Jaxson Dart Faces a Giants Trust Test

The Giants can move past the Jaxson Dart controversy quickly if the locker room keeps frustrations internal, but the cost is proving this young team can handle pressure without letting every disagreement become a public problem.

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Did the Giants actually move past the Jaxson Dart locker-room issue? 

The answer depends on whether the leaders who spoke up — Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Jameis Winston — turn that meeting into a reset instead of another storyline.

The episode starts with the reported Giants meeting where Jaxson Dart addressed teammates after introducing President Trump. Drew and Rob talk through whether this was just an awkward headline that needed to be handled internally, or whether it was the first real leadership test for Dart and the John Harbaugh-era locker room. The conversation also covers Abdul Carter missing the meeting for Eid al-Adha and why that should not become cheap blame if Dart and Carter already handled things privately.

Is this story actually over, or just quieter?

Andrew Thomas restructuring his contract becomes the next major Giants topic. The guys explain why the added cap space matters, why Arvell Reese’s rookie deal still affects the real number, and why this move is more likely about injury flexibility and cutdown-day roster moves than a splashy Odell Beckham Jr. return.

Did the Giants just create useful breathing room, or are fans reading too much into a basic cap move?

The OTA conversation focuses on D.J. Reader, Dru Phillips, and Patrick Ricard returning to the field, while also keeping expectations realistic because spring practices without pads only reveal so much. The defensive line depth concern gets real after the Roy Robertson-Harris injury, Shelby Harris’ absence, and the basic truth that NFL injuries are going to keep coming.

J.C. Davis becomes the offensive line debate of the episode. Bret Bielema praised his ability to play all four guard and tackle spots, while Drew pushes back and says the tape looks more like guard. John Harbaugh’s comments also point to a swing guard/tackle role, raising the question of whether Davis is a future left guard, a real utility lineman, or another Giants guard/tackle project that could become risky behind Andrew Thomas.

The episode closes with one of the better Giants stories of the offseason: Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, John Harbaugh, Shaun O’Hara, and Gotham FC going full Mario Kart for the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation. Coughlin as Mario, Eli as Luigi, Harbaugh as Yoshi, and Shaun O’Hara as Donkey Kong made for a fun visual, but the real story is the charity work for families facing childhood cancer.

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Transcript

2 Giant Goofballs: New York Giants News & Updates
Episode Transcript
Episode: Giants Locker Room Test Starts a Real Debate
Source: Uploaded Buzzsprout/audio-podcast MP3
Audio duration: 27:34

Note: Light cleanup applied for readability, capitalization, punctuation flow, and verified proper-name spelling. Natural speech, jokes, and host phrasing are preserved as much as possible.

[00:00] Go G-Men!
Yeah you're with the goofballs let's go go g-men go g-men mike's live now when the volume's rising high drew won't shut up i ain't telling no lie surrounded by tires where the tread is spinning at the end of the day we're only about winning heavy leather energy we're holding the floor it is what it is yeah we're asking for more Go J-Men NFB East Kings Yeah, we do it again To Jaku Falls Go J-Men And now, here are your goofball hosts, Drew and Rob.

[01:07] Show Begins
Welcome fellow goofballs to Two Giant Goofballs, a New York Giants podcast. I am Drew, joined as always by... This guy, Arab. Set it up for them. There is a show. This guy. He's got two thumbs. And he has a microphone. This guy. All right, guys.

[01:23] Jaxson Dart Locker Room Test
So Giants fans, tonight starts with the Jaxson Dart meeting because this is bigger at this point than one just awkward headline. Did the locker room actually handle it and move on? Or is this the first real leadership test of the Harbaugh era? Then Andrew Thomas restructures. Giants get some breathing room in that locker. Very, very tight salary cap there. And the OTAs give us a few names worth mentioning. Let's get right into it, guys.

[02:02] Reported Giants Meeting
All righty so yeah guys so Jaxson Dart had to address the room apparently and now the real question is whether like i said this just that awkward moment there or you know first leadership test for him even not just hardball as the giant starting quarterback Brian Burns Kayvon Thibodeaux and Jameis Winston apparently spoke up too so did the locker room actually get This all behind them now. That's the question. So all started this morning with Mike Garofalo on X saying Jackson Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart addressed teammates in a meeting yesterday to discuss his introduction of President Trump last week. Sources tell me and at RapSheet, which is in Rapoport for those who don't know. Others team leader spoke up as well and Dart and the players worked through it. They are moving forward. Ian Rapoport then follows up after sharing

That and says, Giants leaders such as Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Jameis Winston all spoke and worked to put it behind them. Jordan Raanan says, Sources told me the topics discussed were keeping things internal and not airing frustrations publicly. The Giants do not want this, do not think this is something that is problematic, now are moving forward. So, Yeah, I mean, everybody's kind of putting this as a dart and the team and getting past the whole him and introducing Trump thing. I think it's half that and half the Abdul Carter thing still. A little bit, yeah. It's half and half. I mean, you just aired the dirty laundry, guys. So, you know, we'll see what happens. The interesting thing was,

[03:46] Abdul Carter and Eid al-Adha Context
Abdul Carter wasn't even there. which I thought was interesting because they had to have known he wasn't going to be there for this because when they had that meeting yesterday, and I'm going to hopefully pronounce it right, Eid al-Adha, which is apparently a Muslim holiday, it was like really the biggest one on the Islamic calendar for the year. So yeah, of course, Abdul Carter is not going to be there. That's like asking one of us to be there for Christmas. Yeah. Well, they play football on Christmas. Different type of holiday. I'm not trying to say they're the exact same thing, obviously, but I'm trying to give people a reference there, so to speak. If this is the biggest holiday of your religion, you probably don't want to go to work if you don't have to. Like you mentioned, they do play games sometimes on Christmas. You have to.

You can't get around that. So, you know, I just thought that was interesting. I don't know if that's just because Abdul Carter and Jaxson Dart already had their talk and they're kind of moved past that or what the deal is or, you know, I just thought it was an interesting choice of day. Because you could have waited one more day. You could have, but it's also... want to address it right away so you probably should yeah those two did so um you know listen hopefully that's the end of the story because quite frankly i don't think any of us want to continue talking about this but you know it just is what it is as jay points out apparently that rob takes that day off from vacuum day for ihop national pancake house oh no you go there you go there with a vacuum you get even more pancakes Is that what happens there? Oh, yeah.

You heard this here on the show first, guys. Go into IHOP on National Vacuum Day with the vacuum on hand. And Rob swears you get additional pancakes. They got to clean up all that powder in the kitchen. All that flour. Is that? It was flour. I thought it was something else. So let's talk money here.

[05:48] Andrew Thomas Opens Cap Space
Money, money, money. Andrew Thomas just gave the Giants some breathing room, and this is where the cap space stops being boring. It's not just normal bookkeeping at this point now. Did the Giants just create enough cap space to survive injuries and perhaps steal a useful cut-day player or two? So... This started with Adam Schefter on X. He said, Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas restructured his contract Wednesday, creating six point four six million added salary cap space for the team this year. Thomas converted his base salary to a roster bonus to make the space. Now, for those who may not be wholly familiar with cap stuff, there's a capologist out there. There's all kinds of crazy stuff there. And I don't pretend to be the guy who knows every single aspect of it. But basically what they did is they said,

Hey, this is your salary for the year. We're going to cut you down to the minimum. We're going to go ahead and convert this to a salary cap bonus instead. The bonus now gets spread out amongst all the years left in the contract. So they basically kicked the can down the road a little bit. little bit so fifteen point nine million dollars in base salary converted into salary bonus so yeah but again six point six point four six million dollars freed up now prior to this move the giants had three point six five nine million in effective cap space That's because they have eleven point two four million overall in cap space. But they have eight point eight three three million earmarked for Arvell Reese whenever he does go ahead and sign his rookie deal. We said yesterday he's the last one to need to do it still.

But this gives the Giants a ability to go ahead and make changes. I think so. You want that breathing room and that salary cap. When injuries happen during the year, you can go get somebody. And obviously, it's going to be a cheap player you get, but you can still go get somebody. Yeah, it's not like there's going to be a great player sitting there, obviously, in October, November. But you've got the chance to at least get some breathing room to get people as you need them. Plus, on top of that, we've talked on this show how many times about the Giants need to keep an eye out when the final rosters get cut across the league. would not be shocked at all if the giants look to add corner defensive line you know spots that they definitely have to do something about if they cannot so yeah so like i said we'll we'll see

What they do with that i will say

[08:23] OBJ Speculation Gets Shut Down
This i saw some people on facebook now talking about OBJ the second that happened oh they got money for OBJ now this is not an OBJ This is not an OBJ. To be honest with you guys, we said originally when OBJ was meeting with Harbaugh in Arizona that this may very well be a dog and pony show for the media to keep OBJ's name out there because OBJ and Harbaugh have a relationship, obviously, and it's him just doing him a solid. And I'm not going to go as far as to say that's definitely what's going on yet, but it's potential there. mean they brought them for a workout they brought them in for uh you know for uh you know meeting with the trainers and all that they've had multiple conversations with them if they really wanted to sign them by now they would have done that if we have the cast face bro did you hear oh yeah that's

What it is the issue listen right now OBJ would have signed on for a stick of bubble gum just that Hold on for that pack of bubble gum. Hold up. There you go. I will not until I get a foop by the foot. Yeah, the full foot, not that. Yes. No, remember that bubble tape? There we go. Bubble tape. Remember that back in the day? Like five feet of bubble gum all wrapped in there. There we go. I haven't thought about that stuff in years. Forever. OBJ, two years, thirty million dollars. It's not going to be a big number, guys. If it happens, it's not going to be a big number. I don't know why people automatically throw everything into OBJ conversation. It's a little crazy here. At this point, guys, we're seemingly like psychopaths. We're a little obsessive. Time to let it go. Let's talk about a little bit of OTAs.

[10:15] OTA Returns and Spring Practice Reality
Again, we don't go hardcore into OTAs with you all because quite frankly, it's all dog and pony show for the most part. With that as well, of course, we also have the fact that There's no pads. You can't even go ahead and evaluate offensive line, defensive line, the most important positions basically on the field. And it's funny because I see you all the time try to do OTA talk and talk about that. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. You can't judge a player that is all contact with no contact. So, again, we don't want to be the hype people like that. We will let you know, because I thought this was interesting, about personnel issues going on. And let's just say issues, but lack of issues now at this point. Getting a little healthier there. So, D.J. Reader, Dru Phillips, and Patrick Ricard are being back at the OTAs.

May not sound like a huge thing. But this does matter for the Giants, the roster, that's for sure. Are we looking at real depth finally coming together for this team, or are we reading too much into a voluntary spring workout there? So Ryan Dunleavy on X says, Giants newcomer D.J. Reader was at the OTAs today after missing the first week. Again, voluntary. Looks like Dru Phillips and Patrick Ricard were back too after they weren't seen on the field in OTA open to media last week. So yeah, like I said, It's good at least they're coming together. And they're not all there yet. Shelby Harris isn't there. He's already basically not going to be there until it's mandatory. It's already been pretty much said. But the fact that D.J. Reeder now is there, that's something. Think about how this defensive line is on

[12:00] Defensive Line Depth Concerns
The practice. And again, there's not much contact, so I'm not overly concerned with it. But you got no more Roy Robertson-Harris now with the Achilles injury from last week. You got no Shelby Harris in. You had no DJ Reeder in yet. Like, who was your starting three defensive tackles? Like, they're starting defensive line that you're up front. It's not pretty, guys. It's not. So, you know, at least get some of these big bodies in there. Get them learning the... You know, the defense, because these are all new players. You know, but... You know, it's just... Little things, little things there. Patrick Ricard being healthy is good, obviously. Him being back. Dru Phillips. And again, I thought it was interesting that Darius Washington was taking a spot there when Dru Phillips was out. But Dru Phillips is a natural corner. Washington is not.

Washington is more that dime nickel guy at that point there. So, you know, we'll see what happens there overall. Now... I do get a dress here because apparently Anthony says I'm ignoring him. Oh, you were. And Jay says, tell him how svelte and sexy he is and he'll give you all the attention. Saying svelte and sexy. We'll get into it. So he says, all I know is if you talk about

[13:24] Giants Injury Reality Check
Injuries, Drew, and we lost the defensive tackle for the year. It's the Giants. We're going to lose players, Anthony. If we only lost one, we're doing good. We lost two, though. Both to the same injury. But Thaddeus Dix hasn't even played it down for the Giants yet, so we won't count him yet. It's okay. I'm not counting myself as cursing us with this because in the end, I can't control what people do with injuries. I can't control the fact that their Achilles injury seems to be the new ACL. I guess it's the new turf they have. So, yeah, just stop talking about it. You're going to keep jinxing. No, listen, I'm going to say it right now. There's going to be more injuries, guys. That's just life in the NFL. If you think we're to go through May right now, the end of May, and we're going to go through all the way to the end of the season,

We're not going to have any other injuries. That's insanity. We still don't even know what's going on

[14:23] Malik Nabers Worries Continue
With Malik Nabers. Malik Nabers is like the guy who was like, nobody in the NFL seems to know, like they're all making fun of him now. Like, like, uh, what's his name? The guy who does all like the, uh, the, the funny videos, Bram or whatever his name is from his name, but he's doing, um, he's the ones that I said, Malik Nabers lost his leg and they're trying to regrow with a starfish DNA. It's like, it's the sand with the stuff you see going off. So listen, that's life in the NFL. And I'll tell you this, because I know I keep hearing more and more about this Nabers thing. I don't think Nabers are going to be coming back for week one at all. I think you won't even see them until a couple weeks into the season. I would say that before. I know. I know. You were ahead of me on that. I was just trying to be hopeful because

We just don't have the knowledge yet. But more and more, that's what you keep on hearing. So, you know, we'll see. You know, if you look at what we're doing over the first couple weeks, You know, we got, obviously, the Cowboys and the Rams to start, but then you got Titans, Cardinals, Commanders, Saints, Texans. You know, like, none of these teams are unbeatable. Even the Texans, great defense, by the way, guys, but not unbeatable. So you get the first two, and then you go through, like, five games. So it's like you're halfway through the season already at that point almost, guys. You know, even then, Eagles, okay. Then Commanders. Jaguars, Colts, I mean, we don't have nearly the schedule we had last year, guys. I'm not worried about this at all. No. It's not going to worry about it. This is, oh, we're totally getting beat by the Texans.

Listen, otherwise, we're totally getting beat by every team. Like they say, you are what your record says you are. Yeah, sadly. Our record says we sucked. Granted, we played some good ball, but we dropped the ball quite a bit in the fourth quarter. Yes, not just talking about Darius Slayton. Yeah. So, all righty.

[16:38] J.C. Davis Flexibility Debate
Let's talk about one of our rookies here. Because J.C. Davis might be more than just another rookie offensive lineman there fighting for a spot. Bret Bielema, his former head coach there in college, and John Harbaugh both pointed to his guard-tackle flexibility. So the question is simple. Is Davis a real swing piece for this offensive line? So Saul Stelzman and Bret Bielema, who was, again, who's Davis's head coach there in Illinois. Former assistant coach for the Giants, by the way, if you guys remember during Joe Judge's tenure. I know we try to forget about that tenure. But he was an outside linebacker coach and senior assistant for the Joe Judge staff there for that first year. This was his quotey game.

[17:24] Bret Bielema on J.C. Davis
This is on the Giants Huddle podcast. He said... i don't know exactly where the giants are going to play him but i told several of the scouts i've got a great relationship with the giants and everybody in that building i'm telling you i literally think he can play all four both left tackle right tackle left guard and right guard i know there were a lot of people who thought he should move to guard and only play guard But if they do play McGard, I think he can pop out a tackle and have flexibility for you. One of the things I really learned in the NFL, too, was just that word flex. He's a guy that he might be able to plug and play at one position, but he'll probably has the flexibility to play all four.

[18:11] Guard or Tackle for J.C. Davis?
I don't know about that. Like, honestly, I watch his tape and I think guard all day long. I'm in that. I'm in that guard. Yeah. But that's what the Giants love. Let's be very frank. It's guys that I watch and they should be guards. Evan Neal, Joshua Ezeudu, Marcus Bowe, and now J.C. Davis. It's like the Giants don't want to actually get actual tackles. It's like some kind of weird allergy to it. You gotta do it. I know Anthony's going to kill me for saying that, but that's dangerous with Andrew Thomas. It is. Like, let's call it what it is. Like, we need to have a good swing tackle on this team. And instead, we're trying to force people that probably should play guard to do it. So, I will say this. I hear a lot of rumors and chit-chat about trying to work him out at left guard. So, keep in mind, Jon Runyan is the last year of his

Contract. He's been okay for us, but not great. He's going to want a lot of money in free agency. He's got a lot from us last, you know, one as well. So, This is one of those scenarios where I think he was drafted point blank to be the future left guard on this offensive line. And I think the Giants actually drafted with purpose for once, which is just insane to think because they just never do that. You know, like... So, you know, we'll see what happens. Dorothy says, don't mess with working. Playing with guards that tackles has led to great traffic. Yes, it has. All those names I list that are obviously perennial pro bowlers. Yeah. Oh, my God. Jesus. Like, Bo, he shows up and doesn't embarrass himself, and now he's Orlando Pace. And he says, swing podcaster was McLovin. Whatever happened to McLovin? I reached out to my email.

He didn't even get back to us. Oh, my God. Yeah. This is you guys having a guest in a long time. Well, yeah. I need time to actually go get guests. If you want to be our guest coordinator, Jay, I'm happy to have you take that role on. Actually, ironically enough, I did reach out to somebody today that I wanted to have on the show. So, you know, we'll see what they, you know, say and want to do about it there. But, yeah, we did actually reach out to somebody on that there because it's somebody who I don't want to give away who because I don't know if they're going to do it or not. But it's somebody who I've wanted to talk about having the show for a while because I actually think he knows the team very well and has no problems saying it like it is. So, Jesus, he'll get Deb on the show. It's not that I can't say the name.

I just don't want to get you guys hyped out, potentially, if the guy just doesn't want to do it. We'll see. Deb says, McLovin disappeared after his big rant about Tim. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what happened. Exactly there. I just feel like Yeah, this is... I'm kind of curious. I'm hoping he's a well. I don't know. I just... I don't think it's anything with the Tim Bash thing that, you know, what happened. I don't think that's what happened for his disappearance, like Jay just kind of said, but no. Anthony says Tiki. No, actually... Yeah, I'd like to get Tiki on, and I have a plan for that, but we'll have that conversation later. Jason said, Drew, I never see you on Tim's show. Yeah, no, you don't. I'll leave it at that. So anyway, next one. Very vague. We got to talk about...

[21:59] John Harbaugh’s View on J.C. Davis
The next quote that you're talking about, that was because I did want to include what John Harbaugh said about him as well. John Harbaugh talked about J.C. Davis when they first drafted him. He kind of echoed the whole can play guard, can play tackle thing there. He says, swing, guard, and tackle. He can play both. We just had this conversation that went a long way into determining where he would play. Very talented, athletic player. A long-armed guy, can bend, can move his feet. He's big. He's got some growing to do as a player, some maturing to do as a player. But we have had him in for a visit, and he talked to him about that at length. Very determined guy. He's determined to kind of develop into that talent level. He's a very talented offensive lineman. So I do think John Harbaugh is buying what Bret Bielema is throwing out there,

You know, because if you look at what he said at the very end of that, he's a very talented offensive lineman. He didn't say he's a guard. He didn't say he's a tackle. He kept it very, you know, broad on purpose there. That's for sure. So I just, I don't know. I don't know if I think their plan probably is, like I said, hearing the rumblings of left guard and trying to get him into there. But I feel like that's what they're trying to do now is they're trying to, like, well, groom him to be a potential left guard replacement next year. Worst case scenario, he's kind of the jack of all trades on the offensive line. And be the backup to everyone. I mean, if he can do that, great. I mean, there's guys who have made a career out of that, no problem. That are kind of low-end starters, high-end backups kind of guys, you know?

So I do think that that's... an interesting potential for him. But again, we'll see what happens there for him. You know, it's early to even judge what he's going to be. Again, we haven't had a single legitimate practice yet. I think coming out of training camp, we'll have a better idea of what he actually is. You know, until then, it's all speculation.

[23:56] Giants Go Full Mario Kart
So let's talk about the Giants going Mario. Because this was pretty awesome. Yeah, I know that Rob would love it. He does the Mario thing every episode here. So Tom Coughlin, Eli Manning, John Harbaugh, Shaun O'Hara, and Gotham FC showed up in full Mario Kart mode for families fighting childhood cancer. And sometimes the best giant stories of the day have nothing at all to do with the depth chart. This is honestly an awesome story. I was very... First of all, I found it entertaining when I saw the pictures, which I will post for you guys. I do have it here. Very entertaining to see the picture. And then to find out that this was a thing for charity and Tom Coughlin's charity specifically, you know, I thought that was pretty damn cool. So it's an event organized by the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation, Giants Grace,

Along with some help from the New Jersey, New York Gotham FC, which is the women's football soccer. I should say football in this case. they call themselves the football club the soccer team the women's soccer team um spent the day with five families facing immense of medical hardships to give them a special day over at the rpm raceway in jersey city and again they did so dressed up as characters from mario kart so uh let me see here what i have the uh pictures here for you guys so we go there so there's the full picture this again giants put on their website there so i want to give them the credit obviously at that point so um to your left dressed up as bowser is juan carlos armaros who's the head coach for the new york new jersey uh i said new jersey new york they have it in the right order um Gotham FC john harbaugh dressed up as yoshi

Obviously he's our head coach i don't think i ever thought of my bingo card

[25:45] Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation
For this year was john harbaugh dressed up as yoshi Yeah, he's more the Bowser Wario type of – Waluigi. Listen, if you're going to have a Wario, you should have Joe Schoen, I'm just saying. With the peanut butter and jelly sandwich in hand. Of course, Tom Coughlin dressed up as Mario there, the legendary former Giants head coach and also the foundation founder as well. Eli Manning as Luigi. And I got to say, he makes a good Luigi. Like, this is a believable Luigi. So, you know, two-time, obviously, Super Bowl-winning quarterback there for the Giants. Midge Purce, so I hope I'm saying her name right. Again, I don't pretend to be a soccer fan, but she's a star forward midfielder for the New Jersey-New York Gotham Football Club there. Shaun O'Hara as Donkey Kong. Again, obviously, former Pro Bowler center, longtime center with us there.

And like I said, it's a good event. that's the key thing there like it's just a good value anytime you can do things for kids like that that's awesome and family's dealing with that too so you know again for those who are familiar with the tom coughlin j found j fun foundation it's a charity um that was created again by tom coughlin to provide financial emotional and practical support to families tackling childhood cancer And, again,

[27:11] Final Thoughts
Anything you deal with kids like that sick, families just deal with stuff they shouldn't have to deal with. That is literally like one of the best foundations you can get yourself involved with. So, listen, if you're a Giants fan, go to their site. Maybe go ahead and give a little donation or something. Help them out a little. know so um all righty guys well listen i know episodes have been shorter lately we gotta be honest with you there's just not much going on in giant stand right