New York Giants: 5 questions with this week’s enemy
In this edition of ‘New York Giants enemy exchange’, we swapped questions with our colleagues over at the Jet Press. Here are Paul Edsen Jr’s answers.
Few people out there are more qualified to speak on the state of the New York Jets than The Jet Press’ site expert, Paul ” Boy Green” Edsen Jr. As such, we reached out to our friend and colleague ahead of this week’s huge matchup that’s being labeled as ‘the battle for Metlife’ (or is it the toilet bowl)?
Here’s what we had to say.
1. I recently wrote a piece about this being a potential ‘loser leaves town’ game for both coaches…do you see Adam Gase losing his job if he loses this game?
Paul Edsen Jr. (PE): As funny as that is, no I don’t. If they didn’t fire Adam Gase after he lost to the winless Miami Dolphins why fire him after losing to the New York Giants? Things haven’t been going well for Gase, he has only one win on his Jets’ resume and that looks more like a fluke than a sign of things to come.
Although if this thing continues to spiral out of control and they finish 1-15 or 2-14, Gase will be canned at the end of the year. That would make it the third different coach for Sam Darnold in his 3-year career, excellent quarterback developing.
2. Do you expect Sam Darnold to have a ‘get right game’ against the Giants, like so many other quarterbacks have?
PE: There’s no question Darnold is in the midst of a slump. He’s thrown eight interceptions in the last three games and has shown signs of regression. But the majority of that regression is from a porous offensive line and a bad gameplan from the coaching staff. Despite the horrible analytics, Darnold actually showed a lot of good signs in that Miami Dolphins game sans that horrible red-zone interception.
I expect a ‘get right game’ at home vs the poor Giants secondary to answer your question. He still possesses all the traits that made him the No. 3 pick in the draft a few years ago: anticipation, improvisation skills, and talent. Let’s see if that manifests itself on Sunday.
3. What type of impact do you expect from Chris Herndon in his first game back?
PE: A HUGE impact. A lot of people outside of the organization don’t understand how talented he is and what he brings to the team. Chris had a really good rookie season and was looking marvelous during the offseason displaying one-handed catches routinely and is a very solid run blocker. Herndon provides three key things for the Jets offense: security blanket, mismatch nightmare, and red zone threat.
A security blanket that is the last resort for Darnold if nothing else is there. A mismatch nightmare who provides deceptive speed and a big frame. While finally a red zone option, perhaps if he’s in lineup vs Dolphins he doesn’t toss that terrible interception. He hasn’t played this season due to a four-game suspension and a hamstring injury from working out on his own. So perhaps there will be some rust, but from all indications, he’ll be fully ready to go on Sunday.
4. The Giants offensive line has been mediocre all season. What Jet pass-rusher could you see taking advantage of that and having a big day?
PE: I wish I could point to several names and say all of those guys will take advantage, but I wouldn’t feel confident in that statement. To be honest, the Jets have struggled to rush the passer since the John Abraham days back in the early 2000s. Currently Gang Green is 29th in the league in sacks (13), so I’m not sure they will be able to take advantage. The reason for that is two-fold: first off they don’t have any premium edge-rushing talent and secondly, any of the talents they had are injured.
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Gregg Williams is going to be forced to be creative to make things happen with a handful of practice squad players and former camp bodies. If anyone is going to cause the Giants trouble it’ll be Jordan Jenkins and maybe this will be a Quinnen Williams coming out party who had his first full sack of his career vs the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
5. What’s your score prediction for this one?
PE: The Battle for New York. Bragging rights for the next four years. So much is on the line here and it’s kind of disappointing how terrible both of these teams have been lately. Since the start of 2017, the New York Giants are 10-31 and the Jets are 10-30. This season the Jets are 1-7 and the Giants are 2-7, so this isn’t as saucy as it could be, but still there’s a little extra something to this game. Both teams are obviously struggling here, but I’ll cautiously predict a green and white victory. Sam Darnold throws it all over the yard for one of his best performances and the Jets win this one 31-22.