well they had one primarily devon and well they had one primarily devon singletary who might come up singletary who might come up singletary who might come up momentarily might be coming up but I momentarily might be coming up but I momentarily might be coming up but I mean mean How much of the office is utilized in the run game compared to the pass game? Did you say hummus? I'm hungry. Hummus. No, but we talked about chicken wings. I do make very good hummus, by the way. It's not that difficult to make. But yeah, like I said, to me, this is the changing of the tide kind of offseason here. Same as we talked about, Saquon kind of holds them back and do what they want to do to a certain degree because you can't ignore the talent he has. And this is where they're at. They're like, you know what? This is our team now. This is the different that we're doing this. We're getting this done. We want to do it. And they got the pass blocker in there. He's got just a 54.7 PFF free last year. Okay. Not very good. But scary, I think, is still better than basically every starter we had on the team, I think, except for Andrew Thomas. Allowed just two sacks to those guys in 928 snaps. Now, let's do the math. We gave them, I think, 66 sacks or something like that by the offensive line. Sixty-six. So 66 of them divide that by five. Math is not that difficult. That's about 13 per position compared to two. Yeah. So that's a pretty big difference there, guys. That's a pretty big difference. Now, his PFF grade, last years before that, 62.6 in 22, 64.6 in 21. So it's not that that was his best year. That was one of his worst years. Last year, though, He was 7th amongst all guards in the NFL in pass blocking. 10th in 22. 8th in 21. Those stats come courtesy of a friend of the show, Bobby Skinner. Talking Giants, by the way. I don't want to take someone's research without giving them kudos for it. Yeah, again, I think this is an upgrade. I just, I think it's an overpay for what he is. And I think if we can fix the footwork issues and get him better at run blocking, it won't be an overpay. But I don't like the if. Yeah, there's too many ifs in this scenario, but you're not wrong. Yeah. but you know I think we have to kind of come down to a conclusion at one point too that we're the giants and that's the thing we as giant fans say with pride because you know four rings all the hall of famers like there's a lot of good that comes with having the we're part of the new york giants name there But what you have to also remember is we've been one of the worst teams in the last 10 years. We've been publicly embarrassed a few times by different losses on the field and different things that have happened in the media as well. We can't just go out and get anybody we want, guys. That's not an option. Same as in a perfect world, instead of trading for Brian Burns, you probably would have gotten just going ahead and giving $30 million a year to Daniel Hunter. You think Hunter wants to come here? You think Burns would have picked here if he can go with any of the 32 teams? Let's be very frank. This is not the ring destination. That's not where we are. So sometimes you have to overpay when you're that team. And I think that's just the position we're in now. Hopefully we can change that, turn that around. But I think that's just where we're at. Once again, go back to Buffalo. Buffalo went to the Super Bowl how many times in the early 90s? They were a prestige team. They got to the dance and couldn't finish it. How long were they a bad team until recent times? They were bad for a good 20 years. Now they're a spot where Do you have players wanting to go? Yep. Because they have an opportunity to catch a ring over there. That's what I think. If Josh Abbott ever beat Devin Holmes in the NFC Championship game, but that's a success point. Even Joe Burrow did it once, Josh. Come on. But yeah, again, I think there's a potential here. I really do think there's a lot of potential with this guy. It's just you got to have the confidence that Carmine Priscilla was the guy who can go ahead and fix his feet and work his shoes. Or you can scheme around it, hide it, and not need it like that. That's the other thing. And I don't know. Honestly, I don't know if we can. I'd like to think we can. But this is one of the moves I'm not so confident on. But I do think it's going to be an upgrade of what we had last year. And that alone makes it worthwhile to do. Because we had to fix this line, guys. We had to fix this line. Uh-oh. By the way, I just see Dakota in the chat here. A resident Eagle fan is probably all happy and high on life because he got Saquon Barkley. Oh, man. Joyer, sloppy sack is Dakota. Yeah. Next up. Next up. We have Jermaine Illuminor. We talked about this guy like crazy this offseason. And wow, like talk about another one. We said we were right. When we hired. We hired Carmine Brasillo. Rob and I were all over this. All over this. Saying this is the guy. This is the guy that we need to look at because he's a Jersey boy. He's played for Brazil twice, not just this last couple years in Vegas, but also now in New England prior to that as well. This will be his third tour of duty with Brazil. He's a Brazil guy. Again, from New Jersey, plays guard, plays tackle, plays better than every single player but Andrew Thomas last year for us. This is the guy that needs to be on there, on this team. And now he's the guy that is. And I just say, because we were the first one to start this, and all of a sudden, all of the Giants podcasters I saw, oh, yeah, Jermaine, I don't know. That makes a lot of sense there. We were the first. We're taking the credit for this one. It's recorded. It's recorded. Posterity. Posterity. Anyway, Jermaine Luminor, two years, $14 million. He's much cheaper than John Ronin is, and he's better. 68.5 PFF grade last year, 75 PFF grade the year before. And again, he plays guard. He plays tackle. My hope... is that what they do is they throw Runyon and Illuminor on the right side, and then they throw everybody else at the left guard position and say, oh, you all fight it out. Zudu, McKeithen, Neal, all you guys, fight it out. You want to bring back Ben Bredesen even. Let him fight it out in there too. He did a good job last time. That's where I'm at. To fight it out. And I'm telling you right now, it's a huge increase. Right there at right tackle. It's a nice increase at right guard. Andrew Thomas should be healthy and play more like he did in 22 than he did in 23. JMS should improve just going to a sophomore year at that point. And again, he was hurt too. People forget this. He was hurt for a little bit at the beginning of the season and then just went down at that point. Wasn't as good. So I really think that having him healthy is going to be a big difference as well, and you'll see a different JMS next year. So I'm not going to say the line's fixed. Yeah, it's such up the guns, but we definitely need strides in the right direction. Exactly, exactly. So it's definitely improved, that's for sure. So I'm looking forward to seeing what happens there. I don't think they're done either. I really don't. I think they're going to bring in some more. Let's talk about some other deals they made here. We lost Saquon, obviously. So he brought in... Brought in Devin Singletary, running back formerly with the Texans last year. Prior to that, spent most of his career there, if not all of it, I think, with the Buffalo Bills. Three years, $16.5 million, maxes out at 19.5, beats all the incentives. Last year, 17 games, 10 starts, 216 rushes, 898 yards. That's a 4.2 yards per carry average. Now, what's important on that is, If you look at where the Texans were last year, they weren't a good rushing team, guys. This was not a team that did very well overall in that. We had Damian Pierce, who was just an absolute beast as a rookie, ended up at 2.9 yards per carry in the season, had 400 yards. Whereas the previous year, I think it was like, what? He just barely not hit a thousand yards. Like that is. Yeah. Yeah. It was rookie or something like that. Like he was a really decent in his rookie year. And in the end, Devin Singletary had taken the starting job from him. Again, 4.2 yards per carry. So a whole 1.3 yards per carry difference. That's a big difference, guys. And overall. was their best running back they had. Now, is he Saquon Barkley? No. No, I'm not going to even kid myself and say he's Saquon Barkley. Yeah, they were close. Would you say he's three-quarters of Barkley? I'll give him that. I might say 80%. I would say three-quarters. Yeah, 75%. So we're paying him $5 million. $5 million. you know, or $6 million, let's say, because that's with some incentives, as opposed to paying him, you know, $13, $14, $15 million, like some of these incentives would get Barkley up to. Yeah. It's a numbers game. We're pretty much paying a third of the cost that Barkley's going to get. It's a numbers thing, guys. And last year, like I said, he had a decent year. Four touchdowns, 70.8 PFF. The years prior to that, when he was a Buffalo still, he had 819 yards and 870 yards. So, I mean, he had – this is a guy who's consistently been in that B tier of running backs the last couple of years. Not the A tier. He's in that B tier. And that's fine. We're not building around a running back anymore, guys. We're building a legit, modern NFL offense. And that doesn't include having a guy run the ball down three times, you know, you don't go three and out when you run three times anymore plus you know on top of that Singletary I think is actually better than Barkley in one thing specific and I think that's kind of important and we talked about it before is getting off the hits He'd get hit. He'd keep going a little bit. Get some yards after contact there. So I think it's a good move. I think he needs to be paired with somebody else when you get an actual committee going. I think Eric Gray is not the answer. I think Gary Brightwell could be a potential part of that option. But he's either bottom of the totem pole on that. So, you know, we'll see what happens there. But Devin Singletary... Knows the offense already. A good matchup there with us. I think it's a good signing overall. I really do. I think, you know, you didn't break the bank. You got a veteran guy who's been with this, you know, with, you know, Dable for a couple years when he was at Buffalo. And he's not going to be Barkley. But he's not going to be a scrub either. So, all right. Now, the rest of the moves we got here. We got a couple minor moves here. Nothing too crazy here. Giants re-signed punt returner Gunnar Osheski. I like the move. Like I said, he was a huge upgrade when he came in. Got our first punt return touchdown. God knows who went along. I like the move, but like I said, I'm sure they did what we said. I haven't heard numbers on it, but I'm sure it's probably what we thought it would be. Like, here, come to camp. Here's some money. And if they don't like you, we'll cut you. Most likely. He's not going to give me anything. Giants also re-signed after he already said goodbye to the team and everything. Linebacker Carter Coughlin back in the house. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. So after saying goodbye to everybody, he's back. And, you know... Guess who's back. That special teamer. If we bring Cameron Brown back, I'll be upset. But one of the two I'm okay with. I just don't like having two guys. Yeah. Two guys who are basically the same exact thing. Special teamers, and that's it. Long snapper Casey Kreider also re-signs with the team as well. That's what I was really hoping for. Yeah. Let me put it this way. When you hear his name once during the games, that's good. That's good. When you don't hear the long snapper's name, that means he's not making an ass of himself. He's doing good things. So that's fine. I'm not going to be upset, happy, whatever at that point. We got him. We got the position secured. We're good. Over the weekend, we also hosted former Jaguar cornerback Darius Williams, who was cut for cap reasons, very specifically cap reasons. He had like a $12.5 million cap hit, and they were able to save like 11.5 against the cap for cutting him. So they just did. But he had a 79.5 PFF grade last year. No words yet on how the visit went. Obviously didn't go spectacular or else he'd be a giant right now probably. But, you know, who knows? He might be visiting a couple places there. So we'll see what happens there. It does look like the Giants are looking at trying to get a veteran corner in here to go ahead and pair with Banks at that point. So I wouldn't be shocked at all to see a signing tomorrow or the next day at that point that does that. Next up, kind of old news now, but we haven't had a show since Thursday, guys. This was happening on Friday. The Giants met with quarterback Russell Wilson before he ended up signing today with the Pittsburgh Steelers, which I thought was kind of interesting. It shows you they're being serious. They're moving on. They're not just going to give Daniel Jones the reins and hope for the best, which is very good to hear. Along those lines, the Giants also rumored to have J.J. McCarthy on their radar, according to Washington Post. Jason... I'm going to mispronounce that name. You can tell how often I read the Washington Post. SNY's Connor Hughes, a friend of the show, former guest there, also says there was a lot of noise about that interest at the Combine as well. So... You know, there's a lot of people talking now about J.J. McCarthy, and I'm not so sure that noise. I don't know. I feel like I like to look at history and learn from it. And history has told me that whatever the Giants want you thinking they're going to do during the draft is the absolute opposite of what they're going to do. You know, Joe Shane's first year, it was, we don't like Kayvon. Kayvon's not a fit. Kayvon has an attitude problem. Who did they draft Kayvon? Immediately. Second year, it was wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver, wide receiver. Who did draft corner? Just saying. This is not the Giants team that tells you what their plan is. So if you're hearing a plan, chances are that is not the plan. That's just my own two cents of that. I don't want to fall for Joe Shane's trap. Or is he honeypotting the trap? Everyone thinks he's not going to do it because he's saying J.J. Maybe he's actually interested in J.J. He's not interested in J.J. Or if he's actually interested in J.J. because he's interested in J.J. And everyone thinks he's not interested in J.J. What a versa. Yeah. I'm just a black rain cloud hovering over the tree. Yeah. Anyway, last bit of news here for the Giants. The Giants did not get any comp picks this year. The NFL didn't announce all their list of comp picks. The Giants were not on that list there. So we're stuck with the picks we have, minus obviously those we now just lost today in the Brian Burns trade there. Overall, on the day though, guys, we got You know, lost Saquon, lost McKinney, added Brian Burns via trade, signed John Runyon Jr., Jermaine Luminor, signed Devin Singletary, re-signed Gunnar Oshefsky, re-signed Carter Coughlin, re-signed Casey Crowder. And to me... I think it's about as active in the NFL as you can be to start a free agency. Oh, my God. Do we even have any money left? I'm curious what we got. I mean, that's just crazy. I wouldn't be shocked at all if we still got money left, though. Keep in mind, guys, I didn't hear any news about any restructuring of contracts, too. And we certainly have. We have $36 million we can free up with the restructures if we need to. So I'm not so sure we're done. I still think we're getting a corner. Wouldn't shock me if they bring another body in for the offensive line. Wouldn't shock me. Wouldn't shock me at all if they bring in a quarterback still. I'm curious. I haven't looked into the Russell Wilson deal. Did he take the minimum? He did take the minimum. It was like $1.5 million he took. Because the Broncos are on the hook for everything, basically. And again, for those who weren't aware, if he took more money, the Broncos would just owe him less. So he did a solid for his new team. So, yeah. So let's go to the rest of the comments here. But before we go here, guys, I want to see if you guys can put in the chat for me here. I'm curious about everybody else's thoughts on this. Do you call it a win? Do you call it a loss today? And if you have to give a grade on the day, or you have to give a grade on the day, A through F here, what grade do you give the day? There you go. So, I mean, I'm going to give the day myself a B-. I was going to say South B. I'm giving it a B-. I'm giving it a B- because Lucy McKinney, that's the one that gets me. Yeah. We lost just Barkley, and we had gotten all these deals done. I have, like, A+. A+. I would have gave it, like, an A-, if that was the case. So if you're going to tell me we lose Barkley, but gain Brian Burns, yeah. But, yeah, that's where we're at there. All right. Let's get through some of these comments here. Let's see here. All right. uh did uh blue city empire sports did barclay say he wants to retire as a giant so technically he lied to us so it's always about the money you know again Far be it to defend an eagle now, but we didn't give him a contract. You want to talk about a slap in the face and not treating the right at that point. The guy's been the face of the franchise for six years. You didn't give him a contract. And the issue with me with the Giants is not that they didn't even give him a contract. If you don't want to keep him, just say that. Just tell him that. Say, sorry, we're going to part ways. This ain't working. I said you dragged it out publicly as if you wanted to keep the guy, and you clearly didn't. Because you didn't give him a contract. If anybody should feel wronged, honestly, it's Saquon, not the Giants. No, Giants fans are 100% okay to be pissed at him for choosing the Eagles in all places. I'm not upset anybody for that. But I do think that if anybody is the most upset here between the business transaction side of things, it should be Barkley, not the Giants. Blue City says, I bet Barkley told Gary Brightwell, this is your team now. Go win the Super Bowl without me. I'm sure that's exactly how it went down. Gary Brightwell for MVP. My dad says, blocking scheme needs to match the lineman skills. Exactly. And then we're going to have to figure that part out with running, and that's for sure. Connor says, love Tiki, but after he left, we did a Super Bowl. We got a Super Bowl not long after. Hope same thing after losing Saquon. That was the next year. I don't think we're winning a Super Bowl next year. Dakota says, boot? And then Connor says, notice Jonathan Anderson is not in the end credits. Thought you could join silver membership. Yeah, we just haven't updated the silver membership and credit guy thing there. I've been sick all week. So, yeah, that'll be like I probably get done this week there. But if John is watching, what's up, John? again appreciate it uh we will get you on there I just like I said unfortunately between all the fun the sniffles and sicknesses I've been dealing with and the uh work I've had I haven't had I really haven't had a day off since not this sunday but last sunday and I don't have off again until thursday so I'm working 10 days in a row right now on top of doing the show so yeah unfortunately just spare time right now but definitely appreciate you john we will get you on there very shortly as soon as I can get a little spare time uh dakota says wouldn't be the first time um I think it's talking about the sloppy seconds when I said that um blue city empire sports gary brightwell it's your time to shine mark says what's what up guys what's up man uh matt says joe mixon just cut by cincy eyes uh I don't want anything to do with joe mixon I want nothing to do with that guy. Just too many personality issues. I'm good. I know there's a talent there, but he's been accused of so many different things over the years that I'm good. Blue City says this is no longer Barkley's team. This is now Gary Brightwell's team. He's on this. My dad says I don't think Singletary will have as many negative yard runs as Barkley. No, because he'll actually hit the hole no matter how small the hole is as opposed to trying to go out the outside at that point and losing three yards. Blue City says, should the Giants get CJ Gardner-Johnson? Depending on the money. Everything depends on money. I mean, I'm not going to give this guy a ton of money because he can't stay healthy. But when he is healthy, when he is on the field, he's a hell of a talent. So he still has a value. But I'm just not going to be giving top money to a guy who I know is going to be missing games when I could have given top money to a guy that... Probably wouldn't miss many games as long as he stays off the ATV. It says Barkley's PFF grade was extremely close to Singletary, so Barkley was not top tier last year either. No, he wasn't. I think the injuries definitely were keeping him back, plus obviously the horrible offensive line play. And I think that's part of, like I said, I think it's part of the allure he had with Philadelphia is he can go there to what is considered a top-notch offensive line. It's just a matter of how top-notch is it still missing Travis – I mean, not Travis, Jason Kelsey. Is that wrong, Kelsey? Yeah, I was going to say wrong, Kelsey. Wrong, Kelsey. Mark says, I take Singletary and Zach Moss running back by committee 100% of the time over a star running back. Exactly, and I think that's what the plan is. I really think that's – I think they're going to either look to do that or they're going to look to draft somebody to pair with Singletary. I really think that's the plan. Blue City says everyone needs to replace their Barkley jerseys with the Gary Brightwell jersey. He's really honest. Let's see. Mark says this is not Brightwell's team. I take Corbin over Brightwell. No, I actually think Brightwell is underrated. I really do. Corbin is not good. Corbin is not good. Braywell is definitely better than Corbin. Mark says Braywell is average at best. And that's stretching it. No, he says then. Spokescreen with JJ. Yeah, that's 100% a spokescreen, I think. Blue City, JJ is DJ 2.0. Okay. I could see that. I can so see that too. I really can. I don't know how high the ceiling... JJ, we talked about him again. If you guys want to see our opinion on the quarterbacks there, we did a couple of shows recently on the A and the B tier quarterbacks in that first second round. But J.J., the thing that scares me again is we don't know how high this ceiling can be because he was sheltered from showing it in college. And it's like, if he's so good, why would you shelter him? Why would you not want to show that talent? That's the thing that scares me. It's not like Harbaugh doesn't understand quarterbacks. He was a quarterback. He's known for quarterbacks. He's the one who fixed Alex Smith. He's the one who made Colin Kaepernick anything in the NFL. That's what he does. It kind of scares me when he's like, no, you can't throw the ball. Let's just calm this situation down. Exactly. Dink and dunk. As Mark says, he's actually a game manager. He says, first round QB should will their way to win games in college. He did not. Again, he wasn't given the chance, though. That's my only thing. I can play it both sides. We got some of the... some of these scores here mark gives it a b uh dev says win today grade b minus uh geo says loss ste minus uh blue city says the giant should get senior cj garter johnson no he's too injured uh matt says c plus so it's interesting and and I i kind of lower grades than I expected to be honest with you guys uh I i I i wonder when this whole offseason is done, what we're going to think. And I think that all depends on what we do at the one position that matters more than anything else, and that's quarterback. Yeah. I'm still hoping beyond hope. Call me a helpless romantic. I don't know. That number six, we can go get Malik neighbors and then we can trade back into the end of the first round still and get Michael Penix Jr. This is a completely different offense, guys. All of a sudden, if you got a line getting help, you got a top flight receiver. and a guy with a cannon for an arm. I'm sorry. I know he's not the Caleb Williams of this draft and stuff like that, but I think he's still an upgrade, and I think you could really see a change in this offense here. Uh, Mark says, interesting fact. We got a second and a fifth for Leonard Williams. We gave up a second fifth for Brian Burns, younger player, cheaper by today's market value and an edge win. Oh yeah. A hundred percent. That was that whole trade was a win. And this is like getting to like the contrarious Tony trade that turns into, um, turns into, you know, Darren Waller again, not that Darren Waller has been the stud that we hoped he would be, but yeah. He's still a player when he's on the field. A hell of a lot more productive than Kadarius Tony, that's for damn sure. I think I was a better player than Kadarius Tony in the NFL this year. I didn't cause any losses. Connor says, why would you go to Pittsburgh when you can go to New York? His wife was in the music business. He was in Denver prior to that. They didn't allow music in Denver. Afraid of avalanches. You can't put any bass in your car. All of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and all of a sudden the snow starts coming down. You can't do that. No matter how much dynamat you use. My dad says you can't judge his moves until you know the plan for QB and receiver. I don't disagree on that. I really think that's still the key. You can make all the great moves you want. If we don't get out of this with a plan for a quarterback and another good receiver, It's all for naught. It's all for naught. We're still pushing DJ back out there and there's no understudy or anything. I'm not saying because if there's a scenario I'm okay with is if we push DJ out to the start and it is an understudy, so to speak, we just don't want to throw him to the wolves. I'm okay with that. But if we're throwing DJ out there because he's the only option. That's a loss in this offseason. Yeah, that's a big problem. That's a loss. Blue Cities, I have a feeling the New York Yankees will win a championship before the Giants win the Super Bowl in 2024 or 2025. Not really much of a baseball fan, so I don't know. I'll take your word for it. I don't know about that, but... I don't know. All I know is the pitcher will spend half his time scratching his nuts, and the batter will spend half the time adjusting things that don't need to get adjusted, like batting gloves and all that kind of stuff. You need the perfect grip on it. Come on now. It used to drive me nuts watching baseball with Nomar Garcia-Paro sitting half an hour in between pitches. There's time limits now to change the rules of the game. I know. I know they have. It's just they lost me before they did it. I don't have time to get back into baseball. You've got to go to baseball back in the 90s and stuff like that. I can give you a full-on roster of half the teams and everything still. But you want to start about nowadays? I'm good. I'm done. They lost me. Mark says, Illuminar helps Neil immensely. It doesn't help him. He took his job. He's a job stealer. He put him back on the grill to make a flip of burgers now. I'm telling you right now, he's a much better player. He's a much better player than Evan Neil is. And again, we told you. I said, we got to break back the tape where we're talking about that. This is the guy the Giants will bring. This is the guy. We told you. We were right. Even a broken clock, I guess. All right, guys. We're going to call it a night here. Appreciate all you guys that are listening in live. We got 333 people listening in live right now, guys. Much appreciated. Again, if you haven't already, hit that like, hit that subscribe, tell a friend. That's how we grow the show. So I hope you guys help us there because Rob and I are broke. We can't afford advertising. As always, we are live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, the Instagram, which I forgot to start today. Sorry, Instagram. Instagram, again, I've said it before on the show. It's a pain in the butt to stream on there. It's all the extra steps I have to do. And, of course, as always, Rob's favorite. My LinkedIn profile. Oh, yes. And, of course, we are always available the next day on all the audio podcast platforms as well. So if you guys go back and forth, hit the like, hit the subscribe on audio stuff too as well. Hit the auto download, all that kind of fun stuff for us if you can. Much appreciated there because that keeps us going there. It keeps the numbers a little boosted there. We appreciate that. because we are always in talks and looking to do different things to help improve here. In fact, there is a talk of a network potentially as well. We've already talked to a couple before. We're talking about another one right now. So we'll see. We're always trying to make moves here to get the better content for you guys there. So I appreciate you guys as always. Keep an eye out because our schedule as always is Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. But if something big goes down tomorrow, guys, we'll be on. This is the time of the year. That's the way we are. We know how it is. Worst case scenario, you'll see us again Wednesday. If anything crazy happens tomorrow, we'll be back on again tomorrow. We'll go ahead and run down that stuff for you guys as well. The best way to find out how we're on, when we're on, is to go ahead and hit that like, hit that subscribe. If you're on YouTube, hit the bell. Honestly, YouTube's probably the best place to watch all the stuff like that because of that. Like I said, a lot of good news today. This is, listen again, it's an exciting day and a day that could go down as a historic day for New York Giants as well. As we move on from the Barkley-McKinney generation of players, as we're about to move on from DJ probably next year, we're starting with a brand new roster here basically. Hopefully we've got a good quarterback coming as well, guys. Hopefully. I'm still hoping for Calvin Ridley. Maybe I'm crazy, but I'm still hoping for Calvin Ridley. Just so you guys are aware, too, as well, the Jaguars did sign Gabe Davis today, formerly of the Bills. You don't make that signing unless you're not going to re-sign Calvin Ridley. Which is crazy because Gabe Davis is not the same caliber player as Calvin Ridley. He's not, but it's a money thing. Yeah. It's about the money, money, money, money, money, money. So yeah, that's where we're at. So hopefully, listen, I would love to come on tomorrow with you guys and go, Hey, we got Calvin Ridley too. Even if they still go get a receiver in the draft, I don't care, but I'd like it because it doesn't make us need a receiver in the draft. It means we can move back and go get a quarterback later in the mid-first round at that point, have some extra picks, fill in the holes, and we're good to go. We don't have to run out to get a Malik Navers or a Roma Dunzair or anything like that. So I don't like going into a draft with a need. I like going into a draft to be able to pick up the best players and fill in the gaps here. All right, guys. Again, we'll see you guys tomorrow. Appreciate everybody again for listening in, watching in there. As always, Giant fans, Thanks for listening to Two Giant Goofballs, a New York Giants podcast. We appreciate your support. Thanks so much.