Hi, friends. This episode of Big Blue Banter is brought to you by prize picks.

Welcome back. It's the Big Blue Banter. New York Giants football podcast. I'm Dan Schneier. Join, as always my host, Nick Falado, who's been a busy man today looking for a new place to live. But I got him on the hook, 9.52 p.m. Eastern. Sorry for those you who couldn't make it to this live. we kind of did impromptu. And thank you to those who are joining us for this live show. It's going to be a live show on

YouTube for those who can watch along. But if you can't, we're putting this on the podcast

feed as well. And it should be on our YouTube fees after under the lives. So we're going to talk a few

things today. We're going to talk about the franchise tag deadline for the Giants, which directly impacts the Giants because, you know, while a lot of teams tag franchise players, including one safety, Antoine Winfield Jr. My favorite safety in that draft class, I'm going to be honest, if you guys remember back to then, not to do my own horn because I got a lot of these wrong, but I did have him safety one. But the Giants had their own safety of their own who they could have franchised tag. And at one point, there was speculation, according Ryan Dunleavy, that the Giants might transition tag that safety, Xavier McKinney, which they rarely used tech. And I think it's only been used like four times since 2010. It's very negative toward the player from what I've

heard. It hurts their leverage in negotiations on the market. And I believe the Giants ultimately

decided not to use a transition tag so they could keep good terms with Xavier McKinney's agent

and continue on with negotiations. Remember, the Giants still have a window to negotiate right now

with Xavier McKinney and Saquan Barkley unfettered, nobody can get involved until Monday. That's when the legal tampering window opens, and that's what other teams can get involved. They still have a few days right now to get deals done with McKinney and Barclay, but they let both Barclay and McKinney go past the franchise tag deadline with no franchise tag. I guess I wasn't surprised on the Barkley front, Nick, because it's kind of been told. That story's been written. But Xavier McKinney, that one surprised me a little bit. I'm going to get your take first, but I'm a little bit curious, and it's leading me in one direction as to why the Giants made the decision not to tag Xavier McKinney. That one definitely surprised me. Any thoughts on either of these two decisions and or other players, including Michael Pittman, like I said, Anton Winfield, and a few other players who were tagged today. Yeah, I'll stick with the New York Giants right now. I am wondering, and I don't know if I'm looking too far into this, if this is Joe Shane acknowledging that, hey, the Band-Aid needs to get ripped off. And we can't be giving, we can't be giving these contracts to these players if the contracts are inflated. And with Xavier McKinney's case, he might be looking for big money. And I believe Xavier McKinney is entitled to that money. If he is going to hit the market and he feels like he has a lot of leverage and there are going to be teams out there pursuing him, go and get your bread, bro. Go and get your bread. But Joe Shane's case, that doesn't mean he has to give him that, right? Go test the market. I still hope that they can sign this 24 yearold absolute stud at safety who is very versatile.

And I think there's such a good role for him in this Shane Bowen defense and really in any defense in general. But I don't want Joe Shane to overspend for that either. And next year could be rough. And this is more so tailored towards Seekwuan Barclay. There's a lot of chat about Seekwan Barclay in the Houston Texan. I have no idea what's going to happen, right?

But Seguan Barclay is getting a little bit older.

Seekwan Berkeley has been the face of this franchise.

If Seekwan Berkeley has been the face

of this franchise. If Seqwan Barclay is looking for a certain contract number, I do not want Joe Shane to give him that contract number just because he has been the face of the franchise. So I am okay with him allowing or with him not assigning the franchise tag,

maybe making a deal still, like you said, that could still happen.

But if that doesn't happen, have them test the market, and you could still bring them back if they do not find what they're looking for out there. Yeah, I think you're onto something. That's kind of where my mind went to, Nick, is Joe Shane really trying to rip the band-aid off of former players from the past regime? We heard. Yeah. Undwind the tourniquet. Let it bleed out. And let's reset this stuff. But McKinney, dude, he's 24. I guess the thing. Like, it's, like, even if you're looking to compete in two years, like, Zavian McKinney is so damn young. And letting him walk does kind of suck, especially if the salary cap keeps ascending. Like we saw this year, a 30 million jump over what they expected. If that keeps happening, you can get Xavier McKinney at a relatively cheaper price if you were to sign him long term right now. And that's my one reason, another reason why I really do want to retain Xavier McKinney. I think you can get it at a deal where in three years we're like, yo, we're only paying Zermakini this this much around the markets like this. So that's one, that's one way. But at the same time, I do understand what Joe Shane is is coming from. And I don't necessarily think he should just reset the market because that's what Xavier McKinney believes he's going to command out there on the market. Yeah, there's a lot of them back because the first thought I had was, like you said, is Joe Shane really going into total rebuild mode? Because we heard the report two days ago or yesterday from Rich Eisen. You know, he was pretty good on his reports from last year at the combine. I think he was like three for five. And one of the misses was Brady coming back. But I think Brady was actually taking into the 12th hours. That one was kind of not even a miss. And he nailed the Bryce Young trade ahead of time. But, you know, his report was the

giants are completely done with Daniel Jones. And if they're done with Jones, if they're done with Barclay and if they're done McKinney, you know, that's the end of that error right there. Because you resign decks you resign Andrew Thomas the two only hits from the Gettleman all the

capital he had and those are just guarantees those Those are coming back on, you know, you're never going to let go of players like that. Those are massive hits by Gettleman. But I'm wondering if what this means is it's time to restart. And I'll say this. My thought process going into this, Nick was personally, I'll pay Xavier McKinney whatever, whatever he want. And I'll tell you why. First of all, I know that he is a tough agent, Nick. He is an agent who's known for getting

re-reported. this Nick was personally, I'll pay Xavier McKinney whatever, whatever he wants. And I'll tell you why. First of all, I know that he has a tough agent, Nick. He is an agent who's known for getting really top of the market type stuff and really good deals. And the Giants have kind of not done a good job when negotiations lately with agents. Yes, the Dexter Lawrence contract was solid. The Thomas contract was solid. But the Jones contract was a real win for the Jones agent. I mean, Daniel Jones, not just that he got the 40 million per year. That's one thing. It's that he got the injury guarantee in the contract. That was a really big win for the agent and from the agent's side. Giants really made a mistake there in my mind, giving everything Jones wanted and Jones agent wanted. You give an injury guarantee like the one they gave him. Well, now the Giants are facing a tough spot because they play Jones this year and he gets a third season ending injury. He's at two season ending injuries in five years, one neck that required surgery, one ACL that required surgery. If they play him and he gets a third season ending injury and can't make his physical next March, the Giants are on the hook for another like 20 million dead caps. They want to cut him because that injury guarantees agent worked into the contract. So that's a really big mistake by the Giants. That's a win for the agent side. And so I know they're dealing with the tough agent and maybe Joe Shane same himself. I'm not going to get run over again by an agent for the third time, or for the second time again, a row in an off season.

Maybe that's the stance Joe Shane's taking. The way I looked at it, Nick, was I don't personally care about the salary cap situation right now. I'll tell you what, the only time I'm ever going to care about a salary cap from this point on, and you guys can quote me on this who listen to the show, you Nick can take this to the bang, anyone can take this to bank. The only time I ever going to care about a salary cap situation for the Giants.

And that means resigning players, letting players go worrying about it. who listen to the show, you Nick can take this to the bang. Anyone can take this to bank. The only time I've ever going to care about a salary cap situation for the Giants,

and that means resigning players, letting players go, worrying about,

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