Boomer & Gio
Full Show - Harbaugh Talks Giants, Future & Assistants, Mets Make A Big Trade
21 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. And we're coming to you live from the Bill Ford Tough Studio. Boomer Esiason, Greg Giannotti. It's Boomer and Geo on the fan. Simulcast across the country on CBS Sports Network and wherever you are on the free Odyssey app. Good Wednesday morning. Exciting news for Mets fans overnight. Late last night, Luis Robert Jr. is your new center fielder.
A name that was talked about at the trade deadline last year. Instead, they got Cedric Mullins, who was a total bust. But Luis Angel Acuna goes to the White Sox. Another prospect out to the White Sox. And Luis... Robert Jr., an elite defender and a man who has at least one spectacular offensive season under his belt, is going to be the center fielder. So that's exciting. David Stearns continues.
And John Harbaugh yesterday at press conference was everything you expected it to be. It was awesome. It was exciting.
Chapter 2: What are the implications of Luis Robert Jr.'s trade for the Mets?
You saw him in all his Harbaugh-ness. which is exactly what we knew we were going to get. I saw Evan Tiki and Sean's interview with him afterwards. Sean, what they could not, he just smiled ear to ear the entire time. And I'm imagining that most Giant fans were doing the same thing. Good morning, Boomer. How are you? Yeah, I'm doing all right, G. And you're right.
It was exactly what we thought it was going to be. I mean, I thought Joe Shane was a little out of breath. Yeah, it was a very strange thing there. I felt like he was nervous. You're right. He was nervous, and that's probably what was going on.
But what I don't understand is he's been in a lot of situations where he would be more likely to be nervous, where it's like these middle-of-the-season, into-the-bi-week press conferences where his job is on the line, or end-of-the-year, it's another four wins, and everybody's asking him why he's nervous. You should still be the general manager while Brian Dable got fired.
And this is like the exciting one. You got it done. You're here. You're the man. You stay in. And then that's why he was out of breath. It was weird.
It was very strange.
It was kind of strange. And then, of course, because this is New York and because everybody has to know everything and everybody has to kind of understand the pecking order over there at the Quest Diagnostic Center. You know, the questions now start, you know, who's got the final say? Who's got this? Who's got that?
I mean, this is like John Harbaugh probably doesn't realize it, but now he does realize it, that this is New York, that everybody's going to question everything that you're doing, how you're doing it, who reports to the owner, who doesn't report to the owner. In the building over there, it really doesn't matter much as long as they collaborate.
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Chapter 3: What were the highlights of John Harbaugh's press conference?
But one thing I will say, for John Harbaugh to sign a five-year, $100 million deal, he's the one wielding all the power if you care about that kind of thing. Sure. And John Maris says, listen, everybody's going to collaborate, but he is the most important cog in the wheel, if that answers your question. Yeah, and John Mara is at the office every single day.
Now, given his current health status, that may be a little bit different, and maybe Chris Mara is going to be much more present to help John out and to help these guys make decisions, but they're going to collaborate. That's what they should do. That's the job. Now, it's interesting because that's not what's going on up in Buffalo. The opposite is going on in Buffalo right now.
And you can say whatever you want about the Buffalo Bills and the decisions that they've made, but where they stand right now, Brandon Bean is the president of football operations. He actually got a raise after he was brought to Buffalo by Sean McDermott. So every team is a little bit different.
I personally like it when the general manager is the guy that's hiring the coach and he's the guy that is dealing with the coach on a daily basis. But this is completely different. This is a legendary coach. This is a coach that has won a Super Bowl. This is a coach that's coached in this league for 18 years as a head coach. So now you have to have more flexibility when you hire a guy like this.
If you hire somebody like Jesse Minter or Chris Shula or Clint Kubiak, completely different set of circumstances. This and the way it's set up is the way it should be set up because you are bringing all of this credibility. Everything that John Harbaugh projected to you as a giant fan yesterday is exactly what the New York Giants needed to start off their offseason.
Because now the business side is really ramping up. The ticket side is going to be ramping up. And you could just feel the genuine excitement. by Giant fans for the guy that they hired yesterday. Yeah, and the turnaround being something that can happen quickly in the NFL is another reason why everybody is so excited because we have seen it. We saw it this year. We've seen it in years past.
Almost every single year there's a worst-to-first team. And John Arbaugh talked about how his dad was watching film. His dad said, look at the Giants, look at the things. There's foundational things that they're doing. He could step in. We know all the blown leads in the close games that the Giants had. Jackson Dart already being in place, the No.
5 overall pick, getting Malik Nabors back, getting Cam Scadaboo back. You have Tyrone Tracy coming off the back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons. They want to run the ball. I mean, it's all right there. And you're right, as far as the reporting structure, you have to do things in order to get John Harbaugh here that John Harbaugh wants.
There's very few head coaches that become available that you have to make concessions for. And John Harbaugh was one of those guys. And the Giants did absolutely...
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Chapter 4: How does the coaching structure affect the Giants' future?
And maybe that's what happened to John down in Baltimore, too. It gets stale. Things have to change. Things have to move on. I mean, I don't believe that's what's happening up in Buffalo. Something else happened up in Buffalo, and I'm not really sure what it is. because Sean McDermott is still young. He's won all these AFC East titles. He's won twice as many games than he's lost.
He's won five AFC titles. He's done everything you possibly could, and they basically pulled a rug right out from under him. And I just don't get that. But anyway, so with Tom Coughlin leaving here and the awkwardness of all of that, but for him to – be calling Chris Mara, telling him to get down and go see John Harbaugh. And Chris listening to John and doing that, they built the boats.
And they sent Chris Mara down there. And like I was saying earlier last week, I give Chris a lot of credit for going down there. I didn't realize that it was at the behest of Tom Coughlin. Yeah, I don't think anybody did until yesterday when Chris Mara told the story. By the way, Chris didn't have to tell that story. No. No, I mean, like, he didn't have to tell that story.
Because he was getting all the credit. But again, like, in Mara-esque fashion, you know, I don't need all the credit. You know, here's a guy who I listened to, believed in, and I took his advice, and his advice has turned into what we have today. Yeah, and that's what you love about this team.
And some of the questions going into this coaching search was, with all the recent ineptitude of the New York Giants, is that job still looked at as the New York Giants? And the answer was a resounding yes yesterday with John Harbaugh, the way he talked about ownership and the history and the New York football Giants and all of these things that meant something to him. That's why last Friday's
report out of the NFL Network was asinine. It was all asinine. The whole thing was asinine because there's no way that the Harbaugh family – you've got to remember, I mean, their dad is a longtime coach at Western Kentucky. I mean, like this is coaching – like this is – I can't explain it. The fabric of coaching is within and woven in the Harbaugh family.
The fabric of the NFL is woven through the Mara family because of how it all started and what went on way back when at the beginning of this great league that we all love. And there was no way that Harbaugh was going to go down this path with the Mara. and not have it come together like it did yesterday.
Once you meet and then all of a sudden there's more meetings, then you go out to dinner over there and you're sitting around and you're talking and John Maris is going through what he's going through and you have to sit there and you're talking to him knowing what he's going through. There's no way that John Harbaugh is ever backing out of anything. Yeah, I agree.
It was interesting, though, because no one asked him about that in the assembled media session. But Evan asked him when they had him on here on the fan. And he basically just said, yeah, I don't know about any of that. When he said, were you close to doing something else? Were you close to this thing? And John Harbaugh was like, I don't know anything about that. And it sort of moved on.
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Chapter 5: What excitement surrounds John Harbaugh's arrival?
First off, I'm super jacked and amped up that Harbaugh's here. Finally, a big boy in the building. And I want the next newspaper article to say, Sexy Dexy meets foot-loving Sexy Rexy. What do we got to do to get this guy in here, bro? He's a big boy in the room. Listen, I'm serious. Boomer, I'm serious. Listen, this team can ill afford, okay, to bring in these young upstart coordinators.
Listen, good luck to them. We need big people, big boys in the room. Now, I know Rex got an ego, but if they want to get him here, Boomer.
Yeah.
Any chance you see them talking to him saying, listen, your defense, strictly defense, because, Boomer, you guys know, this just giant defense needs some teeth. They need to go back to the defense that I remember them winning championships with back in the 80s. You guys are great. Thank you, guys. Have a good day. All right, Steve. I appreciate it.
Thank you. So, you know, I think that John Harbaugh tried to answer this kind of politically correct yesterday. Yeah.
Yeah.
They did work together. They know each other. I'm sure they've been in touch with each other. I don't ever remember at all Rex Ryan ever criticizing John Harbaugh. Do you as an analyst? I don't really watch him, so I don't know. I've seen him a bunch. I've seen him go after coaches and people. Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen him ever go after John Harbaugh.
I could be wrong about that, and I haven't watched everything he's ever said. But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of hiring Rex Ryan as a defensive coordinator?
I think Rex brings chaos, which is good for a little bit. And if there's a head coach that can handle it, it's obviously John Harbaugh because he's handled it in the past. But it doesn't – I mean, Rex has been on TV for too long now. I just – I don't see it. Really beautiful feet. All right. All right. I don't see it. I mean, I know he wants to get back in. Does he?
I mean, I think he would love to get back in. but maybe not as a coordinator. I think he would love to be a head coach. Remember when the Jets job was open, he was dying to get that job. He goes, there's only one person that could do this, and that's me. And that would be another reason why you wouldn't hire him.
As a defense coordinator, because of the chaos and because of the bluster and because of the personality, just that it's, you don't want it to overshadow your head coach. You know what I mean? And he didn't over, you know, by the way, when he was with the Ravens, he never overshadowed John Harbaugh at all, I don't think. No. And it wasn't until he became a head coach and had real success.
And you remember when he came here, we're not kissing anybody's rings and all that other stuff. I mean, it was exactly what the Jet fan needed. Just like we were talking about, this is exactly what the Giant fan needed with Harbaugh. Yeah, and I don't think that Rex Ryan's going to have an opportunity, really, to overshadow John Harbaugh because the coordinators, they speak once a week.
That's it. But it's still Rex. On Thursdays. But he's not speaking every single day. He doesn't talk after the game. He doesn't talk before the game. He talks on Thursdays, and that's it. I know one thing. He'd light a fire under everybody's ass in that defense. Yeah. I really don't think it's a possibility, though. I really don't. I think that John loves Rex. I think that ship has sailed.
I can't say whether he loves him or loves him. I don't know any of that stuff. Sounded like it yesterday that he loved the guy. Well, he's going to be, yeah, he's going to be gracious because that's what he does. He's John Harbaugh. He's going to be gracious. I mean, he's going to be gracious outwardly, but inwardly he is uber, and I mean uber competitive.
Yeah, one good thing that I really like about Todd Munkin being the offensive coordinator is chances are, even though he's interviewing for some jobs now, chances are he's not going to get a head coaching job at this point.
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Chapter 7: What does John Harbaugh say about his relationship with Lamar Jackson?
And maybe there's a chance, but it's not like that John Harbaugh is hiring some sort of young up and coming coordinator is going to go get a job if Jackson Dart and that guy end up hitting it off. So Todd Munkin could be here for a number of years. I don't know.
If that person can also be hired as a defensive coordinator, it might end up being a younger guy who hopefully does a great job and is a good problem to have. Somebody within the Harbaugh tree of coaching.
Right.
Between he and his brother somewhere, there's got to be somebody. And they make the defense a top five defense and that guy ends up getting a job. That would be a great thing. You don't see Wink Martindale walking back into that building. I think that's more realistic than Rex, but still not realistic. I don't know. It all depends on how it ended over there two years ago with Wink.
Was he pissing everybody off or just the head coach? But it was also, I'm sure that ownership didn't love how that went down and were probably angry at Wink for storming out in the way that he did. And he also, you know, he's taking shots.
But again, you know, these are defensive coordinators that, you know, most of them are edgy, are on edge, and they want to do it their way, especially the older guys. Oh, yeah. The older guys, like, are very reticent to change their ways. Rex Ryan, Jim Schwartz, Greg Williams.
I'll tell you, going against Jim Schwartz all these years, I would imagine John Harbaugh has a lot of respect for him as a defensive coordinator. Yeah, he may end up getting it. By the way, he was out there with Kevin Stefanski. You never heard any problems between the coaches. Yeah. And by the way, Stefanski is keeping Albrecht as the defensive coordinator for the Falcons.
Yeah, Jim Schwartz might end up getting the head coaching job with Cleveland now. Mike McDaniel's out of the mix, and they've interviewed him a couple of times. You got Mike McCarthy going to Pittsburgh today? Yeah, he's going to have an interview there. Jesse Minter was in Baltimore again, I think. That's the guy I have pegged for the Ravens job, Jesse Minter. Yeah. Well, he was there.
He was there under Harbaugh, John. Yeah, I think we both picked him for the Ravens, pretty sure, just because of that. Brian Flores? Doesn't sound like he's getting a job again. Yeah. I mean, he really doesn't. I mean, we all thought that it was going to be the Raiders. If it was the Raiders, he would have been hired already. So who are the Raiders waiting for? You told me Clint Kubiak.
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Chapter 8: What are the latest updates on the Mets and their trades?
Didn't we play that? Oh, of course, yeah. When did we play that? Don't recall. You should look back in your notes that you have on every show that we do. See if you can find it. All right. Notes on every show that we do? Yeah, he keeps a note. Locks every note? Oh, yeah, he's all over it. You know, you can find it via AI, I think, believe it or not.
That's what some people from the network when it existed said. It was like, I wonder when that was. And you could put in the name of the show and when things happen, it'll come up maybe because it's on the internet somewhere. Why don't you do that, Al? Fernando. Locking in.
Too bad, though.
I just want to know the date of when we did that. That was after he had a great game somewhere. And I think we were talking about Jet fans should be singing this song and be hoping that they somehow... So it was really interesting watching him after the game. By the way, Fernando Mendoza, he walks very awkwardly. Okay. He's got an awkward kind of dorky walk.
I have not seen, I mean, I've seen him on the field walking, but I never thought. I saw him walking like, you know, he was walking past the Indiana bank and everybody high fives. And he's going to his, I think he was going to see his mom and maybe do like one of a thousand interviews that he's done. Yeah. And I was just watching him walk. It's like a weird walk.
Remember when we talked about the female male walkers? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. The female that walks like a man. Sure. We had a couple of them around here. Remember that? Well, yes, I do. Yeah, so he has like a very kind of like a weird gait. And when he runs, he looks okay. Doesn't look great. On the football field in uniform, he looks fantastic.
And when he made that run to score the touchdown, that's athleticism right there. I don't care what anybody says. You're getting hit by three different guys? So you're telling me this walk is a red flag? No, he's going to be the number one overall pick going to the Raiders. That's what I'm telling you. Okay.
I'm just telling you that if there was any question about, like, all right, what is it about him? I don't know if it's the size of his feet, maybe. Yeah. Does he have a duck foot situation going on? I don't know. It's just like a very, like... Dorky walk. How else is it to explain? He's got a bit of a dorky personality. But that's what you love about him. Yes. And you know what? He loves ball.
He loves ball, man. Loves ball. He loves God. Loves his family. Loves ball. He loves ball. All right, Boomer and Geo on the fan. Those three things you can win with, kid. It's the Boomer and Geo podcast from WFAN. Hi, Boomer and Geo on the fan and CBS Sports Network. One of the CBS Sports Network cameras got caught on the television monitor in here when they were fighting with each other.
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