1st & Goal: Ralph Vacchiano, Fox Sports NFC East Reporter

The NFL season is inching closer and closer.

Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders? We have four downs to figure out your team's future. It's time now for First and Goal on the Zach Geldt Show. The last team for First and Goal. After this segment, we'll do all 32 teams.

I don't know why we saved the Giants for last, but that's just the way that this went down this year. We welcome in Ralph Acciano right now. He's an NFC East reporter for Fox Sports.

Covers all the teams inside that division and for many years did work at SNY covering both the Jets and the Giants. Ralph, first off, congratulations on the new gig. Thanks so much for jumping on with us. Well, thank you.

I appreciate it and I'm happy to come on anytime. Alright, so I got to start you off with Saquon Barkley. It's always weird to just ask you what to expect out of Saquon because he hasn't been healthy. It kind of feels like Christian McCaffrey the last two years when people asked that about the Carolina Panthers running back for this season. But what are your expectations for Saquon this year?

Well, I mean, it is all about the health, right? You know, I think that he's far enough now removed from his torn ACL that he is probably back to 100%. You know, he's still really young and guys can recover from that and do what they were. So, you know, all things being equal, I could see him having the kind of season he had as a rookie. I think they're going to really use him in the passing game a lot. I think the offensive line is at least a little bit better than it's been.

So all of that to me means, you know, you're looking at a top feature back. A guy who's going to rush for a thousand yards. I mean, I think they'll limit his carries and wear and tear a little bit. But, you know, he could have 70, 80 catches and another, you know, six, 700 yards there. But I say that and I probably thought that at least two of the last three seasons and, you know, he didn't get through many games.

So, you know, I don't know. I've got to see it to believe it. I think if he's healthy, he can be as good as anybody in the league. But I wouldn't draft him in the first round of my fantasy. Let's put it that way.

I do not. I just don't feel like you can trust after three years of injuries that he won't add another one to it. When I watch Saquon Barkley play and when he gets on the field, the first thought is, what happens if the Giants would have drafted Josh Allen, if they would have drafted Lamar Jackson?

Now, hindsight is 20-20. We know Baker was the first pick in that draft. And then Sam Darnold did go number three.

Saquon went at two. Josh Rosen's been on 7,000 teams. Did you ever get a sense if the Giants were close on taking a quarterback that year? And if so, who they would have drafted?

No, because I think for a couple of reasons. I think that Dave Gettleman at the time, and obviously this won't make Giants fans happy, I don't think he liked any of the quarterbacks that were coming out. I think he, you know, was looking for one where he really, really had a conviction on him and thought, you know, this is a guy that's going to be a star and he didn't feel that way about any of them. I don't think from talking to people in the organization that anybody really had that kind of a conviction on anyone.

I think that they were split. You know, I think the coaching staff liked Josh Allen. I think there were people in the front office who liked Baker Mayfield, others who liked Sam Darnold. And I think if you're the general manager and you can't get a consensus on such an important position among your people, that's a hard thing to pull the trigger on. I also think, you know, they were looking a year ahead and thinking that Justin Hebert might be a guy that they could go after.

They really liked him. You know, but obviously that didn't work out. Yeah, you come out that year, things might have been different, but it just wasn't the case for the Giants. And, you know, with the non-consensus on the quarterbacks and with the way they've gone and fell in love with Saquon Barkley, I don't think it was really, you know, I'm sure it was a discussion, but I don't think it was really a thought as it got closer to the draft. Let's get to the next down. Ralph Acciano here with us. My expectation, I know they didn't pick up the fifth year option that this is Daniel Jones's final year with the Giants. Is that the same way that you're seeing this?

I don't know. I think it's his final chance to prove that he deserves more. You know, I think he is a good quarterback when he is healthy, when he's got protection. I think he just has not had much of a chance the last few years. The offensive line has been so, so bad. He has not had good, reliable receivers.

He hasn't had Saquon Barkley there. You know, I think he put a lot of quarterbacks behind that offensive line and take away all the weapons that he lost and a lot of quarterbacks would struggle. So, you know, I think he's got a chance to show them that they, you know, they can do something with him in a better offense than the one that Jason Garrett ran. You know, he still kind of got the same cast characters around him. So I don't know that that's going to be much of an improvement, but you know, whether he gets the franchise tag, whether, you know, they decided to stick with him another year, I think probably if he struggles, they're going to move on as quickly as possible because that probably means they'll be drafting way up. I think if he has a mediocre year and they're sitting in the middle of the draft, it gets a little dicey because who knows that there'll be a quarterback they like down at 15 or 17 or something like that. So, you know, there's a chance that he could be back, but you know, it's all up to him.

He's really got a lot to prove. What's going on with Kenny Galladay right now, Ralph? That's a good question. Because it looks like this is a guy that just got paid and then the guy that was in Detroit, he's not existent anymore.

Yeah. You know, I mean, I don't know where his head is at and, and, you know, if he did just get paid and start mailing it in, I think it's been a lot of injury issues. You know, he was a guy who was hurt in Detroit his last year.

And, you know, one of Dave Gettleman's isms that he, you know, forgot in this case was hurt guys get hurt. And he was getting up there and in years for a receiver, he got hurt. He came back the next year. He had some other, you know, some minor issues last year. Now it turns out that he had some kind of procedure during the off season, right before training camp began.

So he's been slow all camp. If he's healthy, he'll be a good target for Daniel Jones. But, you know, like a lot of guys on that roster, I'm not so sure I believe he's healthy. I don't know that he will be healthy. You know, and if he is, you know, I don't know that there's, you know, Sterling Shepherd and Kadarius Toney at this stage of their careers might be better than Kenny Gollin.

So, you know, I don't know that he's ever really going to live up to that seventy two million dollar contract because he certainly hasn't so far. Let's get the next down. New coach, new GM. You've been there before with the Giants.

What do you like so far? Brian Daybell and Joe Shane. Been there many, many, many times. You know, I like the fact that they're not pretending like they're in a good situation. They're not talking about trying to win on the fly and whatever. And Joe Shane has been incredibly honest from the start about I had a mess to clean up.

Maybe he didn't put it that way. But, you know, he's like, the salary cap is what it is. We've got to fix that before we can go out and start to add players.

You know, I think they're honest that this is a little bit of a long haul. They don't have a Super Bowl team. They couldn't add any pieces last year. They need to figure out their quarterback and need to figure out what's going to happen with Saquon Barkley.

So, you know, they're approaching it the right way. They did what they could this year. They didn't do anything stupid with contracts, restructuring them just so they could squeeze in one or two more guys.

They restructured a few, but not a ton. They're playing a long game here, and I like that. I think Daybell, from what I can tell, the players like him. They think he's a real guy, you know, real approachable and friendly and all that stuff.

We'll know for sure how he handles adversity, and there should be a lot of that. The thing I liked right away is that they got Kavon Thibodeau and Evan Neal. And you're right, they didn't have to go make a move right now to go win and go try to reach on one of these quarterbacks.

They only won one in the first round. Go fix the offensive line and go get a pass rush again. I know Thibodeau may not play this week, but Thibodeau and Neal, to me, were two just excellent draft picks. Yeah, I agree. It's often hard to screw them up when you're that high, but they were big positions of need. They didn't mess around and say, let's out-think ourselves here. What I particularly liked about the Thibodeau pick is he was, for months, the number one pass rusher in the draft, and then there were questions about his character. Joe Shane didn't sit there and say, I don't know about this guy, I'm hearing the same things. He went all the way out to Oregon, which I know a lot of general managers would not do, and met with the guy and spent time with him and made up his own mind, didn't rely on scouting reports, said, I'm going to figure out what this guy is all about, and made the decision on his own.

And good for him doing that because a lot of GMs would have sent a lieutenant or a scout and got a secondhand reporter, just believed the nonsense floating around and potentially missed out on a great player. Let's get to the final down. Ralph Acciano here with us. So we have games this week. We have a game coming up on Thursday, but for the Giants, they go up against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Tennessee is an interesting team. Ryan Tanel is still their quarterback. We know Derrick Henry is a stud. No more A.J.

Brown. They have an excellent coach in Mike Vrabel. How do you think this game plays on out?

Yeah, you know, I was looking at this earlier. You know, obviously they were the number one seed of the AFC last year, but they don't often look like it. You know, they out muscle teams.

They can win ugly. They win with Derrick Henry when he's healthy. I don't know what their passing game is going to look like anymore with that A.J.

Brown. But honestly, those are those are concerns for their long term picture and whether they can compete for that number one seed. It's not a concern against the Giants. The Giants have so many things that they have to piece together and that have to go right for them to be competitive. They were not a good defensive team last year.

They really haven't added much. You know, Thibodeau probably won't play. They lose James Bradbury out of the secondary. You know, their linebackers are three guys that no one's ever heard of. So, you know, they're not stopping Derrick Henry.

I'd be shocked if they can do that. If he gets going, you know, it could be he could have 200 and something yards. And on offense, you're counting on a lot. Is that offensive line going to hold up?

Is Daniel Jones, you know, does he have weapons? Which ones are going to play? There's just too many questions for me to think they can go on the road and beat a, you know, if not an AFC power, maybe the second tier power in the first game. I think, you know, one thing both Shane and Dable has said is it's going to take a few weeks to figure out what the Giants are. You don't figure yourselves out when you're playing the Tennessee Titans in week one on the road.

You figure that out, you know, when the schedule gets a little softer. So, you know, I'm not so sure the Giants don't lose their opener in the route. NFC's reporter Ralph Acciano here with us from Fox Sports. Who wins this division this year, Ralph? Um, you know, I don't I wouldn't count out the Eagles. I think the Cowboys might be do they ever mean they're Jack Prescott's the best quarterback in the division, and that can carry you a long way. But the Eagles loaded up and, you know, they have the number one rushing offense last year. They had a number 10 defense, I think. I think you had A.J. Brown to Jalen Hurts repertoire. And you know, he could be a very good quarterback. You know, they may need a little time to put things together, too.

But I think they're dark horse to, you know, be real competitive, not just in the division, but in the entire conference. Make sure you check him out. Out Ralph Acciano on Twitter. New job.

NFC's reporter for Fox Sports. Ralph, once again, congratulations. Thanks for coming on for a few minutes. Thanks, Zach. Anytime. There you go. Ralph Acciano here with.