Whether it’s high school or sports, there’s one unwritten tradition that has endured: the new guy gets hazed on the first day! Peter Schrager found this out recently — to his cost.
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It would have been something quite unexpected for the sportscasting veteran. Schrager has been one of the most familiar figures in the NFL for over a decade, working for Fox as both an analyst and a sideline reporter. Over the past nine years, he has also come to be known as one of the faces of the NFL Network’s flagship show, Good Morning Football.
In a major transition, Schrager has now taken his talents to industry giant ESPN, where he made his debut on Wednesday. And he wasted no time delivering his first hot take — something ESPN has thrived on for years, thanks to personalities like Stephen A. Smith (who was present) and Skip Bayless. His take? A bold prediction about the New York Giants and their chances in 2025.
The Giants might be in the toughest division in football. Two NFC East teams squared off in the NFC Championship last year. The Washington Commanders have only gotten better, and the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t lose much from a Super Bowl-winning roster. We can probably expect a bounce back in Dallas for the Cowboys too, as they haven’t had back-to-back losing seasons since 2002.
And yet, Schrager thinks the Giants are going to contend for the division crown in 2025 despite the mess that franchise is. They just put up their worst record since 1974 and don’t have an encouraging QB room. Schrager disagrees, however, as he decided to take a big swing on his first day at his new job.
“The Giants have a competent enough quarterback room right now… where I think they can compete with a Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston. And you have Malik Nabers and Tyrone Tracy, and now (Travis) Hunter or (Abdul) Carter, and you have put this nucleus together, and the quarterback is gonna be significantly better than what we got last year,” he said.
Host Molly Qerim could sense where Schrager was going with this one, so she helped him along. She asked him point-blank if he thought the Giants could contend with the Eagles and Commanders in the NFC East. His answer?
“Oh yes, yes. I saw the Houston Texans go from a two pick to the playoffs, I saw the Commanders go from a two pick to the playoffs. And the Giants are gonna have different players at positions that are cornerstone pieces… They went 1-9 in one-score games.”
Schrager also made an erroneous comparison, claiming the Giants won three games with Saquon in 2023, just as they did without him in 2024. In reality, New York finished 6-11 in 2023 and was 6-8 when Barkley played. No wonder Chris “Mad Dog” Russo looked like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. That’s also when Stephen A. stepped in and, with the utmost respect, gave Schrager a roasting he’s not going to forget in a hurry!.
“It helps to be nice, I get that. Because you’re being very, very nice right now. And I’m certainly not challenging your credibility because I know you know what the he** you’re talking about. But you are being nice,” he began.
After acknowledging some injury issues for the Giants last year, Smith turned to the stat book to show Schrager why the New Yorker was viewing these G-Men through rose-tinted glasses.
“Since 2011. Zero division titles since 2011. One double-digit winning season. 11 losing seasons in 14 years, PETER! 11! 11, okay? During this time, 79-132-1, fourth-worst record in the National Football League, two playoff appearances, one playoff win,” Stephen A. said before continuing,
“The only teams worse than the New York Giants are the Jaguars, Browns, and the Jets. And you’re gonna sit here on national television in your debut on ESPN and say to the American public, the world, that the New York Giants will be significantly improved playing in the same division as the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders?”
To be fair, though, Schrager did have a point: The Giants will definitely be much improved in 2024. Which won’t be that hard, given how bad they were last season. But the other part of his point — that they will compete for divisional supremacy with the two teams from last year’s NFC Championship — stretches belief.
