Best of the Giants on WFAN: Can Big Blue start season strong?

**Boomer Esiason** (0:01)
Come on and talk about the Giants coming back.
West Virginia for what? Week and a half, two weeks tops, whatever it was. And they are coming back. And this team, the only real thing that came out of training camp for me was that the offense looked like it was struggling early on, and the defense was winning most of those battles, which you would expect. But, you know, health has been great for them. John Harbaugh's had examples where he had to tell Jaxson Dart to chill because he had a taunting penalty, and then he didn't want to have a 50-yard extra point to win a game. So there's been some teaching moments in there and things seem to be going swimmingly. We still have all the questions about the team that we have, but it's been a relatively quiet camp for them so far.

**Gregg Giannotti** (0:44)
Which is good, which is, I'm sure John Harbaugh wants that. And remember when they're installing a new offense, new quarterback, new offensive play caller, a lot of new players around each other that haven't played together in game time situations, same thing with the Jets for that matter. The defense is gonna win early on in these situations. Because a defensive player can make a mistake and still have a positive impact on a play. Where an offensive player makes a mistake, it usually costs the team a play. So there's a lot more going on on offense than there is on defense in terms of timing, communication, understanding the offense. Did he get all the play call right? Did he make an adjustment at the line of scrimmage that somebody didn't hear? These are all things that are growing pains for an offense that's in its infancy with a young quarterback. A young quarterback wants to be great. He wants to show everybody he can do it, wants to be the leader. And at times he's going to be overly aggressive, which is all normal stuff. There's nothing to be panicked about or worry about because they'll have their preseason games. And then when I look at the Giants schedule, I think, just to be fair, assuming they stay healthy and Malik Nevers comes back and he's going to be the 100% player and impact player that he is, I look at their opening schedule, I think they can get the three and two or four and one. If you really want to be aggressive about it, and if they get off to a good start and they get some momentum going, then all of a sudden when their schedule turns to be a little bit tougher, they'll be battle-tested and they'll be ready to go.
I think the Jets, on the other hand, everybody is expecting the Jets, and I'm telling the Jet coaching staff this right now, just to understand, guys, everybody expects you to beat the crap out of Tennessee, week one in Tennessee. Good luck. That ain't going to be that easy.
None of these games are easy.

**Boomer Esiason** (2:41)
Well, you really think that that's an expectation?

**Gregg Giannotti** (2:43)
I do. I 100% do, because then when you look at the next three games, they go against the NFC North.

**Boomer Esiason** (2:49)
Yeah. Woo hoo hoo.

**Gregg Giannotti** (2:52)
All three of those teams are all playoff bound teams at the beginning of this season.

**Boomer Esiason** (2:56)
There's two of them on the road.

**Gregg Giannotti** (2:57)
Yeah.

**Boomer Esiason** (2:58)
So yeah, I know that's a rough stretch. I love the way that the giant schedule lays out. I do not like the way the jet schedule lays out.

**Gregg Giannotti** (3:05)
Well, I mean, the jets do have Cleveland, they have Miami twice, they got Las Vegas, you know, but Arizona late in the season, and then every other team that they're playing against right there, they're going to be underdogs.

**Boomer Esiason** (3:17)
They can not slip up against the bad teams on that schedule because they play bad teams, they play teams that are worse than them on paper, and if this team is going to look anything like it's turning the corner, those are the games they just cannot lose. They cannot lose either game to the Dolphins, they cannot lose to the Cardinals. I don't know, I didn't get the same sense as you did that Tennessee was, that the jets were going to-

**Gregg Giannotti** (3:39)
Oh, it's Rob Salah, it's Cam Ward, we asked, you know, the whole thing. And, you know, it's Brian Dayball down there. I just, I know the offense is going to be better. I know it's not, I think it's going to be a top half of the NFL offense, whether it be a top third, I don't know, but a top half at least.