Transcript
Commercial Announcer (0:01)
When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive, reach for a Sprite Winter Spiced Cranberry and put your twist on tradition. A bold cranberry and winter Spice flavor Fusion Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry is a refreshing way to shake things up this sipping season and only for a limited time. Sprite obey your thirst.
Don Hahn (0:24)
This is the Don Hahn and Rosenberg podcast.
Pat O'Keefe (0:28)
That sounds like heaven to me.
Don Hahn (0:29)
Listen live weekday afternoon starting at 3 on 8 80, ESPN, the ESPN New York app and your smart speakers.
Pat O'Keefe (0:37)
All right, taking the baton from Ty Butler, Pat o' Keefe with you and I'll be with you the rest of the way as you get yourselves home this evening ahead of the Christmas Eve Christmas couple of days here in New York City. Hope everyone's doing well. Knicks basketball tonight at 7:30. I'll have that for you as well. Tyler Murray, Wally Zerbiak on the call. Wally back in Minnesota where he enjoyed some success as an NBA player. That's fun. Good matchup between two of the top teams in the NBA. We won't see two of the top players in the NBA. No Jalen Brunson tonight in this new Knicks world under Mike Brown. No OG Anunoby either. So it's the last couple of games. You're starting to see a starter or two. You know, not necessarily like the Deuce McBride and Landry Shamit who are injured, but we're starting to see a little bit of the load management or maintenance that the other teams have been experiencing all of these years that the Knicks certainly did not in the five years under Tom Thibodeau. It's part of the plan to get the Knicks to the next level. Will it work out? We'll see come may, hopefully. June. 1-800-919-3776, the number. We'll talk about the Knicks as we go on and some other NBA stuff. Knicks playing of on Christmas Day. Interesting matchup against the very disappointing Cleveland Cavaliers team. A lot of talk so far today about football and, you know, the local teams. And I was mentioning in my brief interaction with Ty, probably the first one we've had on air in about a year. Always good to catch up with him. But you know, thinking back to last Christmas or Christmas week, right. Literally this time one year ago where The jets, with two games to go were 4 and 11, they were on their way to 5 and 12 and we knew major changes were coming. They had already fired the general manager. They had already fired the head coach. They were playing under an interim head coach who had no chance of Retaining that job, you had a pretty good feeling they were going to move on from Aaron Rodgers and the quarterback position would be different. You know, Salah was prematurely fired. It was a panic firing. When the team started two and three with all those expectations, Jeff Ulbricht came in. He was a disaster. You know, but on top of all of that, en route to 4 and 11 last year, the jets lost legitimately five games that they. That they literally threw away with two hands. That Denver game in the rain at home, there was a New England game where they were still in the playoff hunt. There was a Miami game, there was a Seattle game, there was an Indianapolis game. I mean, it was a disaster. Whereas the silver lining you took away as a Jets fan after last season was if they had some semblance of competent head coaching, you win at least, what, three of those games, right? So the jets finished 5 and 12 last year. Flip three of those five games that they gave away due to poor execution and coaching down the stretch, you're looking at an 8, 9, possibly 9 and 8 team. A team that at least through December, through this time of the calendar year, can consider itself, itself still in the hunt to reach the playoffs. All right, so not that far away. Okay, Good defense, you know, emerging skill position players, One wide receiver, one running back. You know, let's just figure out the coaching situation. Excuse me, the quarterback situation, whether it's Rogers, whether it's somebody else. Let's get a competent, no nonsense head coach here who knows what he's doing. And this could be, you know, a stepping stone. We are not that far away. That's what that was the feeling for the jets last year. All right, now what? 4 and 11 last year, they're 3 and 12 and they're finishing 3 and 14. They're not beating New England, they're not beating Buffalo. Both of those teams are infinitely better, and they need those games down the stretch. Those games are not only going to be jets losses, those games are not going to be close games at all. All right, so my question is how, 12 months later, I mean, I asked this rhetorically to tie, but I'll ask you, how is it worse? How is it worse than it was last year? This was not supposed to be a total rebuild. This was a team that two years ago was 7 and 10 and lost a couple of really tough games, and they did that without their starting quarterback. And then last year, yes, 5 and 12, but 5, just losses that are hard to fathom. Like, mathematically, it was almost impossible for the jets to show the level of incompetence that they did to lose each and every one of those five games. But somehow, congratulations, they were able to accomplish it. The silver lining, though, the bright spot, if you will, was that they weren't that far behind. They weren't that far away. They just needed to figure out the quarterback position. Granted, easier said than done. And they needed to bring the right guy in as the head coach. And they took a big swing at both of those positions. And they missed badly. They swung and missed badly. They've already admitted defeat with Justin Fields. We haven't seen or heard from him in weeks, thankfully, because he was painful to watch on the field. He was never the right guy. You know, Justin Fields can go in. You know, Justin Fields needs Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers offensive line, Christian McCaffrey and all of those other weapons and the 49ers defense and Robert Sala as a defensive coordinator. And then maybe, maybe, maybe Justin Fields can win you nine or 10 games, but he's not coming into a team and lifting it to another level. That's not who he is. He's never been that in the NFL. So they whiffed on that. And listen, Glenn's going to get another crack at this in all likelihood. But if this was like another time, you know, and we didn't have this rash of quick turnover in the NFL, I do think it's becoming an epidemic. Where, you know, it did start with Steve Wilkes in Arizona a couple of years ago, where he was. He had Josh Rosen as his rookie quarterback, who was a disaster. Wilkes got one bite at the apple, he was let go after one year. They brought in Cliff Kingsbury, who had a little bit of success. They brought in Kyler Murray. They basically had the opportunity to pick first, grab the Heisman Trophy winner and completely clean house. But that kind of started a trend of this one and done. As an NFL head coach, that was never done, ever, Right? Guys used to get five years, then they got three years, and now in most cases, you get a minimum of two years. But that worked to some degree of success because the Cardinals actually had some moments and got to the playoffs. It's been a resounding success in New England this year, and that was a perfect storm, though. You had Gerard Mayo, who was so bad, as the head coach of the Patriots last season, and you also had Mike Vrabel, a known commodity, former Patriot, had a lot of success as a head coach in Tennessee, wanted the job. And the only good thing that came out of last season for The Patriots was Drake May clearly showing that he is a more than this is last year, now more than adequate starting quarterback in the NFL. So why wouldn't a guy like Mike Vrabel want that job? Well, Vrabel jumped at it. They moved on from Mayo and look where they are right now. But that's becoming like a little bit of a trend and I do think the NFL teams want to avoid that. First of all, it's expensive. You, you, you sign these head coaches to four and five year contracts. You let them go after a year, you're paying, you're on the hook paying at least two head coaches millions of dollars for three, four years at a clip. I understand these guys seemingly have endless money, but rich people don't get rich by setting their money on fire. And NFL owners are rich, all right? So they want to avoid that at all costs. The Giants, the only reason Brian Daboll came back this year was because John Marra hired Ben McAdoo, who didn't even make it two full seasons. And then Pat Shermer, two seasons gone. Joe Judge, two seasons gone. Dable bought himself time going to the playoffs his first season. The next two seasons were so bad that if the Giants didn't have that recent history of two and out for their previous three head coaches, Dable would have been gone. That's the only reason they brought him back this year, and that's going to be the only reason the jets bring Aaron Glenn back next year. There's a couple of other reasons. He's a Jet, right? So there's, there's a relationship to the organization. You know, he's got the strong relationship with some influential people throughout the NFL and he's been an influential person throughout the NFL. He was a good player. He was a good defensive coordinator on some very good teams recently. Listen, the credentials, I don't fault the hire based on the credentials. The fact that he is tied to the organization and the success that his defense, his defense has had in Detroit the last couple of years. Right, but when you sometimes when you know, you know, and I'm sorry, but if, if there's anybody out there that's like really excited about year two under Aaron Glenn and thinking that, yeah, he took some lumps and it's a rebuilding situation, but he got it. He's got to get his footing under him and next year it's going to be a different story. Is that really what we think? Because what I think is he's not right for this job and they're going to Bring him back. And that's going to set them back another year. They started this season with a brand new head coach and a brand new quarterback, and they missed. They not only missed on both of them, they missed badly on both of them. And that's why, where it seemed like last year, things couldn't get worse for the jets, it's worse somehow. And again, that is almost hard to do. That's almost as hard to do as losing those five games last year. The offense is worse. The defense is what you, you would hang your hat on, right? When Zach Wilson and Mike White were the starting quarterbacks, I mean, that seems like a lifetime ago. That was two seasons ago, when Zach Wilson and Mike White were the starting quarterbacks in 2023, when Rodgers had ruptured the Achilles in the first game. And the jets were, you know, in the playoff hunt before they lost their last, what, five games of the season. They were in the playoff hunt because of their defense. Their defense was the reason why Aaron Rodgers wanted to come to New York and play anyway, because he's like, they're only missing me. Well, where is that defense now? It's a, it's a, it's a joke. They just gave up what they give up. 40 points, 34, whatever. It doesn't even matter. I. I can't even stay in it to the end of these games. Which is the overall. My, my level of frustration as a football fan here in New York is the fact that this is when you take the jets and you combine them with the Giants. I mean, it is like Groundhog Day. I know that's like a cliche to say, but seriously, every single year we get to December, we have two football teams, right? So the odds of us here in New York getting to enjoy a fun season, one way or another should be double what it is in pretty much every other market except for Los Angeles, right? We haven't had. We've had one fun NFL season in like, a decade. How is it possible that the two teams that play in the same freaking building. An awful building, by the way. An awful building. It's overpriced, it's hard to navigate, it's ugly, it's not comfortable, and that's not even getting to what's going on on the field. Then you add that into it. How is it that we have two teams in the same building that, flip a coin, 1 or 1A have been by far the most inept franchises in the NFL for the last eight years. How is that possible? I mean, you talk about Mismanagement at the highest level. And here we are again, you know, playing out the string. If you're a Giants fan this week, in years past, you desperately want your team to lose, so you hold on to that number one pick. Remember the Giants, and I haven't even really gotten to them yet, but they're worse off, it seems, than a year ago. Also, this time last year, The Giants were 2 and 13, and they were in possession of the number one overall pick, needing a quarterback. All right, and that was the game where Drew Locker went out and beat the Indianapolis Colts and the Giants fans were livid. Giants fell to the number three overall pick, picked a talented guy out of Penn State and Abdul Carter, who's had a checkered rookie season, but certainly no reason to give up on him yet. Giants are in the same spot this year, 2 and 13, holding the number one pick. I guess if you're a Giants fan, it's a little different because you feel that you have your. Your quarterback now, and I think that you do. Okay, two weeks ago, I was saying that much more definitively, you have your quarterback. I don't need to see anything else from Jackson Dart. He's the guy. But the last two or three weeks, and if you want to take it back even further to when he got the concussion and had to leave the game against Chicago, yes, the first five or six weeks of Jackson Dart were incredibly exciting. I mean, the swagger, the opening drive, touchdowns, the way he just kind of laid it out there, hurting you with his arm, hurting you with his legs. He really did for like a month and a half, inject a lot of life into this organization. But the caution I always give to, to NFL teams who pick at the top of the draft, who just feel that they need to pick the best quarterback and they're going to plug him in and it's going to be all good. The caution is if you are in the wrong situation, your career can be derailed before it's even had the chance to take off. And the last three or four weeks, between the injuries and the additional visits to the blue tent for Jackson Dart, now you're starting to see the frustration. He hasn't said anything inappropriate yet, but you can clearly see the frustration from him after these games when he's at the podium. I'm not sitting here today on December 23rd saying 100%, the Giants have their quarterback for the next 10 years. I was saying that two, three weeks ago with excitement, with glee. All right, I'm not saying that right now. I Think that this incompetent organization and this awful leadership from Joe Shane to Brian Daboll, now Mike Kafka and the whole other cast of characters, I think they're taking a toll on him and they're beating him down. So while I open by talking about the Jets, a lot of the same stuff can apply to the Giants. And I mean we just went through a whole year. You know, it's the end of the year, it's the holiday season. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, New Year's is a week plus away. This is time for humans to kind of like take stock. In the last year, what did I accomplish? What do I want to accomplish this year? Am I better off at the end of 2025 than I was at the end of 2024? How is it possible that the Giants and the jets will were as bad as bad could be at the end of 2024? And here we are as we approach the end of 2025, each team is arguably somewhat worse. How is that even possible? And where is the hope? This is also supposed to be the time for hope, eternal hope, all of that stuff. Where is the hope? Jets don't have a quarterback. Giants are doing everything they can to knock the swagger out of their quarterback. And here we are again, just another Sunday coming up where whatever team you root for, they're just playing out the string. It's awful. It's really, it's as bad as it possibly can be. 1-800-919-3776 let's go to the phones and start with OG in Sacramento. OG what's going on man?
