Is that the same? Have you seen a little bit of a transition into a more kumbaya? How do you kind of view the Harbaugh era going?

There is no kumbaya with a John Harbaugh team, I tell you that much, at least none that I've seen.

Uh, at this point, I mean, if they're scheduled for practice from 1:30 to 4:00, it doesn't even matter if they're in a walkthrough or in shells like they are, they will be today, he is going to the last minute of that period to be able to practice this team.

I mean, they've been more physical than they have been in the preseason.

They are not worried, uh, about injuries, and the Giants have certainly had their injury history, and that's kind of that whole country club tag that they got under Brian Daboll and previous coaches.

It was worried about getting guys injured.

Harbaugh says, "You know what? We're gonna callous- ...

Mm-hmm

Don't forget that.

Yeah, it reminded me of last year.

There was a point in the summer where Jackson Dart looked like he just became a different quarterback.

He became more decisive in what he was seeing, what was coming, a lot of pressure.

It seemed like he was rushed in the pocket early on in camp.

They had, uh, you know, Harbaugh put, talked about the cadences.

You know, Jackson, a year ago, Bobby, you and I joked about on the show ye- uh, this morning, I guess, uh, that it was, it was all about the clapping, right? And Jackson never did cadence in college.

But I think that's, uh, where it's pointing to right now.

Oh

...

in the Harbaugh press conference that, you know, look, Andrew Thomas struggled as a rookie, and a lot of that was situational.

But, you know, he struggled as a rookie, and CC is in the situation where he is not there.

W- what's funny is to show his personality, I started the, uh, you know, he's coming off.

It's so humid on Thursday, right? And the practice was, was not a hardworking practice, but they were out there for so long standing around.

And the first question I said to him, I said, "So tell me where you're at mentally, physically.

Yeah

Or wasn't there really any takeaways with like O-line, D-line battles or anything like that from today?

Well, you guys know the one-on-one O-line, D-line battles, they had to move them to the far field where you couldn't see them.

So slippery as well on the field.

So we didn't get much input on where the offensive and defensive lines, who did well.

I saw John Runyon had one good rep against Shelby Harris in one-on-one.

I do know in team, and this is a point I made and I asked Cam Scadaboo about this.

I asked Luminor and I asked Harbaugh.

Has there been anybody that has talked about the transformation that they're trying to make of the run game, the different run schemes and what they're trying to accomplish as a rushing offense so far this year?

[laughs]

"... you know, hanging out at the ESPYs," all, all this stuff.

The reality is the reason why Harbaugh loves him so much is that when it's time to go to football, he goes to football.

I think there are expectations for Jaxon Dart.

Uh, I wrote today just in terms of where he needs to go in camp, he needs to wing it.

He needs to make mistakes.

He needs to see what he needs to improve on.

Why is he doing that?" But, uh, how, how do they, they kind of see this year going, especially with the addition of Patrick Ricard coming over? Like, what are the expectations for that backfield as a whole?

Up next is our friend Art Stapleton.

Stapleton.This is Art Stapleton from therecordofnorthjersey.com. My guys wanted a bold prediction, so here's one.

Number one, Malik Nabers.

Don't believe the bad hype.

I think Nabers not only will be ready for the start of the season, I think he'll be a big part of this offense.

I think the presence of OBJ in the off-season, and yes, heading into the season, it's really been a mental slog as much as it is physical for Malik.

Don't forget how good he was.

Yeah, gotcha.

Y- when he, when Hakeem Nicks didn't show up for the first couple days of OTAs back in the day, whether it was 2013, I think it was, we, I remember asking Eli Manning, you know, "Have you talked to Hakeem? Have you ta-" And he's like, "No, not, you know, I haven't talked to him in a while." You know, like, and you're talking about guys who won a Super Bowl together and, you know, very close when they're at work, and they're in the locker room and stuff like that.

And, you know, and then I had people tell me outside of, you know, Eli himself, but just the idea of, you know, the, the dynamics of a locker room, you don't really understand unless you live through it.

You know, you think these guys should be buddy buddy, and, you know, they should know this, but when they leave the locker room, it, it's like going home and going away to work.

You know, why aren't the defensive tackles all hanging out at dinner? You know, that kind of thing.

So that in mind, um, you know, like you said, politics aside, look, we're in a different world now.

I mean, I remember back in 2012 when Victor Cruz was, uh, stumping for Barack Obama, nothing was said about that.

Yeah.

How bad were things, and also is there any concern at all that John Harbaugh, riding in on his beautiful, um, spaceship to save this team, like, couldn't fix this situation with Dexter Lawrence, or was it just too, too far gone?

Well, it depends on who you talk to, Seth.

I mean, uh, you know, the reality is that, um, you know, I think Dex and his inner circle made up their mind that they just were not staying here, uh, unless they could somehow pull a power play and, you know, make a statement that the general manager is now out, and then they would talk to John Harbaugh.

My sense is that the, the conversations briefly that Dexter and John Harbaugh had back when Harbaugh got the job really didn't talk about the contract, that Dex really didn't bring up the idea that he was unhappy, that they just kind of talked, you know, in brief terms about what they would do together.

Lee let Harbaugh talk.

Um, I, I think unfortunately for the Giants is I think they did want Harbaugh to be involved.

And once they got further along in this negotiation, quote-unquote, because I don't know how much negotiating they were doing, um, the agent Joel Segal essentially said no to Harbaugh talking to Dexter Lawrence.

[laughs]

Or, or we had heard. Thank you for giving us that information. We'll continue to talk about it in a proper fashion. Is this Schoen, Daboll understanding we need a guy this year, we need to have a good season this year, we can't just roll the dice on a rookie drafted quarterback? Or what do you think the mentality is?

You know, I think they went in saying, "Look, uh, our quarterback room right now is Tommy DeVito," and technically he's not even officially signed. He's gotta sign his exclusive rights free agent deal, which will happen over the weekend. The reality is they need to sign a veteran quarterback and they need to look in the draft and get their future quarterback, and that's not easy to do. It's been a hell of a year in New York, as you guys know, for the Giants. Uh, at every step, every decision they made backfired. Uh, and now, uh, you know, I think that they need to find the best football player to play quarterback to start the season, because you cannot wait until the draft. You're not sitting at number one. You'd like to be at number one and say, "You know what? Maybe things would be different if..." Had they lost to the Colts, they'd be sitting at number one saying, "We know for a fact we are going to get a franchise quarterback of our choosing." They can't do that. So I think right now they need to get the best veteran in here as quickly as possible, and I think, uh, Aaron Rodgers right now represents that.

Yeah, how about the third pick, Art? It feels like even if they do get that vet, and you mentioned one year right there, that there's still a chance they might take a quarterback? Are, is there any reports about who they might be kind of in love with in this upcoming draft class? And do you think that quarterback at three is very possible? Or will they take, you know, Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter, one of the best available guys?

You know, I, I've heard all three quarterbacks that were presumably at the top of the draft, or at least in that first round discussion, Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, and, uh, Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss. Not in that spot, necessarily. I think if they can pull off a deal with Tennessee to get to number one, I think they'll take Cam Ward. Uh, I think they like his upside. I think they've liked meeting with him. They want to meet with him more over the next month or so and see where there's at. They've had a lot of interaction with Shedeur Sanders, which we've seen on the internet. Everybody has caught his exchanges with Daboll and Malik Nabers going all the way back in Times Square on Heisman weekend and all that stuff. Is Shedeur a possibility? I know there are fans of his in the building. But the other guy would be Jaxson Dart. So if the Giants don't move up to one, I think they sit at three, if, if a quarterback is there that they want, they'll take him. If not, they'll take the best player, could be Carter, could be Travi- Travis Hunter, and then maybe they trade back at the end of the first round if a guy is still there, like a Jaxson Dart, maybe a Jalen Milroe. And then if you believe the mock drafters, maybe even a Shedeur Sanders will be sliding in there, late teens, early 20s. Maybe the Giants will say, "You know what? We didn't use the picks that we could have gone up for one. Maybe we'll move back into the first from 34 and try to get that other quarterback to learn behind Aaron Rodgers."