Press Pass | Kimberley A. Martin of Yahoo! Sports Talks Being a National NFL Reporter, Dave Gettleman, and the Future of Daniel Jones

Liam McKeone: Hi Kimberley, thanks for taking the time to chat today. You’ve spent the last few days at Giants rookie camp. What are your initial impressions of the camp, especially Daniel Jones?

Kimberley A. Martin: You know, as soon as [Jones] gets in front of the microphone… I wrote about how the resemblance is sort of uncanny. Just the physical traits of what you’re looking at. Tall, slender white guy, mop of brown hair, not saying anything controversial, saying all the right things, only focused on winning. It’s like Eli Manning lite, you know? It’s an unfair place for the kid to be in. I think everybody understands that any young quarterback that steps in has to fill the shoes of somebody, right? The way the Giants went about this whole situation, the QB situation from last year to the Eli benching to drafting Saquon, who’s an incredible talent. But ignoring that QB class and then taking Daniel at six kind of makes the stakes even higher for not only Daniel, but Gettleman, Shurmur, everybody involved.

It’s a rookie minicamp, so as far as what you see on the field, they’re tossing to other rookies or other quarterbacks in air. There’s no defenders. What made me laugh is the Giants even tweeted out… I guess you’d call it a hype video for Daniel over the weekend? And it’s just 20 or 30 seconds of just the kid trying to show off his arm strength. They’re doing too much. They’re doing too much on trying to sell the whole Tristate area on “This is the guy.” If you just say, “You know what, we like him. He’s got what it takes, we wanted him at six, and that’s it. You can question the evaluations.” I don’t begrudge any team taking a quarterback at six. The Jets went up to take Sanchez at five, but you knew that’s their guy, right or wrong. I think with Daniel it’s like, “Well, we knew for a fact he wouldn’t be there at 17, so we had to take him at six.” That feels different than just saying, “He’s the guy we wanted from the beginning. I’ll stake my career on that.” Because that’s what the Giants are doing right now.

As for the other guys, it’s still really early. Dexter Lawrence, he’s a big guy. The first-round picks, it’s interesting. There wasn’t one of those picks that all fans could rally around and be like “This is amazing, I love it!” That’s what I find interesting about the Giants’ draft. Yes, they got three first-rounders, but some questions the decision-making behind taking a quarterback at six, bypassing defensive line help at six, then taking a defensive tackle who’s not going to be on the field all the time. Then there’s DeAndre Baker. So suffice to say, it’ll be really interesting to see how things get going with these guys and how early they’ll contribute.

McKeone: Is the class really that bad, or are Giants fans just critical about it because that’s the nature of being a New York sports fan?

Martin: With the draft…. [One] of the things we love during draft time, we always show old clips of fans that boo a pick immediately. The very nature of the draft is that each fan is going want who they want. You have guys that are super stoked that their guy was taken, and other times they’re like, “What the hell is my GM thinking?” The Giants’ rookie class right now, it’s more about Gettleman. Not just Gettleman, but moreso [Giants owner John] Mara and how the organization handled the Eli Manning benching, the McAdoo thing, now they’ve got Shurmur… I mean, the last two years, you have to question what’s the plan, right? The reaction to the picks is more Giants fans not understanding what the plan is, and I don’t think it’s any fault of theirs. If you’re looking at this team with a critical eye, they gave Odell [Beckham Jr.] $90 million, $65 million of which is guaranteed. Then you see them go trade him after the GM said you don’t give somebody that much money to trade them. You have Eli benched for Geno Smith, then you come into the next season and say Eli’s our guy, he’s got more left in the tank. And then they said they know [Jones] is the future of their franchise, and you’re sort of like, “Okay…” I just think it’s how things are done. You can communicate the plan to fans and even media without the arrogance or know-it-all-ness that Gettlman likes to tweak people with. But it’s a combination of all that.

McKeone: From the initial outlook, who out of the Giants’ draft class do you think could surprise some people?

Martin: If you’re a Giants fan, you would hope that the third-round pick Oshane Ximines, just from a pass-rushing standpoint, will give you some juice, and he’s got some local ties. Even with him, when you say “Surprise some people”, because he came from a small program at Old Dominion, it’s almost like the expectations [are], you don’t know what he can do. If he comes out and has a good season in his rookie year, then you think okay, this guy has three sacks, five sacks. As a third-round pick, that feels different than if you took a first-round pass rusher. You would expect ten off the bat. He’s somebody that has the drive, understands the small-school label, and he’s happy to be back in the area. He had 12 sacks last year, obviously going against that level of competition vs. NFL competition, huge jump! But he knows that, and the fans right now are focused on Daniel Jones, they’re focused on Dexter Lawrence. Maybe he’s a kid that can come out and surprise people.

McKeone: Gettleman has been kind of wishy-washy about his plans for the future of the Giants, but recently said he could see Jones sitting up to three years on the bench. How realistic do you think it is that he finishes even next season on the bench?

Martin: At this point, I think he’s just messing with the media, I’ll be honest. I think he enjoys the banter, he enjoys acting like “I know better than you”, he told Peter King, “We’ll see how crazy I am in three years.” I don’t think there’s any way you take this kid at six and sit him three years. One year? I could see that. I could see him sitting this season. But I think Gettleman is looking to give himself as much wiggle room as possible… that way, it’s hard to pin down what the plan is. The way that they’re presenting it, it is clear that this is… I mean, they said full-blown love. They are smitten with this kid. I don’t think that transition from Eli to Daniel Jones would be a three-year kid.

McKeone: Do you get the sense that this might be kind of a “punt year” for the Giants, where they let everything unfold and have a top pick next year?

Martin: Yeah, I think anybody who thinks the Giants expect to have a really good season… I don’t care what the coach or the GM says. When you get through the draft and you get into listening to coach-speak and GM-speak, you kind of have to just watch what they’re doing, as opposed to listening to what they’re saying. If you’re a Giants fan, you can’t go into the season expecting your team to be really successful. After getting rid of a ton of defensive talent, getting rid of Odell, the rebuild is happening. It’s no coincidence Gettleman is saying, “Let’s see if I’m crazy in three years.” This is a three-year project, at least. We can’t determine whether this works for another three years. Is this his attempt to buy himself three years? Does he feel that he’ll be around that long to see the Daniel Jones pick through?… Where’s the defense on this team? They got Dexter Lawrence and DeAndre Baker, but they have so many holes that I think punting on the season and figuring out how to gradually say goodbye to Eli is more of what I expect, as opposed to seeing the Giants in the playoffs.

McKeone: On the line of thinking of needing to watch what GMs and coaches do rather than what they say, did you take anything away from Pat Shurmur’s body language during that post-draft press conference with Gettleman that seemed to indicate he didn’t really want Jones?

Martin: If you look at Shurmur all the time, that’s literally what he looks like. So I didn’t read into it like that. Sitting there in that draft press conference, I had a feeling people would look into that body language as Gettleman is gushing about this kid and Shurmur’s not really saying much. His face is sort of far off and stoic. If somebody made that assumption, I could understand why. I honestly don’t understand Pat Shurmur’s approach in the media. I’ll be honest: I don’t get how he relates to the media. He’s somebody that one week will defend Odell, the next week he’ll take this subtle shot at Odell. So trying to understand where he stands on certain things, I find confusing and difficult. Maybe he isn’t as in love with Daniel Jones as Gettleman is. I don’t think Daniel Jones’ parents love Daniel as much as Gettleman does, because Gettleman is so over the top. I hope for Shurmur’s sake that he is as on board with this QB because this organization needs to hit it on this pick. There’s no room for Daniel Jones just to be okay. He’s got to be really good. So you hope that everybody involved who’s signing off on this is on board with it. Because that’s your legacy if this whole thing blows up.

McKeone: It’s almost shocking how much these guys have riding on him. I don’t think I can remember someone staking their jobs to this degree on just this one draft pick in recent history.

Martin: Think about it! For 15 years, we’ve only seen Eli. Eli has been the face for better or worse. Eli has won two Super Bowls here, two [Super Bowl] MVPs. The interesting thing is last season, fans were ready to run this guy out of town, and now some of those same fans are like “What is this Daniel Jones kid doing here?” We have never seen this. Because all we’ve seen is Eli. We’ve never seen Eli in the Kurt Warner situation… this is the first time this area has seen the Giants have a long term answer, they presume, at QB besides Eli.

McKeone: Besides Daniel Jones coming in and playing like an absolute stud, what would constitute a successful season for the Giants in 2019?

Martin: See, I’m one of those people that don’t necessarily think young QBs should start right away. I’m not sure seeing Daniel Jones at some point this year is a measure of success to me, only because there’s value in him sitting. A successful Giants season is just that Daniel Jones learns a lot from Eli. Here’s the thing: everybody has different needs. Ownership, you want to make sure seats are still filled on Sundays. Fans want to see this team go to the playoffs. If you’re able to still be competitive, if from Weeks 9-17 the games you’re playing are still meaningful, that would be a definition of success. Not saying they would win all those games, but it’s not, like, Week 6 and they’re saying “Well, this Giants team blows.”

The team has a lot of money sunk in Eli still, a lot of money invested in him. For him to suck this season… Yes, that gets Daniel Jones on the field quicker, I’d presume, but that’s not the best thing for the kid. Being competitive in every game, keeping Saquon healthy, that to me is a successful season… Daniel Jones, learning at the feet of a two-time Super Bowl MVP and not being thrown out before he needs to be. That, to me, would mean success.

McKeone: What has your experience as an NFL reporter been like?

Martin: Well, I’m a national columnist, so I write about all teams, but because I moved back to New Jersey, I’ve written the most about Jets and Giants. But mostly Giants, because there was that juice in the draft… The Giants writers look at me now and they’re like, “What are you still doing here?”

It’s weird because this whole time, I spent almost six seasons as the full-time Jets beat writer, eight seasons in total with the Jets. So outside of that 2011 Super Bowl the Giants won, I really didn’t cover about them that much. So now to be back in Jersey, and spending more time with the “other” New York/New Jersey team, it’s kind of crazy. It’s interesting to see how the Jets have, over the last few years, a more… stable franchise? I mean, I don’t know, I guess you can say more stable than the Giants. When words like circus and drama and dysfunction are being attributed to the Giants and their handling of [those] situations, that to me is wild. As someone who grew up in Brooklyn and covered the Jets for so many years during the Rex years and everything, it is just crazy to me to see how the tide has turned, so that’s why I’m even more intrigued by how that Daniel Jones experiment goes.

McKeone: Going from being a beat writer to a national writer, you have to change the scope of what you write. How would you describe that transition when you went from beat writing to national writing?

Martin: That’s a good question. I’m still trying to figure out to do that. It’s not something you can just flip a switch for. The best thing about being a beat writer is that you’re there, at a facility, practically every day. So you can really build your relationships. To me, relationships are critical. That’s how I’ve sort of gone about my career. Trying to foster legit professional relationships, as opposed to coming in and trying to be the “gotcha” sensational journalist.  But when you’re not in a locker room every day, it’s hard to develop those relationships and to feel like you’re completely on top of things. So it becomes even more critical to travel to different cities, to talk to more people on the phone, because you have to know what’s going on with all 32 teams. Even though I cover the Jets and the Bills and the Redskins and the Giants mostly, that’s my area of expertise, you have to know what’s going on with all 32.

That’s a hard transition, especially after 7 months at Yahoo!. That’s something that every day, you just have to be more strategic about stuff. If you have to fly in to Dallas, how do you get the most out of that one day in the locker room that you won’t see [again] for several months? That’s a challenge that I don’t think people even realize about being a national reporter. I think it’s cool that I can say I want to go to the Chargers or the Rams, and that’s an option. Instead of, the Jets just cut their fifth string lineman. You can take a big-picture view on things, which is exciting and allows you to tell stories that you wouldn’t have otherwise been afforded the opportunity.

McKeone: How do you like being a national reporter instead of a beat reporter so far?

Martin: I like it! I like it a lot. I’ve been fortunate that, in a very short amount of time, I’ve gotten to live several lives. I left the Jets beat in August 2017, and since then I was a columnist in Buffalo, I was a Redskins beat writer for the Washington Post, and now I’m a national writer/columnist at Yahoo!. That’s a short amount of time to do a lot of different things but you put in the work to get the opportunities. But I like it.

We taped a mock draft show. The on-air stuff, the ability to shoot video, to write and do sit-down interviews, you aren’t able to do that in a lot of places all at one stop. It can be overwhelming because there are stories everywhere for all 32 NFL cities, the NFL teams. But that freedom is a really cool thing.