Big Blue View
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Joshua Berman asks: When we bench Jones because it might have implications for next year’s cap and thereby sabotage the product on the field and morale in the locker room, we call that prudent. But were we to bench starters to improve our draft position and thereby sabotage the product on the field and the morale in the locker room, we would call that unsportsmanlike and unconscionable. What’s the difference between the two? The claim that tanking is playing in order to lose while benching Jones is not, is disingenuous when you know for certain that you are putting an inferior product on the field.
Ed says: Joshua, the Giants were 2-8 when they decided to bench Daniel Jones. I hardly think benching the starting quarterback when a team is 2-8, has lost seven straight games, and has no chance of going to the playoffs is sabotaging the product on the field. The product on the field already stunk.
We knew from Day 1 of the 2024 season that the Giants would face that choice and would eventually have to make that move for the long-term good of the franchise if things went south in 2024. They had to do that to protect their financial ability to improve the product for next season.
The Giants were putting an inferior product on the field — with and without Jones. The results told everybody that. Aside from Malik Nabers and Tyrone Tracy, I’m not sure what other starters you would have had the Giants bench over the final couple of weeks.
Look at the box score from the season finale against the Philadelphia Eagles. Include the fact that Jermaine Eluemunor and Greg Van Roten were not playing their primary positions, and the Giants started seven (7) backups on offense and five (5) on defense in Week 18. They were playing a lot of backups.
Christopher Trappe asks: As a long-time fan of the New York Giants, I recognize that I have the option to do more productive things on Sunday afternoons throughout the fall and, now, owing to an interminable NFL schedule, most of the winter. However, that’s clearly not the case for you. So I’m wondering- after a decade-plus of mostly unwatchable football, how do you keep yourself motivated to do your job and do it at a high level?
Ed says: Christopher, thank you for your belief that I do the job “at a high level.” That is all I have ever really tried to do.
As for your question, let me start by saying that I grew up as a Giants fan. I can remember a lot of Sunday’s in the late 1960s and 1970s when I would watch games with my father, and he would grow so frustrated by what he saw that he would be in the garage puttering around before the game was over.
That said, to do this job the way I have always felt it needed to be done —...
