What Are the Giants Expectations?

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
So we're gonna play a little bit of Joe Schoen and John Harbaugh, the coach of the New York Giants. Spent a lot of time on the Jets today and their quarterback situation, how we see their season going. I do think there's optimism around the Giants as well.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:12)
And...

**Chris McMonigle** (0:14)
A lot.

**Craig Carton** (0:15)
Yeah, you feel confident in the Giants this year?

**Chris McMonigle** (0:17)
No, I think the Giants, my optimism isn't like the Jets. I think the Giants' optimism is they could be fighting for a wild card. And I know a lot of people think that's illogical, but I love the hire of Harbaugh. I like what they've done. I like their roster before they did anything this off season. And I think that they are maybe not as talented at the wide receiver position, but I think they have receiving options. The offensive line will be better. The defense has a legit pass rush, and you hope they take some steps this year, Carter and some of those young guys. I love the Giants.
I think they're gonna be fun. Nine, 10 wins in the wild card race.

**Craig Carton** (0:56)
Yeah, I mean, your lips to God's ears. I think the Giants have a chance to be that. We'll see.
Right now, the story line is Malik Nabers, obviously one of the major story lines we talked about yesterday is he's day to day. Now, I'm not sure if that means his routine is day to day on how he's gonna practice and what he's gonna do, whether he's with the training staff, whether he's out there for full practice, whether he's doing team stuff, individual stuff, like it's kind of been all over the place. And we talked yesterday about how important it is for them to get off to a good start, and I think that includes Malik Nabers, because they only kept five wide receivers on the roster. Now, they can add Berrios, I'm assuming they would, and have him be the punt returner, but still, I just don't see a lot of passing options without him right now. I know likely is gonna be a huge part of it, but I think right now, as I talked to Art Stapleton a few weeks ago on Saturday, on one of my Saturday shows, and he talked about how so much of this is mental with Malik Nabers, and I'm curious, because it takes a level of trust in your body, in your knee, and I'm wondering where his trust is, I'm wondering where the organization's trust is, and it feels like he's probably healthy enough to go out there and play. It's just a matter of does he play unafraid? Does he go out there and make cuts without thinking about it? Does he go out there and trust that knee in all these situations?

**Chris McMonigle** (2:27)
The first slant over the middle.

**Craig Carton** (2:29)
Right, and that's what Art Stapleton was talking about months ago. He was talking about how if you remember him at that softball game, the charity softball game, and Scataboo's doing backflips already, and he's out there on crutches or had a crutch with him, and it was like he should be beyond that. Any doctor, even with the extra stuff that he dealt with, even though the surgery was more exclusive and more extensive rather than we thought, like he should be past all of that, and it kind of just became a mental block for him. And the idea of seeing all his other teammates out there running around, and they were dealing with injuries, like it finally clicked within him, at least that was art's take, like that was a significant moment that softball game, because they're all running around and he's hobbled, and it was kind of like enough of this, and he started to push through the injury.
I'm curious whether or not he's going to play, and whether or not he's comfortable to play. I think he's going to play, my gut tells me he's going to play, but we'll see limited snap counts. And for a wide receiver, I'm not sure how many snaps you take anyway, they kind of rotate a little bit, but I would think he's going to play in the game, I just don't know to what extent he's going to play in the game.

**Chris McMonigle** (3:28)
I would assume if he's playing, they're not going to play him at 25%, like snap count, I think they're going to play him. Like if he's going to play, it's going to be 100%, you got to go out there and play. Maybe it is, if this was a win or go home type of game, he's out there.