The New York Giants were extremely quiet at the NFL Trade deadline on Tuesday.
Granted New York is 2-7, they aren't going anywhere, but they couldn't find any suitors for two of their prominent soon-to-be free agents: wide receiver Darius Slayton and edge rusher Azeez Ojulari.
Azeez Ojulari goes after Mac Jones in 2023. Getty Images.
According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Giants asked for a fourth or high fifth round pick for Ojulari who has six sacks this season, and 22 sacks in his career. At 24-years old, he is going to be a prime target for teams once he hits the open market next spring.
As for Slayton, he is the Giants leading receiver, and could hit a career best 800 yards receiving this season. He was a fifth round selection back in 2019, and is a free agent this spring.
The New York Jets shipped Williams, the lanky 6-foot-4 wide receiver to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a fifth round pick as the NFL trade deadline came and went Tuesday afternoon.
The move was not that surprising, and made sense for both sides.
Mike Williams - Getty Images.
For the Jets, Williams became expendable when New York acquired Pro Bowl receiver Devante Adams two weeks ago in a deal with the Las Vegas Raiders. Since joining New York, Adams has seen 26 targets from quarterback Aaron Rodgers, catching 12 passes including a 37-yard touchdown last week against Houston.
Williams on the other hand saw his production dip since the deal, with only four targets in the last three games combined.
Many feel that Rodgers lost trust in Williams after the receiver ran the wrong route at the end of a Monday Night game against Buffalo on the last play of the game. The play ended in a Rodgers interception as Buffalo won 23-20 on October 14.
Rodgers was critical of Williams in the post game for running the wrong route.
As for the Steelers they have been looking for wide receiver help for a while. They kicked the tires on Brandon Aiyuk when he held out over the summer with the 49ers, and even inquired on Davante Adams with the Raiders earlier in the year.
Williams now gives Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson a solid number two receiver to throw to behind George Pickens.
The Jets 3-6 are clinging to their fleeting playoff hopes this weekend when they visit the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Thanks to an unfathomable New York implosion that started in the top
of the fifth inning of Game 5 and carried until Alex Verdugo struck out
for the final out of the night, the Dodgers edged out the Yankees 7-6 to take the World Series in five games.
For a few innings, it felt like the Yankees would be on their way to sending the series back to Los Angeles for Game 6.
Gerrit Cole looks on in frustration. Getty Images.
Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm hit back-to-back home runs in the first
inning, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a solo shot in the fourth to stake
New York to a 5-0 lead.
Then the bottom fell out in the top of the fifth as the Yankees fumbled it away.
Judge dropped a pop-up by Tommy Edman to get the ball rolling in the
wrong direction. Then Anthony Volpe threw the ball away on an attempted
play at third, allowing Kike Hernandez to reach safely.
Finally, Mookie Betts reached first base on an infield single when
Gerrit Cole and Anthony Rizzo miscommunicated who would get to the first
base bag. The Dodgers scored a run on the play to make it 5-1.
The floodgates opened when Freddie Freeman lined a two-run single to
center, and Toscar Hernandez tied the game on a loud two-run double to
center.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman celebrate. Getty Images.
All the runs were unearned to Cole’s line. Give credit to Cole for
bouncing back. He would return to pitch nearly two full innings of
shutout baseball and left with the lead when New York scratched out a
run on a Stanton Sac Fly in the sixth inning.
It didn't get any better later.
Tommy Kanhle and Luke Weaver struggled to get out of the eighth inning, as the Dodgers grabbed the lead right back.
Kanhle loaded the bases on two singles and a walk before Will Lux hit a sac fly to drive in Kike Hernandez with the tying run.
Next Shohei Ohtani reached on catchers interference, a call that was
challenged by the Yankees and upheld. After a balk was called on Weaver,
Mookie Betts skied to center to drive in Edman with the winning run.
It was as much a Yankees collapse as it was the Dodgers doing the little things to take the Series in the Bronx.
The Yankees in 2024 were a good team, but a flawed one as well. They
didn’t do the fundamental things right all the time, and it showed in
this World Series.
The New York Yankees have their backs up against the proverbial wall now following a 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 3 of the World Series.
Ever since Freddie Freeman launched a grand slam into the right field bleachers at Dodgers Stadium on Friday night, the Yankees have looked totally lost as a baseball club. They can't hit; struggle in the field, and their pitching isn't up to snuff.
Giancarlo Stanton out at the plate. Getty Images.
By the seventh inning of Game 3 on Monday night, you could hear a pin drop at Yankee Stadium. By the eighth inning, fans were starting to hit the exits. The Yankees had nothing, and everyone knows it.
While the Yankees had a good season this year, and got to the Fall Classic for the first time in 15 years, they aren't even close to being as good as Yankees teams of the past who have made it this far into October.
Let's be honest the Yankees got here thanks to a soft American League slate in the postseason. As Michael Kay pointed out on the YES Postgame, the Yankees won with their B-game against Kansas City and Cleveland. That won't work now.
Yankee Stadium was ready to explode on Monday. Derek Jeter threw out the first pitch, and fans were ready to go wild in the Bronx for the first time in a very long time.
Then that guy, Freddie Freeman came up again, and cracked a two-run bomb off the facade of the second deck in right to give LA a 2-0 lead in the first inning. The air came out of the Yankees balloon. The fans knew it. The players played like it.
There were also the little things like Giancarlo Stanton getting thrown out at home plate in the fourth inning on a base hit by Anthony Volpe that kept the Yankees off the board.
Or Aaron Judge getting a little too much underneath a pitch, and sending it to shallow left when everyone, including John Sterling thought it was a homer off the end of the bat.
Judge went 0-for-3; he's hitting .091 this postseason. Just not good enough.
As for LA, their starting pitcher for Game 3, Walker Buehler dialed it back to 2021 when he was a Cy Young candidate, blanking the Bombers over five solid innings. The Dodgers pen did the rest.
Sure Alex Verdugo hit a two-run homer for the Yankees in the ninth, but all that did was cancel the shutout. The Yankees never really had a chance, and never really had much fight.
Now the Bombers face the prospects of getting swept in the Fall Classic. The Yankees haven't been swept in the World Series since the Cincinnati Reds did it to them in 1976. Do the Yankees have enough fight in them to at least stave off elimination for one night, and get the ball to Gerrit Cole in Game 5? We'll find out soon.
If you were a betting man, and decided to put down some dough on the Giants AND Jets both being horrible this year, it would have been an ill-advised bet ... back in August.
But, now? Well let's just say both the Jets and Giants are back in familiar territory -- at least familiar for the past decade -- both are 2-6 and buried in last place in their respective divisions.
For the Giants this was expected.
Daniel Jones runs from the Steelers. Getty Images.
The Giants made a lot of bad decisions the past two years, namely re-signing quarterback Daniel Jones to a multi-year deal, and letting running back Saquon Barkley walk to the Philadelphia Eagles. We could look at Big Blue's infamous appearance on 'Hard Knocks' in the off-season, and come to the conclusion that the ship Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll are running isn't exactly tight.
Yet, owner John Mara gave both the dreaded vote of confidence last week, hinting he won't make any sudden moves during the year, or in the off-season. We'll see how he feels come January when the season ends.
The Giants need to hit the re-set button regardless.
As for the Jets, this was supposed to be their Super Bowl season.
They had a healthy Aaron Rodgers, a top-5 defense, and young skill players like Garret Wilson and Breece Hall in the mix.
Instead everything has gone snake eyes for Gang Green.
Rodgers looks old and beaten; he struggles to make plays on the field, and the owner acquiesces to his every demand. Many believe Rodgers is the reason why Robert Saleh was abruptly fired after the Jets trip to London in Week 5. He is also believed to be the reason why the Jets decided to take on all of Devante Adams expensive contract from the Raiders.
Bottom line nothing is working for the Jets.
Since firing Saleh, the Jets are 0-3, and look worse each and every week as they coast through a five game losing streak.
They play host to the Texans on Thursday, and play Arizona 10 days after that. In short, Lord knows when the Jets will win a game again this season. It's that bad.
So as the baseball season comes to an end, we are left with the ruins of football, and it ain't looking good.
There is a line in the movie "Moneyball" where Brad Pitt says, "How can you not be romantic about baseball?"
Well on Friday night in Los Angeles, in a city known for Hollywood endings, Freddie Freeman not only won a World Series game for the Dodgers, he channeled the legend of Kirk Gibson from the 1988 World Series.
It was at the end of that Game 1 of the '88 Fall Classic that Gibby cracked a three-run homer to win it for the Dodgers over the Oakland A's.
Freddie Freeman celebrates his Grand Slam. Getty Images.
Ironically, Gibson was hobbled by a bad hamstring, and his at bat was a pinch hit.
Likewise, Freeman -- a veteran player and borderline Hall of Famer, was also hobbled by a lower leg injury, his ankle.
Both hitters are left handed.
And the home run that Gibson hit 36-years ago, and the Grand Slam that Freeman hit on Friday night, both wound up in nearly the same location in the right field bleachers.
Talk about symmetry.
Baseball is wild cat.
For the Yankees this game will live in infamy, especially if they fail to come back and win this series.
Fans will point out, and they already are pointing out that Manager Aaron Boone took a huge risk bringing in a rusty Nestor Cortes into the tenth inning with the Yankees up 3-2, and needing only two outs. Cortes has been sidelined since September 18. Why bring him in this spot? It made no sense.
Not to mention, it appeared in the top of the ninth that the Yanks may have been robbed a potential Gleyber Torres homer when video review showed that a fan had reached over the wall, caught it and pulled the ball back into the crowd.
The home run was reversed, and Torres was awarded a double. The Yankees didn't score in the inning.
Still the Yankees had their moment.
- Giancarlo Stanton's two-run bomb still hasn't returned to orbit. The blast gave the Yanks a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning.
- Jazz Chisholm used his legs to help manufacture the go-ahead run in the top of the tenth to give the Yankees a brief 3-2 lead.
- Gerrit Cole was dominant over six stellar innings of work. Should the Yankees have left him in at 88 pitches?
- And don't forget Alex Verdugo's Jeter-esque play on a Shohei Ohtani pop up into foul territory in the bottom of the tenth.
The Yankees find their backs to the wall in Game 2. Yoshinubo Yamamoto goes for LA, while Carlos Rodon will toe the rubber for the Yankees.
