Man oh man, are we ready for some football around here: Ready for the Giants and Jets to fight it out at the ugly gray bowl in the Meadowlands on Saturday night after they did some fighting on the practice field this week. Ready for some football even after these past few years when both the Giants and Jets played football the way the Mets and Yankees have been playing baseball lately.
Let’s face it, the possibility is becoming more real by the day that both the Yankees and Mets might be fighting for their playoff lives by the time the regular season begins in the NFL, a baseball season that was supposed to be World Series or bust for both of them. So, yeah, this is a good time to be talking about football, and if this might be the season when things start to turn around at MetLife Stadium, even if the Jets don’t finally make it back to the playoffs for the first time in about a hundred years; even if the Giants spend another season in last place.
The way things have been going in Baseball New York, this really isn’t such a terrible time to get excited about a kid like Jaxson Dart after the way he slung the ball around in his first preseason game in Buffalo. This is also as good a time as any — still the football version of Florida baseball — to wonder when Brian Daboll might run Dart out there once the games actually count, whether or not Russell Wilson is still in one piece by the beginning of October.
The Giants, out of both necessity and desperation, went the familiar faded-glory route with Wilson, who used to be somebody, and Jameis Wilson, who never really was, in the last offseason. That was before Daboll and his boss, Joe Schoen, fell in love with the kid from Ole Miss, and that means the whole package: Arms, looks, swagger.
Now Giants fans are talking excitedly about him. They are talking about Abdul Carter and dreaming that he might have at least some L.T. in him, and some Michael Strahan. They’re doing that despite looking hard at a brutal schedule, so brutal on paper that a 7-10 record might feel like some kind of triumph by the time the team finishes up the regular season against the Cowboys in early January.
Here is the first eight games of that schedule, through a second game in three weeks against the Eagles on Oct. 26:
At Commanders.
At Cowboys.
Chiefs at home.
Chargers at home.
At Saints.
Eagles at home.
At Broncos.
At Eagles.
And guess what? The back end of the schedule isn’t exactly shaping up to be a pillow fight, either:
49ers at home.
At Bears.
Packers at home.
At Lions.
At Patriots.
Commanders at home.
Commanders at home.
Vikings at home.
At Raiders.
Cowboys at MetLife.
A schedule like that is a big reason why you see a lot of projections that have the Giants at 5-12. And why you wonder just how long they will be able to wait to get Dart on the field when everybody starts keeping score for real. It’s also worth remembering that even with these promising kids in the building, and even with what looks like the most athletic Giants defense in years, this Giants team has to show a bit more than promise this season for fans of the team to stop wondering if John Mara really does have the right people in charge.
The Jets? It’s abundantly clear, on a daily basis, that Aaron Glenn is very much in charge over there in Florham Park. It was his former coach, and mentor, Bill Parcells, who once said, “It’s not my job to take my team’s temperature for the media every day.” Glenn hasn’t even backed away from doing that, not on any day. And if you don’t like it? Well, does anybody want to take on one of the toughest Jets of all time?
The Jets just went the faded-glory route, did they ever, with Aaron Rodgers. We know how that worked out. Now they are banking on a young quarterback of their own in Justin Fields, who is still just 26 years old even though he’s playing for his third NFL team. In the end, it’s as if they swapped out Gramps — Rodgers — for Fields, whom the Steelers gave up on last season in favor of Wilson, who faded the longer the season went on like some old photograph.
Now the Jets are hoping that Fields, with a new beginning, can rise up for them the way an ex-Jet like Sam Darnold did in Minnesota last season, finally become the player the Bears thought they were drafting out of Ohio State.
The Jets’ schedule isn’t exactly soft swirl, either. They start out with the Steelers and Rodgers. Then get the Bills. Then get the Bucs, a team with serious Super Bowl aspirations this year, before going to Miami. But if they can make it out of September with a 2-2 record, not a crazy thought, they then begin October with three straight home games: Cowboys, Broncos, Panthers. Root for Glenn, just because he’s so easy to root for, to head into the back end of his schedule with a chance.
Here is what Glenn said when he was named Jets coach:
“It is going to be a great ride, it really is.”
Been a bumpy ride around here in pro football, for too long. Two teams, one playoff win since the Giants won their last Super Bowl. Of course neither one is anywhere near a Super Bowl right now. That’s not where the bar is, not around here. We just want this to be the year when things really do start to turn around. When the teams from the Meadowlands stop being, well, swamp things.
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