The Buscher

The one positive I find to Giants having a bad season and expected to be bad again it's that their primetime game total will drop again. Before 2022 they were only announced for one primetime game which was their lowest since 2004. I don't know if they'll be dropped that far, I think at minimum they'll get 2 (a MNF and TNF game). NBC tend to be a bit more aggressive in trying to avoid bad matchups so jury is out on if they'll be getting a SNF for the initial schedule. I think it's a total lock that Saquon's return to MetLife will be on primetime, probably a Monday nighter and I'd expect it in the first 2 months of the season before the Giants season totally unravels or Saquon gets hurt. Even if the Giants suck that's an easy storyline for them to sell a game on, and the talking heads will all but openly be rooting for him to score 3 TDs.

The way this series has gone just getting past Philly is fine with me. Yes as a 2 seed I should be aspiring them to go further but they haven't got the depth to get past Boston anyway. But losing the way they did yesterday is really bad vibes. Reminiscent of the Pacers loss in 1999 which led to Reggie making the choking sign. That team did pick up the pieces and win the series but this Knicks team has little in common with that one. Saw that Embiid will face a mandatory 1-game suspension if he picks up a flagrant in game 6. That just tells me he may as well bring a tire iron to the court with him. The refs are not going to get him banned from game 7.

Schedule will be released next week. Only known game so far is Packers/Eagles on a Friday night in Brazil week 1 and the obvious that the Chiefs will host the Thursday night opener. Recent history suggests the league tries to book an up and coming team for that opener whenever possible, feel like the Texans would fit that mold the best. I wouldn't be surprised if the Jets are on MNF week 1 with ESPN possibly putting in a request for a do-over after what happened with Rodgers last year. If that actually happens it'd be amusing if they went full bore with it and did Bills/Jets again. The Jets fans' PTSD-fueled reactions to that announcement would be funny.

Mike Trout hurt again, heading for knee surgery. That's 4 straight years of injuries preventing him from playing a full year + the COVID year before that. He's already a first ballot HOF lock but the injuries have robbed him of what was looking like a career that'd make him a top 5 player of all time.

Knicks lose despite a 5 point lead with 18 seconds to go, basically the inverse of what happened in game 2. Fully expect them to blow the series and remind me why even in good years I don’t really get invested in them anymore.

That was a wholly unsurprising Mets loss. By about the 5th or 6th it already looked like Sevy was gonna need to complete the no-no if the team was gonna have any chance to win, because they were not scoring another run. Mets back to .500 which, to be fair, is fitting. They had one really terrible stretch, one really good stretch, and otherwise largely just look mediocre. I figured they'd be around .500 in a best case scenario and that's pretty much how they look. The fact that Joey Wendle was one of the first players David Stearns rushed to sign in free agency still baffles me. I'm never gonna complain about a guy like that sucking at the plate because everyone knows he sucks at the plate. But he was signed to be a defensive-minded backup infielder. Instead he leads the team in errors and basically lost them the game today by trying to double up a speedy runner instead of throwing the tying run out of home. I'm sick of him. If he can't play defense anymore he brings nothing to the table, and his useless ass should be DFA'ed.

Embiid the last two games has been one of the dirtiest players I've ever seen, and he's largely getting away with it probably because it's the only way there will be a series. Thankfully Brunson finally showed up in the playoffs - amazing game by him. Please just get one more win and vanquish Philly.

I generally like Rapaport but he was especially annoying during the draft this year. He's said he's not allowed to spoil draft picks on air (anyone can go to Twitter for that if they want to) because the NFL wants maximum drama for the viewing audience, but he does tell the producers when to throw to him when he's got info to share. And he made it a point to jump on 30 seconds before the Falcons pick was announced to be like "I know most people expect the Falcons to go defense here, but I just want everyone to know they did a significant amount of work on the QBs even after giving Kirk Cousins $100 million, it's all about a succession plan at the most important position." He didn't give a name of course but it was as close to tipping a pick as you could get. Apparently Falcons/Penix rumors were actually a thing 48 or so hours leading into the draft and Falcons fans were afraid it could actually happen, but for the other 31 fanbases I don't think it was on anyone's radar at all. That was arguably the most surprising draft pick in recent history and this guy just had to get ahead of it.

My takeaway from all 3 of Joe Schoen’s drafts so far is that he very much adheres to the “Team Needs”. Love what he’s done in this class. Tyler Nubin will go straight into a starter role, might be the best pure safety in the class. Worst case is if he doesn’t work as a starter, his floor is as a special teams ace and probably a future captain. Andru Phillips didn’t have great production but is the type of corner that fits right into Shane Bowens’ scheme, has versatility both outside and in the slot. Theo Johnson is gonna get a lot of playing time, especially with Darren Waller still mulling retirement. Frankly, Waller’s probably a lock to get hurt again even if he plays so yeah, he’s gonna see a lot of snaps.

It always feels lazy to just post Trevor Dame’s thoughts instead of my own but Was Tony unhinged in that interview? Sure. Is it gonna actually hurt AEW in any way? Almost certainly not. For as great as AEW have done there’s little evidence they’ve actually expanded their audience beyond the very loyal base they’ve had since the beginning and that’s clearly been more than enough to get them by. By and large the people who still watch AEW are only gonna stop watching if the booking sucks, not because their owner went on an unhinged ramble. Cringe? Sure but again it’s not gonna hurt them at all as they weren’t gonna gain or lose any fans from this. My only annoyance is it’s now gonna set off more discourse from the usual people who shit on everything AEW does. But they’d have found something else to say about AEW anyway. You’ve got podcasters twisting themselves into pretzels trying to explain why they thought Danielson vs Ospreay sucked. This just gives them easier ammo to focus on.

I know Pat took some shots at AEW during WM weekend because he’s towing the company line but him even uttering the phrase “Meltzer Driver” on a broadcast is hilarious

Tony being acknowledged by Rich Eisen. My heart is warm.

Giants fans who said “trust Joe Schoen to do the right thing at QB” for months switched right to to “fire Joe Schoen for sticking with Daniel Jones” in the blink of an eye and it’s infuriating It’s been widely reported they tried very hard to get Maye. The Pats didn’t want to make the move. Takes two to tango. They wouldn’t have tried for Maye if they had full confidence in Jones. But not having full confidence in Jones =/= thinking JJ or Penix were better choices for them. They would’ve taken either at #6 if they felt that way. Drafting a QB would’ve given Schoen and Daboll 2-3 years job security automatically and they still passed. That’s how little they thought of the rest of the QB field. Nobody knows how it will pan out but having that restraint should be commended IMO. Having a bad QB room isn’t good, but force drafting a QB you don’t actually believe in is about the dumbest fucking thing you could do.

The Falcons taking Penix makes me think they know they’re gonna lose their 2025 1st rounder on tampering charges and they will try to flip his draft rights for a 2025 1st rounder this weekend. Of course that’s still hilarious considering signing Cousins is a win-now move and yet they instead punted the pick.

Happy with the Nabers pick. They needed a #1 WR and got one. Of course, I’m not exactly thrilled with a Jones/Lock pairing and feel like the Giants will probably be right back at the top of the draft next year. But it is what it is. I’m glad we didn’t get McCarthy at that price point.