00:00Good morning, Paul. How are you?
00:02Hey, guys. Good to talk to you. How's it going?
00:04Yeah, it's going well.
00:05How many mock drafts have you looked at?
00:07Are they like a thousand like us?
00:10No, I'm actually very anti-mock draft.
00:13Oh, you are.
00:14Yeah, I don't like to deal with all the BS and the smoke and the garbage
00:19and the Pinocchio lies that everybody likes to tell.
00:23I actually do a cut-up film study on about 140 guys every year.
00:29Nice.
00:29And try to come up with my own opinions.
00:33I mean, I've been doing this now for over 40 years,
00:36so I kind of think I can trust myself.
00:38So how many mocks do you put out personally?
00:41I don't.
00:42Oh, you don't put any out.
00:42I don't believe in mock drafts.
00:44The reason that they're called mock drafts is because they should be mocked.
00:49All right, so here's a question for you then.
00:50Take Mendoza out.
00:51We know how people rank quarterbacks higher or whatever.
00:54Who's your number one?
00:56Who's the best player in this draft?
00:59Caleb Downs.
01:01Okay.
01:01And who's number two?
01:02I could see that.
01:05Arville Reese.
01:06Okay.
01:07And I want to hear your top five.
01:09Where's Love?
01:09He wants to hear where Love and Styles come in.
01:13I'm not huge on Styles.
01:14Well, I don't rank the players per se.
01:18I don't make a board.
01:19And the reason I don't do that is because I crunch in about three months the work that I do.
01:26I basically, I cram in about three months.
01:29And I get cut up from somebody who gives me some really nice video help.
01:34So I don't actually make a board because I think it's disrespectful to anybody who spends 12 months out of
01:39the year to do this to make a board.
01:41Those guys have a right to make a board.
01:43I don't have a right to make a board.
01:46But what I do, when I do my research, I write down three key adjectives that I like or I
01:52don't like on each individual player that I study.
01:56And then I go through some of the background checks with some of their injuries and some of the research
02:00and how they were used in positioning.
02:02And then I basically decide, based on where the Giants are picking and what they need, who I would pick
02:09if I was in the GM chair.
02:10So I don't even predict who they're going to pick.
02:13I say who I would pick if I was in their spot.
02:16Now, obviously, you talk about some of the top guys who are consensus players in this draft.
02:22Yeah, absolutely.
02:23You know, your Baileys, your Loves, your Reese, your Styles, your Downs.
02:28I understand all of that, but I don't actually have a ranking per se.
02:32That's fair.
02:33As far as love, I don't consider Saquon Barkley as my standard for picking a running back that high.
02:41Okay?
02:41Right.
02:42I was in favor of Barkley at number two for the Giants.
02:45I thought he was an all-worldly type of player who could do everything.
02:51Right.
02:51Jeremiah Love is not that.
02:53He does not deserve to be picked that high.
02:55You don't think he's even close?
02:56You don't think he's even close to Saquon?
02:58I think he's a very good player, excellent player.
03:02People are talking about Jameer Gibbs.
03:04Okay, fine.
03:05You want to compare him to Jameer Gibbs?
03:06That's fine.
03:07He's not Saquon Barkley.
03:09So, no.
03:10I would personally, myself, I admire his talent.
03:15Okay?
03:16I truly admire his talent.
03:17In fact, what I wrote down for him, I was not necessarily thrilled with his power.
03:23I wasn't necessarily thrilled.
03:25I know he's eager to do pass pro, but I think he needs work and pass protection.
03:30And I wrote down that I was not a big fan of his patience.
03:33He was a little bit too eager sometimes to hit the hole.
03:37And, you know, that was not always the most productive thing to do.
03:41Sometimes you've got to wait for things to develop.
03:43I think he's going to be a star running back in the league.
03:47But all the world, you know, when you've seen a Saquon Barkley, when you've seen a linebacker,
03:54when you've seen a Lawrence Taylor, it takes an awful lot to tell me that that guy deserves
03:58to be picked, you know, top three in the draft.
04:01So, Paul, how surprised were you when you saw the return that the Giants got for dealing
04:06Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals?
04:08They get the No. 10 pick in the upcoming draft in return.
04:11So, now the Giants, real power players in the first round with No. 5 and No. 10 overall.
04:17Were you surprised that they got that sort of return for Lawrence?
04:21Absolutely.
04:21I mean, to get the No. 10 overall, very, very rich.
04:25And so, it's a deal that they absolutely had to make.
04:30Now, you know, what they do with it will ultimately determine, you know, three, four years down
04:35the road if it turned out to be the right move.
04:38But today, as we look at it today, how could you not make that trade?
04:44Are you buying the hype that they're super high on Jordan Tyson?
04:54Well, that's interesting.
04:56Because the truth of the matter is, I'm not super high on Jordan Tyson.
05:01I would not pick him up in that range.
05:04But there's obviously the report that's come out that Joe Shane, the Giants general manager,
05:09apparently had dinner with him the other night.
05:11Joe Shane's not wasting his time, you know, going to have dinner with somebody this close
05:17to the draft if he doesn't have a reason to do it.
05:20So, I'm not going to be a fool and ignore that.
05:24If that report is accurate, and I do believe it is, because Mike Garofalo of NFL Network
05:28is usually very reliable and very accurate and very trustworthy.
05:32So, if you're going to believe that report, you have to believe that they have interest there.
05:37Would I?
05:38Absolutely not.
05:39Carnell Tate is the best receiver in this draft, hands down.
05:43Ooh, wow.
05:44Okay.
05:44Are you, are Giants fans worried about Neighbors' injury?
05:48Or do you think he'll be fine?
05:49He'll be bouncing back and putting up, you know, big numbers again?
05:52Well, the Giants have been saying all along that Neighbors is on schedule, but it's only April.
05:58You know, what does on schedule in April mean?
06:00It means that there are several months to go before the season starts, and anything can happen.
06:06John Harbaugh, the new head coach, said flat out, we don't expect him to do much until maybe
06:13at the end of training camp.
06:15Remind me when he got injured.
06:17What month did he get injured?
06:20Oh, my.
06:21I want to say that was...
06:23It was like middle of the season.
06:24Yeah, it was October.
06:24I think it was October, as I recall.
06:26Okay.
06:26Yeah, that makes sense.
06:27Okay, so if you get 10 months in, that would be September.
06:30You can't count on him, which is why they signed Mooney, okay?
06:34Because Mooney is a high-level number two.
06:38You know, kind of borders on a low-level number one.
06:41Right.
06:41That's why they signed Mooney, because the Giants didn't have anybody else on their roster
06:46who could potentially be a number one if neighbors came back slowly.
06:51So Mooney is kind of that hedge that if they need a number one for the first few weeks of
06:58the season, Mooney's going to have to be that guy.
07:02You know, look, I look at it this way.
07:05You know, I really like Tate a lot, and I think he'd be in for the Giants.
07:09If I'm picking for them, I think he's in for me at 10.
07:13He's not in for me at 5.
07:17Where do you think they go with that number 5 pick?
07:19Do they lean – are they sharing the same brain with you as far as Caleb Downs?
07:24Do they go in another direction there?
07:26Where do you think they go at 5?
07:27Oh, yeah, I'm all down with Downs at 5, and Styles would be my 1-8 pick at 5.
07:33And, again, I think the interesting part, when I tell you that, you know, I'm doing
07:38this for me, my frame of reference, I've been covering this team for 43 years.
07:44I'm about to enter my 44th straight season.
07:46So I have a frame of reference, if you will, and a bias toward the Giants way.
07:53You know, when I cut my teeth under Bill Parcells and George Young, you know,
07:58I would have been through, you know, Tom Coughlin and Ernie Acorsi and Jerry Reese
08:02and some really good ones, you know, who understood how to build teams.
08:07So my frame of reference is naturally going to gravitate towards some of the things
08:12that the Giants have taught me over the years.
08:14And so, yes, a lot of times – in fact, in the last 20 years, half of their number
08:19one picks were guys that I would have picked when I was in the seat.
08:23So, yeah, I'm definitely tainted, if you will, by the Giant way.
08:31Downs would be my guy at 5.
08:32Styles would be my second pick at 5 if Downs is gone.
08:36And I'm definitely all in on Tate at 10.
08:39I'm curious, all those years covering the team and all the different coaches,
08:43you mentioned a couple of the greats, who does Harbaugh feel like?
08:48Oh, he's a lot like Tom Coughlin.
08:51Oh, my goodness.
08:53A little bit younger version, obviously.
08:56But that's no disrespect to Tom because Tom had the energy of a 25-year-old,
09:00and Harbaugh seems to do that as well.
09:03There's no doubt that the discipline and the old school mentality that Tom Coughlin
09:09brought to the team – and it's amazing, fellas, because I'm seeing a similar type
09:15of reaction, right?
09:17When Jim Fossil, who was a very players-friendly coach, you know, when it was time for him
09:23to go, and then Tom Coughlin came in, the military-type guy, even though he never was
09:29in the military, the stark contrast and difference in terms of the discipline.
09:34It was like, okay, everybody button down your cheer-shirts and stand up straight and get
09:40ready because this is going to be real.
09:42Well, I'm sensing the same exact thing now in the conversion from Dable to Harbaugh.
09:49It's very reminiscent of that whole situation.
09:54By the way, Paul, when Coughlin took over as the head coach of the Giants, he was younger
09:59than John Harbaugh is right now.
10:01Oh, I know.
10:02I know.
10:03I'm very much aware of that.
10:04But when I talk about him being a little bit younger, it's just the presence, the overall
10:14demeanor.
10:15Harbaugh seems – he just seems – he looks a lot younger, too.
10:18He's like Dick Clark, you know, from American Bandstand.
10:21The guy was like 80 years old, looked like he was 50.
10:24Are you excited about – or are Giants fans excited about just the staff that Harbaugh
10:29put together?
10:30We're big fans of Denard Wilson because he went to our high school.
10:34He's 10 years younger than us, 10 or 12 years younger than us, but he played at Maryland,
10:37went to DeMatha, bringing Matt Nagy.
10:39What about the overall staff?
10:43Well, there's no question about the credentials of the staff.
10:46And I think what's interesting about it for me is that, you know, when some of these head
10:51coaches put staffs together, some guys just want to put people who are very cohesive and
10:57will think about the same things.
11:00And they won't contrast or buck each other very much.
11:04I suspect with the experience and the resumes of the people that Harbaugh's put on the staff,
11:11you're going to see people compare and contrast ideas.
11:15There'll be some checks and balances.
11:17Harbaugh is obviously comfortable enough, and he should be.
11:20He's going to go to the Hall of Fame.
11:22He should be comfortable enough that he can decipher those contrasting ideas, that he can
11:29go through checks and balances.
11:31You know, a lot of younger coaches – and this is one of the things, guys, you know, I'm
11:35always in favor, especially if you're in this New York market and there's a ton of pressure
11:39and you're putting a high standard on what it's got to be – I'm not a huge fan of
11:45hiring younger first-time head coaches or the next hot coordinator.
11:51Those guys will tend to fill out the staff with too many people who agree with them too
11:57many times.
11:58And that's not necessarily a good thing, because when the ship starts taking on water, you
12:04don't have too many ways to bail it out.
12:07And so Harbaugh's been through it all, seen it all, has his feet on the ground.
12:13Nobody's going to question, you know, what he has done in this league.
12:17And he's confident enough where he's like, I know what my philosophy is, but if some of
12:23the other guys who I've hired who have a lot of experience, they've been through the
12:27wars, they've been through the uppers and downs, if they've got some stuff to add that
12:32may be a little bit different or something that's going to balance the scale a little
12:37bit, I'll listen to those guys.
12:39So, you know, between Denard Wilson coming in, Matt Nagy coming in, Harbaugh coming in,
12:44those guys may have been the most important transactions the Giants made this year.
12:48You know, I mean, we all talk about the free agents and the draft picks.
12:52This coaching staff should make at least a two-to-three win difference right out of the
12:57box.
12:58Paul, thanks as always for the time.
13:00Busy time for you.
13:01We appreciate you taking some time out for us, man.
13:02We'll talk to you again soon.
13:05Always good to talk to you, fellas.
13:06Yes, sir.
13:07All right, buddy.
13:07Paul Dettino covers the New York Giants for four-plus decades for WFAN.
13:13He definitely is not a big fan of the mock draft industry.
13:15Well, you know what it is?
13:16It's out of respect.
13:17Yeah.
13:18Like, I really appreciated that.
13:20I know you got to go break, but he's like, it's disrespectful, but we need to look at
13:23this for a few months, and then guys that do it year-round and think that mine is equal.
13:28He does it his own way.
13:29All right, when we come back, we'll do Evie's Entertainment Page next on The Fan.
Comments