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### Jets vs Giants - Preseason Game 3 --- The Game Thread ###

Maxman

By Maxman
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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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Sam Darnold’s make-or-break game also Giants’ draft reminder

Four months ago, the Jets were focused on the Giants.

It was draft night and the Giants were on the clock. The Jets had just watched the Browns take Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 pick and now they were wondering what their crosstown rivals would do.

The Jets’ draft room had the team’s representatives at the draft in Dallas on speaker phone. Those reps were watching the Giants’ table, waiting to see if they picked up the phone, which would signal a trade.

Soon, the Giants turned their pick in and the Jets began to celebrate. The Giants were drafting running back Saquon Barkley, meaning Sam Darnold, the quarterback they had been dreaming about, had just fallen into their laps at pick No. 3.

Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan turned to his left and looked at Brian Heimerdinger, the team’s VP of player personnel, and said, “Oh my God. He just fell to us.”

Four months later, the Jets will share the field with the Giants in their third preseason game and Darnold is expected to be their starting quarterback Friday night. This could be his final audition for the starting quarterback job for Week 1 of the regular season.

So far in training camp and in the preseason, Darnold has aced every test. He is now expected to be the starter when the Jets open the season on Sept. 10 against the Lions, but if he stumbles on Friday night, the job could go to Teddy Bridgewater.

Both quarterbacks have impressed in the preseason. Darnold, who started versus the Redskins last week, has completed 21-of-29 passes (72.4 percent) for 158 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Bridgewater has completed 17-of-23 passes (73.9 percent) for 212 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Now we’ll see how Darnold fares against the Jets’ MetLife Stadium co-tenants. If he becomes the franchise quarterback the Jets expect him to be, they will have the Giants to thank.

Darnold looked back this week on draft night and what it was like for him when the Giants were on the clock.

“I mean at that point I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” Darnold said. “So, I was just waiting for my call, for the phone to ring. I was just waiting, waiting, waiting, when that phone was going to ring, pick it up, so that was pretty much it. I wasn’t really, ‘Oh you know I think the Giants are going to pick me,’ it was just like I don’t know what’s going to happen, so I was just waiting.”

Darnold actually visited with the Giants the day before he visited the Jets ahead of the draft. The Giants did their homework on the top quarterbacks, but fell in love with Barkley.

“The Giants are a top-tier organization,” Darnold said. “They’re great people over there. I know Saquon loves it, but when I visited there, I had nothing but great things to say about them, so I’m looking forward to seeing some of the guys that play for them on Friday and I’m also looking forward to competing against them.”

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nycdan

nycdan

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If the Giants had called the Jets and said "we have a deal for our pick but we'd rather not drop too far...give us a 4th rounder to swap places" do you think the Jets would have agreed?  Or do you think the Giants were actually so concerned that we might take Barkley over Darnold that they didn't want to risk it?  It seems like at the very least they could have held us up for a little more draft capital.  I'm glad they didn't, but it is mind-boggling that they didn't even try.

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MDL_JET

MDL_JET

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3 minutes ago, nycdan said:

If the Giants had called the Jets and said "we have a deal for our pick but we'd rather not drop too far...give us a 4th rounder to swap places" do you think the Jets would have agreed?  Or do you think the Giants were actually so concerned that we might take Barkley over Darnold that they didn't want to risk it?  It seems like at the very least they could have held us up for a little more draft capital.  I'm glad they didn't, but it is mind-boggling that they didn't even try.

I think they were just dead set on Barkley. 

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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12 minutes ago, nico002 said:

Lol in what world is a pre season game “make or break” 

 

10 minutes ago, MDL_JET said:

Darnold is clearly on the bubble. 

Make or break for the starting job is what he meant..which it seems as if Costello tried to overdramatize the situation in order to add an edgy element to the article...but yeah Sam against the starters with real game planning for at least the whole half will be fun to see..and also will be very telling of if he is up to the job.

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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More story lines..

Taking the long view of Saquon Barkley-Sam Darnold debate

They get to see him again, the player they could have selected and groomed as their next franchise quarterback, possibly ensuring three decades of continuous security and stability at the toughest position of all to fill. Friday night, the Giants reconnect with Sam Darnold, the player, after much analysis, they passed over as Eli Manning’s successor.

Instead, the Giants’ new hierarchy recommitted to the 37-year-old Manning and gifted him a prize running back, Saquon Barkley, a selection with the No. 2 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft that allowed the Jets, gleefully, to grab Darnold. These high-end prospects come together for the annual Giants-Jets preseason game at MetLife Stadium, allowing for a refresher on how they got where they are.

Think of the Giants as grading the top of the 2018 quarterback class by sorting the players into three categories: Those they liked, those they liked a lot and those they loved. They liked Darnold a lot. Same with Josh Allen. There was no true love with any of them. 

 

Darnold’s low-slung throwing motion bothered the Giants. His many turnovers in two seasons at USC worried them. They saw his exquisite play-making ability and were intrigued. But who is to say they would have taken him, even if they were dead-set on a quarterback? Allen might have been the pick, as their new head coach, Pat Shurmur, liked his potential best of all.

Plus: Barkley was not only the No. 1 player on their draft board, he was viewed by the Giants as a near-perfect prospect. They were on him early and never got off.

Dave Gettleman, the new general manager, made it clear, despite his confidence in Manning, if he rated one of these incoming quarterbacks as the top player in the draft, he would have taken him after the Browns chose Baker Mayfield at No. 1. As it turned out, the Giants had Barkley and North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb as the top two players on their board. If the Browns had gone with Barkley, the Giants would have taken Chubb.

“If you have to try to make yourself fall in love with a player, it is wrong,’’ Gettleman said on April 26, the day he selected Barkley. “You will never be happy with the pick.’’

Darnold will be doing his thing on the field Friday night. Barkley, finishing up his rehab from a strained left hamstring, will not. That visual, and the daily reminders that Darnold is charging toward the starting job and Barkley has not touched the ball in a game since Aug. 9, is enough for some to already get antsy and give the Jets the inside lane en route to surging to the lead, as if this is actually a race.

To those who insist it takes three years to fully and accurately evaluate an NFL draft, we give you this: Can we know who came out on top of the Giants-Jets 2018 draft sweepstakes in barely more than three months?

Of course not.

Nothing counts, really, until Sept. 9, when the Giants face the Jaguars and then a day later, when the Jets play at Detroit. That is when the meter starts running on the careers of Barkley with the Giants and Darnold with the Jets. There are those who believe these players are inexorably linked, forever, because the Giants with the No. 2 pick could have had Darnold and passed, leaving him for the Jets at No. 3. It is not as simple as that.

Players sharing a draft class are always compared with one another, most often when they share a position. This is not the case with Barkley and Darnold. And since when do the Giants hold themselves up to anything the Jets do? The Giants could not secure Barkley and simultaneously keep Darnold and the other highly rated quarterbacks away from any particular team. You pick one player and the others go elsewhere.

The last time they were on a field together was Jan. 2, 2017 in Pasadena, Calif., and it was a sight to behold. Barkley carried the ball 25 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns and caught it five times for 55 yards and another touchdown. Darnold led a furious fourth-quarter rally with 17 unanswered points in a breathless 52-49 USC victory over Penn State in the highest-scoring Rose Bowl ever, finishing with five touchdown passes and 453 passing yards. All anyone wanting to see greatness in either of these prospects had to do was open their eyes and take a look.

Perhaps Darnold excels against the Giants and nails down the starting job — if he hasn’t already. The Giants have seen enough of Barkley this spring and summer to know they are going to make him the centerpiece of an offense that, yes indeed, has Odell Beckham Jr. 

For now, the Giants are thrilled with the pick of Barkley. The Jets are thrilled with their selection of Darnold. Is there anything wrong with that?

Giants three to see

Showtime: Remember the past few years when the coaching staff said not to worry after Eli Manning and the starting offense stumbled through the preseason and sluggish regular-season openers followed? Manning does not have to light things up in what figures to be his last action until the real thing, but a semblance of what his offense should look like would be comforting to fans anxious to again believe (or to continue believing) in the 37-year-old quarterback.

Fall in line: Moving to a 3-4 defensive front means extra linebackers will stick around. How many? Eight? Nine? Ten? Big performances are needed here to sort through Romeo Okwara, Avery Moss, Ray-Ray Armstrong, Mark Herzlich and Calvin Munson (who is dealing with a concussion). Armstrong looks as if he has played his way onto the team. Connor Barwin appeared safe until he came away sore from the preseason opener. Which players will rise to the occasion?

Best foot forward: Pat Shurmur asked Aldrick Rosas to deliver on a 55-yard field goal attempt last week in Detroit and the second-year kicker nailed it. There does not seem to be much margin for error here as Rosas tries to secure the job he held, shakily, as a rookie last year. Do not be surprised if Shurmur, even if the game situation dictates otherwise, at some point calls for a long field goal attempt just to test Rosas again.

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Beerfish

Beerfish

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I still think Saquon Barkley was and is a massively overrated prospect.  Very very good?  Yes but not worthy of 2nd pick overall and  certainly not worthy of passing on potential franchise qbs.

Browns were fools, giants were just as big of fools.

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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7 minutes ago, Beerfish said:

I still thing Saquon Barkley was and is a massively overrated prospect.  Very very good?  Yes but not worthy of 2nd pick overall and  certainly not worthy of passing on potential franchise qbs.

Browns were fools, giants were just as big of fools.

You pick Barry Sanders with the 2nd pick and that’s it.

Sanders averaged 237 yards per game for his entire career at OSU. That’s the only reason you take a RB at 2.

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Thai Jet

Thai Jet

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1 hour ago, nycdan said:

If the Giants had called the Jets and said "we have a deal for our pick but we'd rather not drop too far...give us a 4th rounder to swap places" do you think the Jets would have agreed?  Or do you think the Giants were actually so concerned that we might take Barkley over Darnold that they didn't want to risk it?  It seems like at the very least they could have held us up for a little more draft capital.  I'm glad they didn't, but it is mind-boggling that they didn't even try.

Sadly no one will ever know for sure. The draft is such a crazy, tension filled time of year for all the teams.

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Jetster

Jetster

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I still can't believe that the Giants took a RB over a possible franchise QB. AP was great, LT, Earl Campbell, and on & on. I can't believe that the Giants feel they have another run in them with that defense. 

Eagles- Cowboys- Skins- Wentz- Prescott- Smith. All 3 of those QBs are ahead of the 37 year old Eli right now. I've said this before, Eli is durable, but that doesn't mean he's aging like Tom Brady. Brady is 4 years older & looks 4 years younger. How cool is this that Geno Smith might have been the catalyst for the Jets landing Sam Darnold. 

Giants fans & the media lost their collective MINDS when Ben McAdoo replaced Eli with our very own Geno Smith. The uproar was so freaking loud that there was no way Gettleman was going to have the fresh faced Darnold backing up the legendary 2 time Super Bowl winner, they had already determined Kyle Lauletta was their man later on in the draft. A guy that could be zero pressure on fans to start over Eli. Darnold is a whole other story. 

Do RBs get 2nd contracts? My guess is Barkley will be long gone way before Sam Darnold is in NY. 

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GATA

GATA

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2 minutes ago, Jetster said:

I still can't believe that the Giants took a RB over a possible franchise QB. AP was great, LT, Earl Campbell, and on & on. I can't believe that the Giants feel they have another run in them with that defense. 

Eagles- Cowboys- Skins- Wentz- Prescott- Smith. All 3 of those QBs are ahead of the 37 year old Eli right now. I've said this before, Eli is durable, but that doesn't mean he's aging like Tom Brady. Brady is 4 years older & looks 4 years younger. How cool is this that Geno Smith might have been the catalyst for the Jets landing Sam Darnold. 

Giants fans & the media lost their collective MINDS when Ben McAdoo replaced Eli with our very own Geno Smith. The uproar was so freaking loud that there was no way Gettleman was going to have the fresh faced Darnold backing up the legendary 2 time Super Bowl winner, they had already determined Kyle Lauletta was their man later on in the draft. A guy that could be zero pressure on fans to start over Eli. Darnold is a whole other story. 

Do RBs get 2nd contracts? My guess is Barkley will be long gone way before Sam Darnold is in NY. 

Agreed, on the first part.

But I don't think Eli is durable they should have taken a QB.

Anyway what do you mean by Before Sam D is in NY?

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Losmeister

Losmeister

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10 minutes ago, GATA said:
15 minutes ago, Jetster said:

Do RBs get 2nd contracts? My guess is Barkley will be long gone way before Sam Darnold is in NY. 

Agreed, on the first part.

But I don't think Eli is durable they should have taken a QB.

Anyway what do you mean by Before Sam D is in NY?

Gone before Sam is gone. 

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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8 minutes ago, BigRy56 said:

It’s time for Sam to forcefully take the job tonight. The Giants are an average at best football team this year, he should put on a good showing.

Hopefully he has a big chip on his shoulder every time that he plays NYG and CLE. I want a f*cking SHOW to be put on!

no mercy.

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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12 minutes ago, GATA said:

Agreed, on the first part.

But I don't think Eli is durable they should have taken a QB.

Anyway what do you mean by Before Sam D is in NY?

Barkley will leave NYG for NYJ because he loves us and he won’t have to move. You’ll see Sam Darnold handing off to Barkley for years and it will scar the Giants and their fan bases.

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GATA

GATA

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1 minute ago, Patriot Killa said:

Barkley will leave NYG for NYJ because he loves us and he won’t have to move. You’ll see Sam Darnold handing off to Barkley for years and it will scar the Giants and their fan bases.

That's some imagination. But if it would happen, I will get back at my cousins and all their butt-fumble jokes

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southparkcpa

southparkcpa

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1 hour ago, Beerfish said:

I still think Saquon Barkley was and is a massively overrated prospect.  Very very good?  Yes but not worthy of 2nd pick overall and  certainly not worthy of passing on potential franchise qbs.

Browns were fools, giants were just as big of fools.

He’s no Blair Thomas ......

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Patriot Killa

Patriot Killa

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51 minutes ago, Jetster said:

I still can't believe that the Giants took a RB over a possible franchise QB. AP was great, LT, Earl Campbell, and on & on. I can't believe that the Giants feel they have another run in them with that defense. 

Eagles- Cowboys- Skins- Wentz- Prescott- Smith. All 3 of those QBs are ahead of the 37 year old Eli right now. I've said this before, Eli is durable, but that doesn't mean he's aging like Tom Brady. Brady is 4 years older & looks 4 years younger. How cool is this that Geno Smith might have been the catalyst for the Jets landing Sam Darnold. 

Giants fans & the media lost their collective MINDS when Ben McAdoo replaced Eli with our very own Geno Smith. The uproar was so freaking loud that there was no way Gettleman was going to have the fresh faced Darnold backing up the legendary 2 time Super Bowl winner, they had already determined Kyle Lauletta was their man later on in the draft. A guy that could be zero pressure on fans to start over Eli. Darnold is a whole other story. 

Do RBs get 2nd contracts? My guess is Barkley will be long gone way before Sam Darnold is in NY. 

I don’t think Eli is legendary at all and I will stand by that for the rest of my life. X3 League Interception Leader and bis 9-7 teams relied on a tough running game and tough defenses.

yes, he made the plays necessary to win it but they didn’t lean on his has hard as tons of other QB’s were leaned on by their franchises.

ELI IS NOT LEGENDARY

ps. Rings don’t mean as much to me when talking about individual greatness anyway. That is a team effort. 

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thshadow

thshadow

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2 hours ago, nycdan said:

If the Giants had called the Jets and said "we have a deal for our pick but we'd rather not drop too far...give us a 4th rounder to swap places" do you think the Jets would have agreed?  Or do you think the Giants were actually so concerned that we might take Barkley over Darnold that they didn't want to risk it?  It seems like at the very least they could have held us up for a little more draft capital.  I'm glad they didn't, but it is mind-boggling that they didn't even try.

I was thinking about this too.  But there wasn't any plausible trade they could make if they wanted Barkley, because Cleveland would have taken him at 4.

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nycdan

nycdan

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6 minutes ago, thshadow said:

I was thinking about this too.  But there wasn't any plausible trade they could make if they wanted Barkley, because Cleveland would have taken him at 4.

They had Chubb as #2 on their board.  Plausible they moved down to #5 with DEN and then would have reasonably expected to get Chubb.  Regardless, it was a case of at least taking a shot.  I forget the year, but about 20 years ago or so, we traded down one pick (from 3 to 4 I believe) with the Cardinals.  They moved up to get Garrison Hearst.  We slid down and got Marvin Jones.  It's rare but it happens.

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