Should New York Giants Be Buyers or Sellers at Trade Deadline? NFL Insider Jordan Schultz Weighs In

This is the Locked On Podcast Network, celebrating 10 years of your team every day. The NFL season is finally here, and Locked On NFL is covering every second of it. You can find us breaking down all the action on Amazon Music every single day with bold takes and real analysis that matters. Opening day storylines, roster moves. If it's happening with your team, we're on it. No waiting, no fluff. Subscribe on Amazon Music and never miss a snap. On today's Locked On Giants podcast, I'm joined by NFL insider Jordan Schultz, who talks trade, JJ McCarthy and a whole lot more. You are Locked On Giants, your daily New York Giants podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello, New York Giants fans and welcome to another edition of the Locked On Giants podcast. I am your host, Patricia Traina. On today's Locked On Giants podcast, Jordan Schultz, NFL insider, you know him. He's the guy who breaks all the big stories, joins me on the podcast. This is an interview that I've been after for well over a year. We were finally able to work the schedules out so that Jordan could join me. And in a timely manner at that, we talk about JJ McCarthy, we talk about the upcoming trade deadline. What teams are for real? What is the NFL gonna do about the officiating problem? And so much more on today's episode. Jordan was just tremendous and I so appreciate him coming on. And today's episode of Locked On Giants is brought to you by our friends over at Kalshi. For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use the promo code LOCKEDON to get up to $25 in bonus credits when you trade 25. All right, giant fans, without any further delay, here is my interview with NFL insider Jordan Schultz. All right, giant fans, I am so honored this morning to have with me a man whose work I have admired for a long time. He is an up and coming, actually, he is not up and coming, he is there. He is an NFL insider, Jordan Schultz. He breaks the stories, beats everybody to the punch, and I just am so thrilled to have him on the program. Jordan, thank you so much for your time today. Patricia, it's my pleasure and I really appreciate the kind words, thank you. Well, I mean, because you have worked hard, I have followed you since way back when you started as an insider and you were trying to build up some traction and now here you are. Thank you, yeah, it's definitely been a journey and like anything else, I think if you're really passionate about it, you make it happen, you know? Right, right, and you have made it happen. So Jordan, let's jump right in. I'm going to ask you a little bit about some league matters and then I want to get to some specific giant stuff if that's okay. For sure. A big question that I think has kind of developed leaguewide has to do with the officiating. Now we saw what happened with the Cardinals game, how a couple of officials were suspended for their behavior and whatnot. And there's this feeling that officials just aren't as accountable as they maybe should be. And I'm just wondering what have you heard regarding the direction to maybe make officials more accountable to the league? Well for the first time that I can remember, Patricia, you're having officials that are being publicly suspended. I mean, what happened on Sunday I think was not an isolated incident. When you're talking about week four, you had two officials suspended. You mentioned the one with Minnesota where the official says, F you to Trey McBride. And then you also had, or that was the Arizona game. You also had the Minnesota game where the official, Adrian Hill falls down and then almost seems to coerce the Vikings player Wilson into a worse argument. It felt to me as if he wanted to get into some type of fight. I thought that was very strange. And so the league, there's a lot of factors to this. For one is that the referees have a union, the referees have their own set of autonomy, but the league suspending two different referees after really what was very poor actions, I thought was a good step. The other thing too would be like, you got to really start finding guys. I mean, if you're going to hold NFL players accountable the way that they do, with everything from celebrations to uniforms to shoes, anything in between, then you should be holding the refs accountable as well. And then the other thing too is like, I've always said this, Patricia, but the NFL refs are not full-time employees. You know, in the NBA, they are full-time employees. And I think that the NFL, with respect to other sports, is probably the hardest sport to referee and officiate. The speed at which the game operates is unbelievable. And unless you've been on the field during a game, you really can't fathom how fast it is. So I don't envy them. But I think that the league suspending two refs was a good first step. But I think there needs to be more, including more fines and less room for error when it comes to those types of actions. Everybody's gonna make mistakes when it comes to the calls that are very subjective, but those actions cannot be tolerated. Jordan, where do you see the, I guess, the cry for full-time officials going? I mean, do you think it's realistic? And why hasn't it happened basically yet? I mean, it seems easy enough to do. Or am I oversimplifying things? You know, I would say that they did something in the last year, Patricia, where they started paying referees more so throughout the year, basically giving them some type of annual salary. That was a good step. But I don't see any scenario on the verge of happening where the refs are suddenly full-time employees. I mean, the NBA's argument is that they're 82 games and they're on the road much more. The NFL ref is much more seasonal. Obviously, it's just 17 games. One of the other things too is like, you have referees that come to practice and do practices, but those are essentially division three referees, division two, low division one. They're not at the same level of the referees that are doing the games. I think one way, if you were to make referees full-time and you wanted to justify it more, were to have them come to practices. Imagine if a referee, and I was talking about this with the coach last week, even before week four, we were just going through it, and I was saying, imagine if you had a referee that was, or a crew, that was officiating, let's say, Seahawks Cardinals for on a Sunday, right? What if that crew was at Seattle, Arizona, throughout the week, and they were getting to know the players and coaches and talking about what they're looking for? Wouldn't that give more transparency, as opposed to, let's say, division three ref, who's refereeing a Tuesday practice, or a Wednesday practice, I should say. There's little things you can do, and I've canvassed the league for the last couple of few weeks, coaches, executives, players. One thing everyone's scared of is getting fined. No one wants to get fined. And that's a real problem as well. Jordan, one last question on the referee thing. The NFL seems to really protect them. I mean, players cannot criticize them. Coaches cannot criticize them. The media, if they want to talk to them, they have to go through a pool reporter. Does that change? I mean, it just seems so weird if you... Okay, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The NFL does so many things so well, and this is just not one of them. It feels like it's a relic when it comes to that. I mean, you also have one of the big problems in my mind is that the players, coaches, executives, these teams feel strongly that not only are they worried to get fine, but there's a sense, Patricia, that the referees are there. The referees feel like the fans are coming to see them, too. I do a show once a week with Keyshawn Johnson, and he's obviously a big personality, and I asked him if he ever had any run-ins with refs, and his answer surprised me to a degree. He said he didn't really have issues with the referees, but what he had problems with was, you know, sometimes in the pregame where you'd be told your uniform needs to be adjusted or your cleats, and he took it a step further and he said they would always tell us don't make that referee famous. Don't let them be famous off of you. And I think some of the referees, maybe not all of them, but a portion of them feel as if the game is also about them, and it's not. 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All right, Jordan, we are now inside, I think it's less than a month before the trade deadline. Yes. What is your anticipation based on some of what you're hearing? Do you think this will be a very active trade period in these last few weeks? The trades, I don't think the trade market heats up for another two weeks. Because, what happened last year when the league pushed the deadline from, it was basically Halloween, it was the 31st, and they pushed it back a week. And the reason they did that, this was a good move, was so that they could give teams the opportunity another extra week to assess the situation, figure out where they're at, where they're not at. Do they want to be buyers or sellers? That was a good move and it's given teams more time. And I think last year you saw it to a degree where teams took, the trade market did not heat up by and large until the last couple few days of trade deadline week. I anticipate maybe a little earlier this year, let's call it within a week, week and a half of the deadline. But I don't think it's going to be, I don't think you'll hear a lot of stuff until then. I do think it will be a very active deadline. I think that most teams right now, maybe let's call it 25 of them, 23 of them still feel like they have a great shot to make the playoffs. By the deadline, I think that number might be dwindled down to 18 to 20. That's still a lot of teams that want to be buyers and let's call it 10 teams that will be sellers. I think it will be an active deadline. Specifically, I want to ask you about the Giants because they have been pretty active with changing over the roster, you know, the bottom of the roster. They made the JJ McCarthy trade. What makes sense to you regarding the Giants? What have you heard? Yeah. So they had... I give the Giants credit for being three in one and winning two in a row and I think this is a... I believe it's a good football team. I think one of the keys for the Giants, you've seen Arvel Reese now start to percolate. You can see the talent. He's going to be a great player. You know, I had reported in the off season about a potential Kayvon Thibodeaux trade. They ended up not doing it and the Saints ended up going after Tyree Wilson instead. But the Saints and the Giants had engaged at one point on Thibodeaux talks. The pass rush has been good. The question I would say is, how aggressive do they want to be when it comes to the deadline? Let's hypothetically play it out and say, they're 4-2 next couple of weeks, right? And Jameis is playing well, which I think he has. I would anticipate that the Giants with a first-year head coach who knows what a Super Bowl team is and a GM who, quite frankly, I didn't think would be in this position. I didn't think he was going to be retained at this time last season. But, to his credit, he is, and this is, to me, probably a buying team, assuming that the wheels don't fall off in the next few weeks. You mentioned Kayvon Thibodeaux. I mean, at this point, you know, given the Brian Burns injury, does it pay to just keep him, or do you think there would be a market for him? I think there would be a market. You know, it's so funny. It's not the right word. It's so, I guess it's interesting to me how most teams value mid-round picks at a very high premium. Most teams hate to give up picks anyway, but mid-round picks are of extra value. You know, those that third, fourth, fifth, those are picks that teams hate to give up. And I think for Thibodeaux, that's what it would be at this point. You know, he's still a young player, but you would have to, it would either be an injury, a team that has an injured rusher, or the Giants is saying we want to cut ties because we're four and a half years into this thing and we don't feel that he's part of the future here. I don't know the answer to that just yet. I think there'll be more clarity in the next couple of weeks. Okay, now Jordan, let me ask you about the NFC East because we saw Dallas get absolutely smothered by Tampa Bay. That was a rough game for Dallas. But you look at what Philadelphia is doing as well. They just traded away their starting center to the Ravens. Washington has struggled. I know Jaden Daniels has been injured. But what do you think of the NFC East? I mean, is it realistic to, I mean, can the Giants win this one? Or is it just a matter of luck and bad luck? Right. I think the Giants, I feel they could contend in the division. I think Philadelphia is an enigma, you know, and they've had some real injury problems, especially at running back. I mean, Saquon, Tank. They also haven't featured Devontae Smith the way I thought they would. You know, when they made the trade to move on from AJ Brown, my anticipation was, okay, Devontae Smith goes from being the 1B to the Alpha 1A. And last year with Kevin Petullo, who's basically Nick Sariani's best friend, you know, the offense was a mess. And this year, it's been Jekyll and Hyde as well. And I don't know what the reason for that is. And Devontae Smith should be featured more. I guess what I'm saying about Philadelphia is the jury is very much still out on them. They have a tough game in London with Jacksonville this weekend. They're 2-2. They almost lost to the Titans. It feels like that season could go either way. And they just lost, in a span of 4 days, 3 days, their 2 best linemen, arguably, other than Milata, with Lane Johnson retiring and he mentioned the Juergens trade. Now, they did get back a second round pick. That was a lot. Washington, I think this was always going to be a season that was going to be an uphill battle in terms of, I still think offensively they don't have the weaponry they need. I've been very vocal about that. I love the two receivers, McLaurin and Diggs, but the offensive line, they never really address center. The offensive line has had injuries as well. I just, I think that that team is, and then you mentioned Dallas. That's the biggest mystery to me. I said Enigma, that's Dallas. I thought going into last night, I thought, you know what? They played a great week four game. This team is on the rise now. They hire this, what was called a prodigy in Christian Parker, their defensive coordinator. They're dead last in every category defensively. It makes no sense to me. You watch the Tampa game against a undrafted rookie and Jalen Daniels making his second career start and they can't get off the field. And it's not that they don't have good players. They have a lot of good players on that defense. So that team, I don't get it all. I mean, I have no concept of how to predict Dallas. I think the Giants long winded answer within considering all those all those factors. This is a team that can win 910 games and can contend in the division. I don't think this is an 11 win division team. I think 10 wins in that division and you can probably win it. I had a conversation recently. I found out that something I didn't realize, which I thought was interesting. Jameis Winston is on the leadership council player voted eight players before the season. I thought that was pretty cool for a QB2 backup to be voted on. It speaks to the impact he has on that team. I think he's also a captain too. To that end, let me just stay there for a second because it seems like a lot of people are like, when's JJ McCarthy going to take over for Jameis Winston? I just want to get your sense of, as you mentioned, Jameis is very well-respected. He is on the Leadership Council. I believe he's a captain. What would that do to the locker room if they just said, okay, you know what, Jameis, you sit down. We're going to play JJ McCarthy. Do you see a scenario with that? And by the way, where does JJ McCarthy maybe fit in for the future? Because we know Jaxson Dart is the starter or is he? No, no, Dart's the guy and they want him to be the guide for the next decade. And that was a big blow. There was a misconception, I think, nationally about the McCarthy trade. Patricia, which was to say they did not trade for JJ McCarthy to supplant Jameis Winston. They traded for him because the price had gone significantly down. Jim Harbaugh and John Harbaugh had multiple conversations about the type of person and player he can be. I think, as it was explained to me, John Harbaugh loved his hockey background, his toughness, some of the winning, a lot of the winning he did at Michigan, but he was not gonna be the starter. Now, I'm not saying there's not a scenario in which he doesn't play this year, but, you know, Jameis is 2-0 as a starter. He had three touchdowns last week, and to what we've been saying, he's got the heart, he is the heartbeat in many ways of that locker room. And I know his relationship with Matt Nagy has been really positive. He's calling plays. I don't see a scenario anytime soon in which JJ is playing. And I think as long as Jameis continues to play well, it will be a minute before JJ is on the field. Now, there is an evaluation process with JJ in practice happening, in meetings, because they do want to see whether or not someone drafted that high and that young is capable of being a backup or even a starter at some point. That's kind of interesting because, you know, with JJ, you know, the feeling is, is he can do a little bit more closer to what Jaxson Dart was able to do. And John Harbaugh has even talked about, you know, there's a package of plays that they kind of have developed for him. So, I mean, does it make sense to maybe, I don't know. Get them on the field a little bit? Yeah, get them on the field in certain situations. I, it wouldn't shock me if there were, because they are putting in a package. It wouldn't shock me if he dig it on the field in specific situations, but not as a starter. I mean, that would really surprise me because if, you know, if Jameis were to play really badly in the cup for a couple of weeks in a row and they lost two in a row, I think it's a different conversation. I don't really anticipate that happening. I mean, they, not only did they sign Jameis, but they extended him and they gave him real money, two-year extension. And that was, I think, a manifestation of how they feel about him, knowing that if he did need to start and play, he could win them football games. There's a lot more unknown, though, about JJ McCarthy than Jameis. You know, this is still a really young player in this league. And the consensus on him coming out of the draft was that Minnesota had really liked Penix. They had other guys they liked, but they fell in love with JJ McCarthy, and they felt like he was going to be the future. It didn't happen, but the Giants, at some point, he will play at some point, I would imagine, but I'm thinking more of a supplemental role. 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So go on and make every game more exciting. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app right now and make this your most rewarding season ever with FanDuel or visit fanduel.com to get started. Jordan, going back to the league, at this point, I know we're only, well, we just started week five, but we'll say through four weeks, who are the pretenders and who are the teams that you think at this point are for real? Okay, let's think AFC. I'll start with the Raiders. I think the Raiders are way better than I thought they'd be. I did not anticipate a team this fast with Kirk Cousins playing at this level, because they started 3-0, and even the Kansas City game, I thought they were really in it and had a chance. So I think the Raiders are for real, as let's call it, your upstart team in the AFC. I think the Chiefs, to me right now, the Chiefs are the best team in football. I mean, they're 4-0. They have the league's leading rusher by far, by 100 yards. They're running the ball at any league clip. And Patrick Mahomes, I feel like every game has gotten a little more comfortable. Green Bay, I thought, was going to be at a higher level. Green Bay and Detroit both. And I feel like one of those teams will be able to take it to another level or two. You know, Detroit, on paper, once they get Brian Branch back, who's one of the premier safeties in football, and even potentially Kirby Joseph, I think the defense will improve a lot. Green Bay, I don't know what's quite happened to them, Patricia. I mean, it seems like every week they try to give a game away. And there's too much talent on that roster. You know, Matt LaFleur, their head coach, who's been there several years now, it felt like he was sort of on the hot seat to close the season. He ended up surviving. And they've had a very strange start to the season. So I'm a little more confident in Detroit that they would be able to fix this thing. And Dan Campbell. Let me think about this. I'm going through my... I like Atlanta and Carolina. Carolina, the record's not there yet quite, but what you're seeing from Bryce Young is pretty spectacular. This is a guy who was benched for Andy Dalton, basically forgotten about. It looked like they might trade him. And I think he's been a top five quarterback to start the season. He's been awesome. The connection with the two receivers, McMillan and Coker, and then Atlanta goes 0-2 to begin the season. And now with Pennex back, I mean, Bijan Robinson, I had Adrian Peterson on my show yesterday. He said Bijan Robinson is the best running back in football. It's hard to argue that. But now the Pennex back, you're going to see what that does for Drake London, who had 190 yards the first week and then had played well again. And then obviously you'll see Kyle Pitch at some point here start to go. So I like both of those teams. Let me give you a team that has done well, but I need to see more. I'm trying to think about that. I'll go with Buffalo. I like Buffalo a lot and everyone loves Josh Allen. But defensively, they still, it still feels to me like they have the same problems they had under Sean McDermott, where if Josh Allen doesn't play really, really well, it's very hard for them to win. And you look across the board and you see what that defensive line is. You see Greg Rousseau, who's leading the League in Sachs, and Dion Walker, who's fantastic, and Wayne Carter, another good defensive tackle. It's, at some point, I would expect Buffalo's defense to create more turnovers. But I'm, if I'm a Bills fan, I can't help but feel like, okay, we, we're too good of a team to give up this many points. And you saw the New England game. You know, Drake May had struggled for three weeks. He was playing the worst football of his career. And then he comes in and he plays really well, has three touchdowns. I just think Buffalo is too good of a team. That would be a club I'd look at and say, I know there's more there. Real quick, Giants, pretenders or what? I think they're, they're not a pretender. I don't know if they're a contender. What would be in the middle? They're like Dark Horse, Dark Horse, because I think that's a 9-10-1 team. So that's a Dark Horse team. And there's a sense of belief, sort of, and a lightness to them that they haven't had. And maybe that's the coach. You got to give credit to John Harbaugh. But I like the Giants, Patricia. I've been, I've probably been about as bullish on them as anyone, just because I, you can see sort of the DNA of it that it's working. Yeah, definitely. I mean, Giant fans certainly have a lot of reason these days to smile. Jordan, before I let you go, tell everybody out there what you got. I know you've got a YouTube channel, you've got a podcast, you're all over the place. Check out the YouTube channel, Schultz Report. That's where, obviously all my socials, but Schultz Report is where the show lives. Lots of good guests. I mentioned Adrian Peterson, that was a good one. I'm just trying to tell stories, you know, and uncover the, go beneath the helmet. I think in football, it's very hard because the helmet is such a guy's. So if you can uncover the helmet, there's a lot of cool stories to be told. So, you know, thank you for having me on. I know we've been talking about it for at least a year and it's, I'll be happy to do it again. Jordan, I can't thank you enough. I know you're a busy man. So thank you. Everybody check him out. He's amazing. He's a good guy. Jordan Schultz, NFL Insider. Giant fans, thanks so much for tuning in to today's episode of Locked On Giants.