Lou Catalano asks: Could you please explain the rule concerning kickoffs going out of bounds? In the Giants/Washington game, the ball bounced in bounds, the returner stepped out of bounds, then caught the ball while his knee was touching the ground in bounds. What ever happpened to the old John Madden maxim that one knee equals two feet?
Ed says: Lou, you weren’t the only confused by this. The rulebook says:
“A ball that is in player possession is out of bounds when the runner is out of bounds.”
On
kickoffs, this is a bit of a loophole. Credit Luke McCaffrey of the Commanders for knowing the rule and making a great play. If you plant your feet out of bounds, then touch a ball that is inbounds, it makes the ball considered to be out of bounds. That creates a kickoff out of bounds and puts the ball at the 40-yard line.
I have seen this happen a couple of times. I have also seen players mess this up by either catching the ball and stepping out of bounds, or by picking the ball up inbounds right near the sideline and trying to return it.
David Silver asks: I’m trying to make sense out of the last throw JJ McCarthy made to Nabers that was intercepted. It looks like McCarthy hung the ball up based on the trajectory. It also gave Nabers plenty of time to get it sighted. Douglas comes from behind to high point Nabers, but it also looked like he hit Nabers early. But that is a 50/50 ball Nabers wants. My question is, bad throw, bad catch attempt, great defensive play, or pass interference?
Ed says: David, sometimes you just have to give the other guy credit. I have watched this play a bunch of times, and I listened to Nabers and John Harbaugh talk about it on Friday.
Washington sent a zero blitz, rushing more players than the Giants could block and forcing J.J. McCarthy to make a split-second decision. His decision was to give the Giants’ best receiver a chance to make a play. Right decision? Wrong decision? Harbaugh just said it was the decision that McCarthy made. Douglas didn’t interfere with Nabers. Nabers said he was focused on tracking the ball and knew there was a defender in the area, but didn’t know where. Douglas did not interfere with Nabers. He just ended up making a play.
The Giants have won a couple of games like that this season. The other guys get paid, too.
Raymond Dansereau asks: How much better are the Giants really than last year? Last year they had a tough schedule and close losses; this year, they’re playing a weak schedule and really not always looking great. Defense seems better, but is this a 10-7 playoffs team that gets beaten badly in the first round? Or, does this look like sustainable improvement? Or too soon to say?
Ed says: Raymond, I can’t go position-by-position or player-by-player in a mailbag response. I think the real answer is that the Giants are better simply because they have John Harbaugh and they are coached better. It doesn’t hurt that this team has Arvell Reese, either.
The Giants are winning close games, which they couldn’t do last year. A lot of that is coaching, whether it is in-game decisions or just preparing players well enough that they believe they are supposed to make plays and win close games.
If it is a 9-7-1 playoff team that gets bounced in the first round, what’s wrong with that? The Giants won seven games combined the past two seasons — a playoff berth would be a fantastic accomplishment. Sustainable improvement? The NFL is such a week-to-week and year-to-year league that is impossible to say. As long as Harbaugh is the coach, though, the Giants have a chance to be relevant. That is a massive improvement.
Matt Smith asks: We’ve had four failures in a row at the head coach position. They are bookended by two Hall of Fame coaches. My question is, seeing how far the gap is between Daboll and Harbaugh, do you find it surprising how long we waited to move on from him? It seems more and more apparent to me that we had talent that we could’ve done with if we had a professional head coach with standards. The red flags were always there.
Ed says: Matt, I’m not at all surprised that the Giants waited as long as they did to move on from Brian Daboll. look at the Giants’ track record:
- Ben McAdoo lasted less than two full seasons.
- Pat Shurmur was fired after two seasons.
- Joe Judge was fired (well, he kinda fired himself) after two seasons.
You cannot get ahead when you have to keep blowing things up and starting over every two years. That means an entire new coaching staff, gutting most of the roster, and starting over. You can never institute a real philosophy or build anything that way.
John Mara knew it, and he said several times that he knew he needed to be more patient than he had been.
Daboll had a shockingly good first season and won Coach of the Year. The Giants could have justified firing him and GM Joe Schoen after a 3-14 2024 season, but chose not to.
Mike Vrabel got hired by New England that offseason. Zero chance he was picking the Giants over the Patriots, the team he played for an an organization he loves. Ben Johnson got hired by the Bears. No chance he was picking the Giants over the Bears, who already had Caleb Williams in place. Liam Coen got hired by the Jaguars, but nobody knew that would work out as well as it had.
It was really the 2025 season when it became clear that the coaching staff wasn’t maximizing the talent of the players.
Adam Singer asks: During the game against the Eagles, it looked like some of the players had a diagonal line through the word “GIANTS” on their helmets while others did not. What was going on there?
Ed says: Adam, the word ‘GIANTS’ was underlined. I think what you saw was the chinstrip, which buckles on the side of the helmet, protruding over the lettering on some of the helmets.
Ronald Lukoff asks: I usually do not disagree with a lot of your comments but I do take exception to your thoughts about the Giants making a blockbuster trade today (this is written Tuesday morning). I have been a Giant fan since 1956. I have seen a lot of success and a lot of failure. This team is made up of a lot of draft picks and I really do not want to give up future draft choices for a player that can give us a division title. This team has only played one team with a record above .500. Do you really think that one player is worth losing draft capital? If I thought one player could get us to the Super Bowl, I might feel differently. Do you think JJ is the answer at QB. He was great first 5 quarters, not so much last game. but a quarterback needy ream just traded him away, so I am hesitant to put all my faith in him and believe me, I hope I’m wrong. I feel like we are at least a year away from potentially going to the Super Bowl and while I would love to win the division, I just don’t think giving up draft choices is the best way to build a championship team. You’re feelings?
Ed says: Ronald, it’s moot at this point since the trade deadline has come and gone. I want to clarify this, anyway.
I wrote earlier in the week that the Giants should try to capitalize on the opportunity they have in the NFC East. You don’t know if or when that opportunity will come again.
They did try to do that. They were very aggressive. They were also careful. I said earlier in the week there was a price they should not go to — meaning they should not go above the second-round pick they had offered the Colts for Jonathan Taylor. They — rightly — refused to do that.
I said all along the end game is not winning the division this year and then going back to being a third- or fourth-place team for fove years after that. The end game is to be a championship contender on a consistent basis. You have to protect your future to do that.
