Best Of Giants on WFAN: The Cam Skattebo Benching Drama and a Looming QB Controversy

Gio Benitez (0:00)

I feel so much differently about who they are and what this season is after yesterday. I really do. And I know that one game shouldn't do that in this up and down NFL. It just felt like things are different. Like now we have a quarterback conversation. Now we've got some real adversity with John Harbaugh in the running back room that stinks. Now this defense had its worst game of the year. And yes, I am also including the Rams game in there because it shouldn't have happened against the New Orleans Saints. A guy like Kavon Thibodeau, by the way, needs to just be flat out cut. That guy stinks. God, nobody just hovers and loiter around football more than Kavon Thibodeau does. Just a terrible bad loss. Of course we'll get to the Jets as well, but it's about the Giants. And hell, here we go. Quarterback controversy on top of it all. Good morning, Boomer. How are you?

Boomer Esiason (0:50)

Yeah, good morning, G. I'm doing all right. You know, there has been one word that I have heard uttered more than any other word, I think, over the last three weeks regarding the NFL. And depending on what team you're talking about, what coach you're talking about, what player you're talking about, do you know what that one word is?

Gio Benitez (1:10)

I mean, I'm sure I do.

Boomer Esiason (1:11)

I mean, you have said it.

Gio Benitez (1:13)

Yeah, why don't you just...

Boomer Esiason (1:14)

Al Dukes has said it. Rami has said it.

Gio Benitez (1:17)

It's one word.

Boomer Esiason (1:18)

Mike Valenti has said it. I hear it on Prime. I hear it on The Prime Show. I hear it on CBS NFL Today. I hear it on Fox. There is one thing that everybody says that they have in common.

And the word is, stinks. I hear that constantly. Everybody stinks.

Gio Benitez (1:42)

Not everybody.

A lot of guys around here do. For many years in a row.

Boomer Esiason (1:47)

I hear that word a lot. I hear that word a lot. Ah, the Arizona Cardinals stink. Well, who stinks more this week? Is it the Cardinals or the Rams? I mean, everybody stinks. And I have to say that, and I will open this by saying that I am in now the JJ McCarthy corner. I want him to start for the Giants.

Jameis Winston is a backup quarterback. You paid him to be your backup quarterback. The more you see of the backup quarterback, the less you're going to like. Now, JJ McCarthy is, I believe, is a redeemable figure at the position. He did give them some energy yesterday. There are a number of other players that we can talk about, and I think you hit on two of them. I know Kavon Thibodeau is liking your crosshairs, and rightfully so, because when you give up 175 yards on the ground to a team who came in with one of the worst rushing offenses in football, you know, that's an indication that your defense is getting steamrolled. And we all know that. Anybody who watches football understands that when the other team runs the ball, controls the ball, and runs it down your throat. And, you know, Alvin Kamara looks like nobody's touching him as he's running through Central Park, you know, like in a 10K.

You know, it's going to be an ugly scene. And I know that, you know, after the Charlie Jones fumble, it was brutal. But I also knew on the first third down that the Giants had, Jameis Winston, I believe it was Malik Nabors going down, but I'm not sure.

Gio Benitez (3:13)

Oh my God, what a horrible throw.

Boomer Esiason (3:15)

Right, right. So that was the first throw of the game. If he hits him, that's going to be a touchdown.

And he had one of those really off days, like where the ball looked like it wasn't coming out of his hand correctly. It was all over the place. You know, it was unfortunately the bad side of Jameis, the bad side of the Jameis experience. And this is why, you know, I would be an advocate for starting JJ McCarthy, because he showed you that there are other things that he can bring to the team. And even though like I hated the fact in the first half, they took Jameis drives him all the way down into the red zone. And then they take him off the field and they put JJ McCarthy in to run the ball and he loses like three or four yards. I hated that at that moment because I hate, I would hate to be a starting quarterback being taken off the field for some gimmick play like that. But then when JJ does finally come in and he kind of got away with, he got one bad interception and I'm like, oh boy, here we go. And then he had another one that was called back. So he was lucky there.