Patricia Traina | New York Giants Insider & Host

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Learn more at Goalie.com today. The strength of the NFC East is a notable surprise this season, and we're excited to talk about it again with Patricia, who is part of the SI family. She's got the Locked on Giants podcast and writer for GiantsCountry.com. There are a lot of words that people would use to describe the season for the Giants. I think surprise is probably one of them, unexpected another.

What are a few words that you would use to describe this group of Giants? Grit, gritting, I would say resilient. I would say confident. I would say disciplined.

I would say focused. How much of that predated Brian Dayball and how much of it has come with him this year? I think the players always had it, but they didn't know how to harness it constructively. They had to learn how to win. They had to learn how to put it all together.

And I think Brian Dayball coming from the Buffalo Bills organization most recently, which turned it around from being basically a laughingstock to a powerhouse team every year. He brought down with him processes that taught these guys how to win, how to do the right things, and how to be resilient and do things constructively as opposed to when they were falling apart. Just the minute that they started losing, they would fall apart.

So he taught them how to overcome that and be resilient and just stay focused to the processes. Going back to the beginning of the season, what would you say were the expectations for this season? Well, I think everybody figured this was going to be a rebuilding season. There was only so much the general manager, Joe Shane, could do because he didn't have the best salary cap situation going. So he tried to fill in as many of the holes as he could.

Now, the good news is he inherited a solid roster as far as some core pieces like Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, Andrew Thomas, Xavier McKinney, Aziz Ojilary, Leonard Williams and so forth. So it's not like he had to tear it down. I always equate it to building a house. Sometimes you inherit a house or you buy a house and it's a fixer-upper, and then sometimes you buy a house and it's like, okay, you've got to tear this thing down and start from scratch.

So basically this was a fixer-upper, I think. They had the core structure in place. They just needed to kind of enhance it and bring it into the current year, so to speak, and get rid of some of the outdated systems that they had and just update it.

It's still a work in progress, but they made great strides all being considered. That's true, and it's just been one year, so a lot of credit is due. Over the last, let's say, even 11 years since their previous playoff win, there have been a lot of coaches, a lot of coordinators, a lot of different voices and personnel in and out. Why do you believe Brian Deball has the staying power? I think because he's true to who he is.

I mean, you get these coaches in here and they try to be the tough guy or they try to be your friend or they try to be this scripted robot that shows no emotion. Brian Deball is the type of guy who, if you met him, he's the type of guy you'd want to sit and have a beer with at a bar. He actually is. He's not artificial. He doesn't come in scripted. He doesn't point fingers. He reminds me in a lot of ways of Tom Coughlin. When Tom Coughlin turned the Giants around and they started winning Super Bowls, it was like, if the players won, it was the players doing. If they lost, it was his fault. He always knew where to point the finger, but never to point it at the players per se.

He was quick to hand out bouquets, but when a butt kicking was needed, he did it either behind closed doors and nobody knew about it or he kicked his own butt in front of the media. He always was tough, though. Tough and yet fair is what I think about when I think about Tom Coughlin, not to mention a winning coach. We're excited to spend a few minutes with Patricia Traina for the first time on the show because the Giants are winning again their first divisional round of the playoffs that last Super Bowl season following 2011.

She is a publisher and writer for GiantsCountry.com, which is part of the SI family, also the host of the Locked On Giants podcast, and it's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Daniel Jones played maybe the best game that I can recall seeing him play, and on the postseason stage, he was brilliant, and I kept thinking how controlled he was. When you think about the impact specifically of Dayball on Jones, what stands out?

Well, I think he restored confidence in him. I mean, you know, last year, the last couple of years, it was drilled into Daniel Jones' head, don't make a mistake, go out there, be cautious, don't make a mistake, don't make a mistake. Dayball came in here and he said, okay, first thing we're going to do is we're going to sit down and you're going to tell me what you like to run. So they looked over the last three playbooks that Daniel Jones had to work with, and he said, okay, tell me what you like about them and tell me what you didn't like about them. Okay, so now they have a basis that Jones gives them feedback and now that he folds that into his system. So now they get out to the practice field and Dayball says to Jones, listen, don't worry about making mistakes. I need to find out what you can do.

You need to find out what you can do within this system. So just go out there, fling the balls, you know, have fun. That's what practice is for.

We worry about cleaning up the mistakes as we go along. So he basically took the shackles off, if you will, of Daniel Jones and allowed him to basically explore his talents, you know, uncover what he was comfortable with, what he wasn't comfortable with. And I think what you started to see is you started to see his confidence grow. And I think between that and working with him on improving his pocket awareness through some drills that they implemented, Mike Cocker, the offensive coordinator, a former NFL quarterback, came in with some drills and they just, you know, helped Daniel Jones really turn it around.

I mean, you talk about a 180 degree turn. This is it. Absolutely. Although I say a lot on my show that the best asset for Daniel Jones is a healthy Saquon Barkley and the way the two of them have really grown this year together and kind of taken more ownership of the offense has been a lot of fun to watch. What stands out to you about the game against the Vikings, which was the first postseason game for a lot of these guys? Yeah, it definitely was.

It didn't seem too big for them. You know, you would think it's been a while. A lot of these guys haven't played in the postseason. But all week long, Brian Davis said, look, playoff experience is kind of overrated a little bit.

What works for you in week one should work for you in the postseason. So I think he got through to them. I mean, clearly he got through to them and it was just never too big for these guys. You know, sometimes people get to the playoffs and it's a national stage because you're the only game on the TV set, you know, at the time.

It's like, wow, man, you know, so you kind of have a surprise. But, you know, they went to work, you know, they said, OK, look, it's the next game on our schedule. We know what's at stake here.

We don't need the media to keep pounding us and say, you know, hey, you know, it's the playoffs. You know what's at stake. We know this. So they went out there. They took care of business. And now they're moving on to the Eagles. This is a team that has beaten the Giants twice, most recently in week 18, in which the Giants weren't really playing a lot of their regulars. Eagles had a little more on the table trying to grab that top seed and the buy.

We saw the return of Jalen Hurts. Where are some areas where the Giants match up well with the Eagles, but also maybe some areas where they are at a disadvantage? Yeah, I think when they match up the best, it's going to be their running game versus the Eagles run defense. I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head.

I wrote it for an article. The last five games, the Eagles run defense has allowed higher. It's about 10 to 15 yards more than their average yards per game in the season. So they've had some trouble stopping the run. And of course, we know that the Giants running offense is one of their strengths and not just with Saquon Barkley, but also with Daniel Jones.

So if you're going to stop Saquon, well now you better figure out how you're going to stop Daniel Jones with those design runs. So that's something I think the Giants can certainly play into for their strength. Now the weaknesses, I would be concerned about the defensive secondary against the receivers that the Eagles have. But I think the biggest thing I'm concerned with is the pass rush versus the offensive line.

I went back and I looked again. Evan Neal, the young rookie offensive tackle, right tackle, has struggled ever since coming back from a knee injury that he suffered in mid-year. He's given up most of his pressure since coming back. So in week 14, Evan Neal gave up like a season high eight pressure to the Eagles.

So I'm a little concerned about that right side. I suspect this time around they'll maybe give him some help. I would hope they would give him some help, but that Eagles pass rush. I mean, what do they have, like 70 sacks inside the record? So they are really, really good. I think they've got a pass rush win rate of 52 percent, which means they are getting home and they can make a quarterback's life miserable.

So I'm concerned about how much time Daniel Jones is going to have in the pocket and whether or not he's going to be able to hit any of those receivers downfield. The Giants actually average fewer points scored than they average points given up. Now, it's a very tiny margin. It's 0.3, but they're dead center of the NFL in both of those categories. I thought that was really unique when I was looking at their numbers. They're 15th in the NFL in points for and in points against the season. You want to obviously tilt the scales in favor of points scored, but it just goes to show you how close their games have been. They're on the cusp. Right now, obviously, with the exception of the Colts, they're really not blowing the doors off of anybody. If you look at all the games they've won, they've been by like one score give or take. They're going to get there. With some additional talent next year, they will get there, and I truly believe they will become a juggernaut. Patricia Trino with GiantsCountry.com and the Locked on Giants podcast.

We're excited to have her for the first time after our CBS Sports Radio going back to the Super Bowl following the 11th season until this win against the Vikings in the wild card round. What held them back? What was the biggest hurdle that they couldn't overcome?

I think there were two, actually. The first one was the way they built their rosters. In some cases, they waited a little too long to address needs, and I'll point to the offensive line as an example. They waited literally, I think, I want to say two years before they started to really devote premium assets to restocking the offensive line after they won that 2011 Super Bowl. So that was a problem. And they had a lot of wits, I might add, with their draft class. I mean, you go back and you look at the history, they didn't really get a whole lot out of their draft classes. So that was a problem. And then you compound that with, you know, after Tom Coughlin left, they basically went through a revolving door of coaches and coordinators.

So there was no consistency whatsoever. And then, you know, they bring on Daniel Jones in 2019 to succeed Eli Manning. And guess what? They don't have an offensive line for him. They don't have receivers for him, a tight end. Basically, all they had was a running game. So, you know, they kind of did everything a little, you know, if you went backwards.

And, you know, you add all that stuff up and it's no wonder why they had the problems that they had. I had a conversation with Sean O'Hara not that long ago. And we were talking about Daniel Jones and I said how much he reminds me of Eli. Sean actually called him an Eli clone. You covered both quarterbacks. Do you agree with that assessment? Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. I remember at the combine in 2019, I went to Daniel's podium and I took a picture. And I tweeted it out and I said, Eli Junior. And I remember a bunch of people were like, no, no, what are you crazy?

Don't do that. That's what he reminded me of Eli at the time. And that's surprisingly, you know, they were both coached by David Cutcliffe. You know, I think they both spent some time together at the Manning Academy. I'm sure he ran into him also when Eli used to have, you know, the passing camp that he had down in Duke.

So, you know, and then, of course, Daniel mentored or I should say Eli mentored Daniel. And, you know, they're kind of the same cloth, really. I mean, you've got to have a certain disposition to play in New York. You have to be unflappable if you're going to let every little thing bother you. Well, guess what?

You're not going to survive in this market. And, you know, that quality Daniel Jones definitely has, which Eli just mastered to perfection. I mean, yeah, I always joke with Eli now that I get an opportunity to speak to him a little bit more. Because he shows a personality. And I always say to him, where the heck was this personality when you were playing? And he was kind of like, you know, I couldn't show it. He said I had a job to do. So he says, now I can show it, you know? So I suspect that's how Daniel is.

I think behind closed doors, he's got a little bit more of a personality than when he shows to the media. I have to ask you about a tweet that you posted a few days ago that went viral about Daniel Jones deserving another contract with the team. And then you tacked on the question, or do we still have naysayers out there?

It got a lot of traction. Is that now put to bed? We're sure? Everybody's sure?

If I had to put a percentage on it, I would say 99.999%. Because, you know, there's always that 1% that he doesn't come back. Maybe, you know, he hits free agency and maybe gets another offer on lease.

But look, I think it would behoove him to come back. And I think he knows that as well. People keep asking me, what do I think he'll get as a contract? And I'm like, he's going to get at least 35. At least, you know, because I think the franchise tag, I want to say is about 32.

And I'm not sure what the exclusive franchise tag is, but I think it's about 35. And look, he's earned it. He's definitely earned it. He's shown time and time again that he could be a franchise quarterback.

This is a guy who has five of his eight career-winning drives this year alone. You know, he's loaded the team up on his back. He's developed into a leader.

You know, he showed he's a weapon with his legs. He's made smart decisions. I mean, what more do you want from him? And yet there are still naysayers out there.

I don't know if you want to hear some of the replies I got, but there were still naysayers saying that he's trash. Oh, for heaven's sakes. They're clearly not paying attention. So that's one piece of off-season business. And before I let you go, Patricia, how much interest are the two coordinators getting for the head coaching jobs? So far, Mike Costa, the offensive coordinator, has been linked to three jobs. Carolina, Indianapolis, and the Texans. Wink Martindale was also linked to Indianapolis. So there's definitely some interest there, and I know Giants fans are sitting there going, no, no, not now, you know, we can't have nice things. Don't take it away.

So I'm curious to see what happens there. This week, Costa and Martindale did not interview this week, but they can interview as soon as Sunday, and I think that's maybe what they're going to do. But Costa, this is his first year as an offensive coordinator. I think it might be too soon for him to jump and make the jump to the head coach, but he's going to go eventually.

Martindale, on the other hand, I think what a lot of people forget is a few years ago, before they hired, I think it was Joe Judge, Martindale actually interviewed for the head coaching job here with the Giants, didn't get it. So the fact that he was able to come back and, you know, if you will, tuck his tail between his legs, do what he does best, and just continue to reinforce that he could be a good coach. And he really is a good coach. I mean, he's worked wonders with the defense. He had a lot of talent to begin with, but just in how he's put that unit together.

So I think both of them will make fine head coaches if they get the opportunity. But, you know, from a selfish perspective, I hope they stick around at least another year. So much yet that we don't know about the end of this Giants season and what happens in the offseason.

But for sure, they have been one of the positive and notable surprises of the 22 campaign. You can find Patricia on Twitter at Patricia underscore Traina, T-R-A-I-N-A. You can read her on GiantsCountry.com, which is part of Fan Nation.

Also hear her Locked on Giants podcast. And we hope to talk to you again. It's been great to connect with you. Thank you so much for the insight.

Thanks so much for having me. Goalie gummies get you so close to your goals, you can actually taste them. The trick?

Simply start with bite-sized steps. Like Goalie's apple cider vinegar gummies with added B vitamins for daily health. Or Goalie ashwagandha gummies to help you relax, restore and unwind.

Tastes like wellness just got a whole lot better. And when goals taste this good, it's easy to achieve them. Goalie. Taste your goals. Learn more at Goalie dot com today. Goalie gummies get you so close to your goals, you can actually taste them. The trick?

Simply start with bite-sized steps. Like Goalie's apple cider vinegar gummies with added B vitamins for daily health. Or Goalie ashwagandha gummies to help you relax, restore and unwind.

Tastes like wellness just got a whole lot better. And when goals taste this good, it's easy to achieve them. Goalie. Taste your goals. Learn more at Goalie dot com today. Goalie gummies get you so close to your goals, you can actually taste them. The trick?

Simply start with bite-sized steps. Like Goalie's apple cider vinegar gummies with added B vitamins for daily health. Or Goalie ashwagandha gummies to help you relax, restore and unwind.

Tastes like wellness just got a whole lot better. And when goals taste this good, it's easy to achieve them. Goalie. Taste your goals. Learn more at Goalie dot com today.