Two Parts
Part 1
This epic collapse in Denver, and it was epic, has masked over something that isn’t getting enough attention…. The NY Football Giants have quietly scored the OROY AND DROY in the same draft.
I do not care about injuries or other players at this point. I don’t care if one or even both don’t get named as such come February when the awards are handed out. That symbolism is meaningless. What we Giants should care about is that Joe Schoen, like him or hate him (and trust me, there are days when he falls into both categories), has managed to snag the two best players on each side of the ball for this franchise.
Hyperbole? No. Let me explain.
Yesterday we blogged Wonder, who went moonshot on Dart. Wonder began seeing special things in preseason when Dart rifled in a TD pass decisively between two defenders. That got his attention. After PHL, Wonder ‘darticulated’ that the Giants rookie QB was a combination of Brady/Mahomes pocket presence + Tannehill/Rodgers/RGIII running ability. And then yesterday after DEN, Wonder doubled down further on his hyperbole by rattling off the reasons why Dart is special. So I don’t really care about Egbuka or any other player winning the award. Frankly they can. And I don’t honestly care one iota. The Giants traded back into Round 1 and got The Deliverer. It’s not every day that you get to blog that. To put this in perspective, I’ve been blogging since November 2006 and I’ve never written that about Eli Manning or ANYONE else. I’m not saying Dart is going to Canton. Eli is. I’m saying that at this moment, the Giants have clearly plucked the best Offensive player of the 2025 Draft.
Don’t believe me? Don’t believe Wonder? Well, how about Vic Fangio? How about Sean Payton? Both complimented Dart AFTER playing against him. Fangio:
“The teams that needed quarterbacks that bypassed him (in the 2025 Draft)—they’re going to regret that… elite scrambler… throws the ball very well intermediate and deep.”
and Payton:
Sean Payton told Giants owner John Mara that he was hoping the Giants would have made the change to quarterback Jaxson Dart “long after our game,” and that the change provided a “spark” for the team.
Yes, this could have been a dig at Russell Wilson but the praise is there. Even Nik Bonitto threw a hat tip at Dart. The point is that none of these people had to say anything but they did because they see a force that needs to be reckoned with.
Speaking about forces that need to be reckoned with, the DROY is Abdul Carter. No, this one is not as clear, but once again we aren’t talking about the award, the symbolism, the AP, etc. All we are talking about is that quietly again the Giants have snagged the best Defensive player from the 2025 Draft. Jihaad Campbell? Others? No disrespect. Trust me, the Eagles scored too. But consider that Carter has 27 pressures, and the next nearest rookie has half that many (14).
Sacks? I’m so glad we get to discuss this. While sacks are extremely meaningful, they are deceptive. If you watched the Chargers game, Carter got zero sacks but that’s because their elite QB Justin Herbert was rendered ineffective by so much pressure that he had to get rid of the ball too quickly to AVOID the sack. Schneier pointed this out numerous times on his podcast. (Like, comment, subscribe, please.)
While we are on the topic of “the sack,” let’s remember that Carter has 0.5 sacks, had an uncalled sack on intentional grounding, had another uncalled sack on intentional grounding, and this week had a sack negated by a 10 yd holding call that was accepted. So that’s 3.5 sacks.
Can we at least mention that with McFadden hurt, the Giants are using Carter as a LBer on many snaps? Can we mention that his (pre Draft) liability as an edge run defender is quietly going away? This cutup is EXACTLY what you need in terms of excellent run contain. The irony is that this will never show up in a box score, and the irony goes further in Carter not even registering a tackle! That’s how quiet it is. Hamstring injury? That may limit his stats but as long as he has availability, his ability will deliver sustained impact.
Part 2
I’m going to make this quick. In the 2002 playoffs when the Giants choked a 38–14 lead, RDE Kenny Holmes (8 sacks, played opposite Strahan with 11 sacks) got hurt and the 49er comeback ensued. Fassel went into prevent and blew the game. It was a catastrophic series of errors. IT IS ALWAYS THE COACH’S FAULT WHEN A LARGE LEAD IS BLOWN. Fassel needed his juggernaut offense to continue to play with the same gameplan that got them 38 points in 3 Quarters TO HELP HIS DEFENSE, who were missing Holmes.
In Denver on Sunday, Daboll needed his offense TO HELP HIS DEFENSE when Adebo got hurt and Banks came in. With Adebo on the field the defense gave up 0 points. With Banks on the field, they gave up 33 points. Was this loss all on Banks? No. It was on Daboll for enabling all the conditions for mistakes which contribute to an epic collapse. Stop playing a 50 minute game. It’s 60 minutes.