UKHTTC blog: View from the Big Blue

The Commanders left Tampa Bay with far more questions than answers in the season opening 37-20 loss.

In particular the failure to get the Washington WR1, Terry McLaurin, any noticeable yards was surprising. This offensive misfire went hand-in-hand with a Defense that had several sack-worthy opportunities, but ultimately did not get the job done.

It is not a credible opinion to expect a rookie QB to carry a team with his legs, although the gutsy performance of Jayden Daniels was enough to earn the Rookie of the Week accolade.

Head Coach Dan Quinn will expect a bounceback performance against a New York Giants team who have pretty much been the Commanders partner in low performance crime over the last decade.

Whilst the spotlight has been shone brightly on the malfunctioning Giants QB, Daniel Jones, the Big Blue roster itself does have individuals to trouble Washington's weaknesses.

Here at UKHTTC, founder, Christian Burt, took time out with Big Blue UK & Ireland to discuss the Giants 2024 draft and free agency, and, of course, to look ahead to the Sunday match-up at the Northwest Stadium.

Big Blue UK and Ireland are the only Giants focused podcast on these shores and are live twice a week during the season for preview and review shows. Outside of that they offer plenty of offseason content including player interviews, positional breakdowns, draft prospect rankings and more.

UKHTTC: Malik Nabers was the obvious star draftee of the 2024 Draft. What was your overall impression on the Giants work in the draft?

On paper this could be Joe Schoen's best draft so far despite a good chunk of it being based on long term projection.

Malik Nabers seems to be as advertised and if he keeps his rate of separation up, he'll have some breakout games this year. Tyler Nubin despite being injured for some of training camp has clearly got the coaches trust as evidenced by his played every snap showing on Sunday.

Outside of that is where the projection starts Dru Phillips, Theo Johnson, Tyrone Tracy and Darius Muasau all have the intangibles and/or football IQ to play in the league, but their production and progression will be the key.

That being said Muasau and Johnson earned starting jobs in week one and Phillips won't be far behind.

On paper, Daniel Jones is well protected, especially by the key book end of the Giants OL in Andrew Thomas. Is this a confidence issue for Jones or simply not NFL starter calibre under centre?

It's my belief that Daniel Jones would have been an NFL starter, but years of coaching changes, constant new offensive schemes and poor offensive line play have unfortunately mentally broken Daniel to the point where he is seeing ghosts.

Couple that with a horrible injury record of which you could argue so we're avoidable if he'd learnt how to slide means that if he is to turn this around it's unlikely to be in New York.

What was your impression of the Giants in FA? The pick-up of Brian Burns to complement Kayvon Thibodeaux on the edges could equal a long day for the Washington tackles

Free agency this season was box office for the Giants as well documented on Hard Knocks. Letting Barkley walk was in my opinion the right decision for all parties however I would have liked to see McKinney re-signed.

On the player incomings the offensive line had to be addressed and that was done with the additions of Runyan and Eluemunor. Outside of that there was the obvious Burns splash which didn't get off to the greatest start last week.

Burns had to be the key to unlocking Thibodeaux because if Kayvon doesn't show progression this season, we could be talking about two 1st rounders from 2022 that haven't worked out.

A match up you fear on Sunday?

Jayden Daniel's legs vs our defense.

Daniels showed that he is more than willing to run when the opportunity comes his way, and we have a history of struggling against mobile quarterbacks.

The Giants have given up 213 yards to Jalen Hurts in 8 games and in tow of those games they gave up 77 yards.

A match up you like on Sunday?

Burns and Thibodeaux against the guards or Nabers and Wan'Dale vs the secondary are two that jump off the paper.

We know that Forbes has struggled but with him out one of the backups, that he was considered better than, has to come in.

On the opposite side St Juste also struggled against the Buccaneers. We already know about Kayvon's record against the Commanders but Burns coming in too could cause nightmares for the tackles who probably owed their zero-sack showing more to Daniels than their ability to stop Tampa's rushers.

Score prediction and likely end-season records for both sides?

All four of us gave our predictions on Thursday night's show with a 50/50 split of Giants or Commanders.

Nevertheless, this game goes one of two ways; faltering offenses that cause a low scorer or poor defenses that see a shootout develop. There doesn't seem to be an in-between.

End of season records: I think both teams need to aim for 7-to-9 wins to please fans however based on the early showings you could be more likely to hit that than the Giants.

Commanders: 7-10

Giants: 6-11