Can John Harbaugh and Jaxson Dart Save the New York Giants?

**Craig Carton** (0:01)
That's right, little Eminem on a Thursday afternoon. It's The Carton Show with Big Mac. We got Nick filling in today. Nick Kostos of You Bet or You Bet. And we were just talking about it. So we opened the show talking little Yankees off of last night's victory, and along with, oh, little bleeps in there.

**Nick Kostos** (0:18)
Well timed. Well timed. Yeah, it's good.

**Craig Carton** (0:21)
Talking about the Mets doing the Yankees' bidding. Good win for them, and listen, the Rays not being able to hit the pitching of the Mets throughout the last three days is kind of laughable.

**Nick Kostos** (0:31)
You knew they were going to lose the Freddie Peralta start.

**Craig Carton** (0:33)
Right, you knew the Mets were going to get shut down by Freddie Peralta.

**Nick Kostos** (0:35)
I bet I do like the beat the books thing, and sometimes I'm like, oh, what am I going to get bad? Oh, Freddie Peralta against the Mets. This one's pretty easy.

**Craig Carton** (0:42)
There's no doubt it's going to stick it to them. So we'll see if the Yankees can chase down the division and get to the World Series as both me and Nick think they can.
But we were talking off air, as we talked about many things off air, and hoping that this could be one hell of a season here in the New York sports area, because I think there's a lot of optimism around both teams. I think there's concern because they have been two of the worst franchises in the sport. I mean, you could put them up right there with anybody. You could put them up there with the Browns. You're hard pressed to find a franchise that's been any worse over the last decade than the New York Giants and the New York Jets. And I complain all the time. The worst thing about it is you become indifferent because, and especially in football to me, because if you're done by October, I'm worried about my fantasy team. I'm worried about my parlays. It's easy to just move on from not caring about the Giants and Jets.

**Nick Kostos** (1:26)
Especially when the team has stunk for a decade.

**Craig Carton** (1:28)
It's easy and you don't have faith in the infrastructure, you don't have faith in the coaching staff, you don't have faith in the front office, you don't have faith in the owners. Let's be fair. So tell me why this year can be different and why the enthusiasm around these two teams is possible. Let's start with the Giants first because I just want to say, me and Craig have this argument a lot because our show kind of started right as John Harbaugh was getting hired pretty much. We started in January, so it was like a few weeks in, so that was the biggest thing we first tackled. And he doesn't understand my and fellow Giants fans' optimism just around getting John Harbaugh. And John Harbaugh, he views someone who underachieved with a multiple-time MVP at quarterback in Lamar Jackson. They should have been better in the postseason.
I tell him all the time the Giants lost games that they had won late in the game. Well, no one's blew more leads than John Harbaugh.

**Nick Kostos** (2:16)
To be fair, Craig's not wrong about that.

**Craig Carton** (2:18)
No, Craig's not. Those are facts. But there is just a level of competency. We heard Isaiah Likely talking about how he was baffled. The Giants, who were on the previous regime, were completely baffled at how hard they actually practiced.

**Nick Kostos** (2:31)
What a shock watching them play the games. They would say that. Wow, can't believe it.

**Craig Carton** (2:36)
So first, just with the Giants, before we get into the specific reasons of some optimism and maybe what you like, give me the level you think the difference between Dable and Harbaugh and what bringing Harbaugh to this team actually means for the New York Giants.

**Nick Kostos** (2:49)
I think it's, like you said, well, just the word competent. And I'll use an analogous word. I think they'll be respectable this year, at worst. And you know, obviously, the first Brian Dable season was great and the first game, the two-point conversion against Tennessee, they're one of the final four teams in the NFC and they get destroyed by Philly in the divisional round. So that year was really great and I was really optimistic about Dable following that year. Since then, it's obviously been a disaster and they should have fired him after year three and then they give him year four and wow, like again, I can't believe how poorly it went or just listen to the Ravens, the former Ravens who are now here saying, wow, this club met previously. Wow, it showed up on the field. So I think at the very least, you're not going to have like, not that it was a country club atmosphere, but it's all about ball, right? It's all football and I do think there are holes to poke in John Harbaugh as a coach.