After the New York Jets dragged their feet doing Hard Knocks with HBO this past Training Camp, their stadium roommates have given HBO and NFL Films unprecedented access. The Jets were apprehensive, but the Giants, on the other hand, have told HBO to take its shoes off and make itself at home.
They practically have. After Chris “Mad Dog” Russo torched the Giants ‘ editorial control of Hard Knocks , saying he wouldn’t watch if they filmed it in his backyard, HBO has set up shop in the team’s living room.
This off-season edition of the reality sports docuseries has made viewers privy to the entire decision-making process. The in-depth access has provided a unique perspective on Giants general manager Joe Schoen’s strategies and how he’s building the team for the upcoming season.
Because of that, longtime NFL executive Michael Lombardi sounded off on the Giants’ strategy during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday. While praising the unprecedented access provided by Hard Knocks , Lombardi expressed concern about the team’s approach.
“I can’t believe the access that we’ve gotten,” Lombardi said. “I think it’s a tremendous show, but I can’t believe the access the Giants have allowed inside their building. For me, it’s a little bit of a difficult to watch, in the sense that the Giants are one of the most historic franchises that I’ve learned a lot from because of my relationship with (Bill) Belichick, my relationship with Bill Parcells and studying the National Football League. When I first started in 1984, the 49ers and the Giants had some similarities in terms of grading systems and all that.
“What I find missing in terms of what I watch this show is there’s no identity for the Giants. There’s no systematic ‘This is who we are.’ And that started in 1979 when the great George Young came in and said basically, ‘We’re going to create a system of scouting that’s gonna put a team on the field that has great size and speed.’ I watch this show and I see a team that is basically every player is evaluated individually. So, they’re adding talent, not building a team. That’s my one concern.
“The second concern I have; I watched last night’s show. Look, to me, the offseason is about you sit in a room as a general manager during the season, and you have three things you’re working on. You’re working on your team, and you have to put together a list, ‘Here’s what we must have in order to have a competitive team next year.’
“And those three things are in one column. ‘This is what we need to have a better team next year,’ that’s column two. And ‘This is what we want to have as a better team.’ That came from Bill Parcells. He was the one who echoed that. And you work off that list.
“And when you enter free agency, you’re entering it based on how you set up your team needs…and then you figure out what player you can get that can adhere to those things. And so, when I watch it, everything comes down to, ‘We can get this guy. OK, well, maybe we get that guy.’
“And everybody has a different opinion. The great thing the great Charlie Munger once said, he said, ‘If you want to make a bad decision, ask a lot of people.’ And that’s what I watch when I see that.”
Lombardi is not the only one who has a problem with what he sees. FS1’s Colin Cowherd had some similar concerns and also brought up Schoen’s relationship with owner, president, and CEO John Mara.
“The one thing I do know about being a general manager…you gotta have some sort of relationship with the owner that’s comfortable,” Cowherd said on Wednesday’s The Herd. “You have to trust the owner. You have to be able to read your owner’s temperament…Sometimes — almost all the time — the owner thinks he knows more about football than he does.
“But there was a moment, so, John Mara’s sitting there on the table. And this is before Saquon Barkley, in free agency, left for the rival Eagles.
“The GM is Joe Schoen, a handsome, young guy from Buffalo. He’s got two underlings in the chairs. Watch all the body language with this, and listen as Mara is just really uncomfortable with his star, Saquon Barkley, going to rival Philadelphia, potentially.”
You can watch the aforementioned clip below.
“That’s really bad. Like, the owner’s not happy. Joe Schoen’s smiling. The underlings have their head(s) down. Like, it’s really uncomfortable. And he doesn’t have an answer…That’s Mickey Mouse. Joe Schoen smiling, the underlings are uncomfortably looking down, the owner’s got his hand on his face.
“And Joe Schoen’s answer is, ‘Well, I don’t really know.’ If Lachlan Murdoch, who owns this company, was in my morning meeting and said, ‘I’d be really uncomfortable if you didn’t talk about soccer a lot today,’ you know what my lead would be? Soccer.
“Read the room. Read the owner. The bottom line is that maybe Mara created some of this stuff because he wanted to re-sign Daniel Jones. And I don’t think anybody else in the world wanted to in New York. But I watch the Giants here and there is a disconnect between owner and GM and I’m uncomfortable watching it…I’m uncomfortable watching Joe Schoen there.
“Bro, you gotta have answers. When Billionaires walk into rooms, if I know I’m gonna have a member of the Murdoch family in a room I’m in, I’d prep for it. Even if it’s over a glass of wine and a brief 90-second conversation, I’m ready to roll. If that’s what the GM-owner conversations look like…
“And it’s so predictable for Joe Schoen and the Giants. Saquon’s gonna go crush in Philadelphia. Howie Roseman’s working the Giants, he gets a great player and he’s gonna create angst inside that Giants building all season because you know he’s gonna go to New York and rush for 120 yards and two touchdowns and the backpage of the New York Post is gonna be ‘Oh No, Joe.'”
With Lombardi and Cowherd raising concerns about the Giants’ strategy and owner-GM dynamic, all eyes are on Schoen. It remains to be seen if he can build a successful team despite the apparent lack of identity and potential communication issues within the organization.
The transparency of Hard Knocks likely won’t translate to any on-field success for the Giants.
[ Pat McAfee Show , The Herd ]
The post Colin Cowherd and Michael Lombardi question Giants based on ‘Hard Knocks’ reveals appeared first on Awful Announcing .
Most Popular
Comments / 0