Hard Knocks Ep. 2 Brought Back All The Pain Of The Giants Not Trading Up For Drake Maye, Joe Schoen's Perfect Handling Of Saquon Negotiations

It's not exactly a secret that the Giants were looking at moving up in the Draft a few months ago. They wanted Drake Maye and thanks to the new (and actually good) Hard Knocks, it all but confirms it. Look at how happy Brian Daboll is in this clip: 

I do love how every football play is basically just the same as a Dante headline. I fully expected Drake Maye to start talking about conspiracy theories or some music after hearing that. Also love how different football playcalls are to basketball. In basketball we get plays like '4 down' or 'thumb' compared to an entire ass paragraph like this. I digress though. This is about Drake Maye. He was made to be a Giant with his connection to Eli and the fact I think he's going to be better than Daniel Jones. That Daboll smile not enough? How about this clip? 

Yeah, it's all part of what GM's do. Constantly talk about trade options and what not, but you can tell the Giants were serious about moving up to 3 for Drake Maye. It wasn't just smoke or testing what's out there. You can't really tank in football, it doesn't work like basketball. But we got DeVito'd. Those games were fun because it gave us at least a week of happiness but losing those games gives us Drake Maye. Whatever, at least we got Malik Nabers. 

Then there was the call to Saquon: 

I don't understand why people are trying to blast Schoen here. He did what he said he did. He called Saquon, let him test the market and wanted a chance to match. Saquon was out of there. He can try to play victim (he has) that the Giants forced him out and didn't offer him or anything like that, but look at that phone call. Saquon was leaving before Schoen even called him. Again, I'm fine with Saquon leaving. I didn't want to pay a running back that much money (or draft a running back 2nd) but I can still hate he plays for the Eagles. That's simple fandom here. 

All I know is this version of Hard Knocks rules. Not just because it's my team, but because we're seeing decision making and everything all built in to the offseason. That's what Hard Knocks was built on and we finally got back to the good stuff.