Julian Love, New York Giants

Welcome back in inside Radio Row.

Super Bowl 57 moving closer and closer to the big game on Sunday. Now joining us from the New York Football Giants is Julian Love. Julian, how you been? Doing well, how are you?

I'm doing fantastic. Now, right out of the gate we gotta get to this because I have a lot of friends and family in Philadelphia. Oh no. And I grew up in New York. I went to Temple University. Okay.

And then I worked in Philly three years after graduating from Temple. The free ride comments on Nick Sirianni. Explain yourself. No. I will say one thing.

I'll admit one thing. That the free ride was a poor choice of words for sure. I don't necessarily think anybody part of a football team or organization is on a free ride.

Whether you're the water girl guy, whether it could be staff, training staff. I think everybody has a part in it and he has a part in it. Before that comment I said he's doing a great job. He's a great coach. He's doing a great job right now leading this team because I really believe in that roster. That roster is pretty complete. They managed to string together some good one year deals, mix in with their core talent and have some experience come along.

Their roster I think is really complete. And so the free ride, it was more so aimed at that gesture he was making towards the camera. They said what I think of it. I don't love his antics but as a rival you don't love anybody's antics when they're on the other team and they're beating you. But free ride, he's not out of that.

He's not out of one of those. That was my thing. I thought the Eagles were going to win the NFC East before the year started. And even with myself being confident in the Eagles, I didn't think they would be here before the year started. So even though their roster is that talented, I got to give some credit and a decent amount of credit to Nick Sirianni because I didn't hear many people picking the Eagles to go to the Super Bowl before the season started.

No, without a doubt. I think they've done a great job of acquiring guys and building a team. And he's a part of that. And I think the best coaches I think just cater to what their team needs at that time. And this team, I just think you need to let them be able to play.

Let their personalities show. I've seen a lot of coaches get in the way and he has done a great job of not doing that. So yeah, I do give them credit. I do give that team credit. Not take away anything from that. The free ride comment for sure got people fired up.

It did. I was doing a show earlier in Philadelphia and they were like, you're having Julian Love on? You better bring this up to him.

And I go, guys, don't worry. We got to bring it up right out of the gate. Your team this year, I thought it was one of the best stories in the NFL. No one could have saw this coming before the season started. And the Giants, the last few years, the culture just was not there.

And the belief, I thought, was not there. And then Joe Shane and Brian Daybal come in and to wipe away the last four or five years of frustration in one year, that shows, I don't know what it's going to lead to, but it's moving in the right direction. Yeah, I think there was a good core of talent on the team. We have a lot of guys on the rookie contracts who are talented players. It was just trying to maximize that capability.

And obviously you want to piece things together. I think Joe Shane did a great job of trying to get some guys in them who are the right core guys in terms of how they are in the locker room. The guys who compete are tough.

He has a model he tries to follow, and he's done a great job with that. And if we weren't, the main point early on was help wasn't on the way. We weren't going to sign anybody big. We didn't have that much money to sign anybody big. And so we had the core.

We realized we needed to make it happen within the building. And they allowed it to happen just by us competing. They catered some of the scheme to other players, which is huge at the end of the day. And players stepping up is the game of football. And our leaders were able to play well this year, which put us in this position. And I think what you just said, the catering to what you guys had, is the biggest part. Because how many coaches come in and they go, we're running my system this way or the highway. If you're going to cook a good meal, you can't be trying to cook a filet mignon if you don't have the filet or something like that. You need the right ingredients.

And all the ingredients weren't there, but they still found a way to make a good meal. Exactly. And the best coaches, in my opinion, do that.

For example, Siriano, we were talking about him. He has done a great job at that. The A-Ball has done a great job of maximizing who you have. Andy Reid is in this position because he's done it forever. I think the best coaches do that. I've had three head coaches in four years. I've seen not the best examples of that.

And so, they did a good job. An example is Daniel Jones. He can make every throw. He's a talented guy. He's big. He's fast. He's strong. But him using his legs more this year was huge on the staff believing in him and letting him do so. I heard people tell him, don't run, don't run, don't run. But he ran for how many touchdowns, how many yards, how many first downs this year. And that just expanded the field for us.

That's just a small example of work with what you got. If the dude can run fast, let him run. If the dude has good hands, throw him the ball.

Simple stuff to the outside world I think makes a big difference. Julian Love here with us. Daniel Jones is what as a quarterback? I think he's talented. I think he's still on the rise. I think he's still on his way. Do you see a franchise quarterback?

I do. I mean, everyone wants the Jalen Hurts. Everyone wants the Mahomes, the Josh Allens. These guys don't grow on trees.

They're a dime a dozen. Everyone wants that franchise, that future Hall of Fame quarterback. And I think Daniel has done a great job of growing each year. He's constantly improving.

And if you keep putting weapons around him, it's just going to skyrocket. I mean, this year, for a lot of the year, we didn't have a true number one receiver. Isaiah Hodgins comes in in November and he was a scud for you guys. Exactly.

We get somebody in in November and he's... And he was claimed off waivers. Exactly. And that's just something that's like a small thing that people are like, oh, it's all Daniel, it's all Daniel.

But you got to help the guy out. I believe in his work. I think I believe in his talent.

It's just unlocking that, like I said. So, yeah, I think he's a franchise quarterback. There's tiers to it. Obviously, there's an elite tier. You know who's elite in the league.

Everyone knows those guys. There's a bottom tier, guys who aren't the best quarterbacks. I don't think Daniel's in that bottom tier. I think he's a guy you can build and grow off of. And if you build talent around him, then we'll see what happens. And so they have a decision to make, honestly, with his contract being up.

The trickiest part is, like, if he's going to demand like $35 million, $36, $37 million, if the Giants don't pay him, someone else will. Because a lot of teams need quarterbacks, so everyone's searching. There's no middle market of quarterbacks anymore for pay rate.

Because that could damage the rest. We talk about getting more weapons. You go pay a quarterback $36, $37 million a year. I know that's considered cheap in the quarterback world. But without knowing really what you have, that makes it difficult.

You should have been a quarterback. Listen, you're telling me, with the percentages of the cap and the caps going up, it's going to keep rising. Like, people obviously make a big deal about, you know, the number keeps going up, but it's because more money's coming into the league. So the number's always going to keep going up. In 10 years, we'll be talking about guys making, in the quarterback realm, probably $45 million on average.

And the salary cap's a joke. Because it's so confusing. I thought I used to understand what dead cap money is. Now you could, like, move that around, you could diverge years, all that stuff. That stuff I still don't understand fully. That's why you have an agent. Yeah, that stuff I still don't fully understand.

I've got to tap into that more. But, you know, for example, like the franchise tag, you make a tag DJ for $35, I think the number came out to be, $34. But you've got to tag Saquon.

Right, and so that's a conversation too. Saquon's would be $10. That's what the running back market is. I think your franchise tag's Saquon. But that doesn't count towards the cap.

So it's like, what are we going to do here? And you work to get a long-term deal and use the franchise tag as a buffer to extend that. And Jones, you've got to give him like a three, four-year deal. I know. I mean, we have some good money.

And you want to build around this core. Saquon Barkley is a generational talent. Daniel Jones is a great quarterback for us. He's been growing, building. We have some guys that are due for some serious paydays in this next year or two with Dexter Lawrence. He's a beast. The best tackle in the game, in my opinion, defensive tackle.

Andrew Thomas, by all means, he was rated as the highest tackle in the game playing left tackle. So there's some young guys that need to get paid. And then I'm just waiting for my op after Saquon and DJ's stuff gets figured out. This is the place that you want to come back to? Yeah, of course. I mean, it's New York. I'm built for it. This market is tough at times because we were losing. It's tough when you're losing. All eyes are on you. You're in New York City.

All that stuff. When you're winning, it's great. But I kind of stayed low to the ground. I'm a Midwest guy. And so I produced. I would like to come back. It's familiar. There's value in familiarity for sure. But this is your life.

And so you've got to make the best decision for yourself in terms of setting your family up. So let's see if you're going to go villain or if you're going to backpedal a little bit here. Are you picking the Eagles to win this game?

No, I wouldn't count this backpedaling. I have the Eagles winning this game. I'm telling you now, in Philly they're going to be like, oh, he's just trying to suck up to us now. If anybody listened to my full thing, every question they ask about Philly, I complimented their team.

So people were at my throne like, you guys just heard that one clip, didn't you? No one really paid attention because I've seen them three times. They've smoked us three times.

I've seen them. They put up 38 one game, 40 something one game. This offense is legit because they're so balanced.

And it all starts, in my opinion, yeah, you talk about hurts. Yeah, you talk about A.J. Brown, Devante Smith.

It starts at the front with Kelsey. He's the best center in the game right now. He's awesome. He's a mind above and we send a lot of pressure. And he was able to pick up a lot of it just because he's an intelligent football player. Definitely the smartest center in the game right now. You have a legit O line. Your front seven is disgusting.

78 sacks is ridiculous. And you have depth on your D line, which is like not everybody has that. You have two of the best, my favorite corners in the game, Darius Lay. Love watching his tape back when he was with Detroit.

And James Bearberry, that's my guy, was at my wedding. And you have Gardner Johnson, like the roster is stacked. People, I feel like, were coming at me and I'm like, no, I'm complimenting this roster.

Because when you really look at it, it's loaded. You have to intentionally mess up this team. And so I got the Eagles, man. I think Chiefs are good. Mahomes, you never know what can happen.

Yeah. Mahomes, Magic, all that stuff. I think if the, you know, and there's a lot of inexperience in being in the Super Bowl with the Eagles. But I think their talent and their completeness carries them over the hump. It's alright. Which I hate because, you know, division, you don't want anybody else to be succeeding in your division.

But, I mean, the NFC East is the most tradition, most storied division in NFL. And I think it continues after this. It's alright. We'll meet in FIDI. You'll jump in my car. I'll drive you down the turnpike to Philly. We'll get a Della Sandra's cheesesteak, a Mama's cheesesteak, and I'll make you friendly with the Philadelphia folks. I'm big. I'm big in cheesesteaks.

I like the food, I like the culture of Philly, but I can't step in there now. I made a Syrianic comment. I gotta say it in my home. Julian Love, good to see you. Thanks so much.

Thank you. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey. And Westwood One brings it to you, streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce! It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs.

The Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles, are going to the Super Bowl again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey.

Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today. Kevin Matt talks with Matt Hardy. There's nothing like a wrestling fan, you know, for better or for worse. How do you handle that, though? We're talking about people talking about your family, what they don't know about your family, or your brother, or you. How does one handle that from a day-to-day basis? Something I joke about with the young bucks all the time. I said, if you would vanity search Matt Hardy on Twitter, I said, after you got through a hundred plows, you'd want to quit the business and never be seen again.

It's just, you just learn to deal with it, you know what I mean? It's the Kick Rocks! Wrestling Podcast with Evan T. Maxx. Subscribe now on the Odyssey app, or ever you get your podcast. The biggest game of the year, the Super Bowl, is on Odyssey.

And Westwood One brings it to you, streaming live for free, Sunday, February 12th, on the Odyssey app. The Eagles have been the NFC's best team. Touchdown, Travis Kelce! It's the Eagles versus the Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs. The Philadelphia Eagles. Are going to the Super Bowl.

Again. Catch all the action from Westwood One. Your Super Bowl, your Odyssey. Get in the game and download the free Odyssey app today.