GM Dave Gettleman is to blame for this Giants team completely devoid of talent
The Giants are not in the middle of their rebuild. This is the beginning.
John Mara has to understand this as the franchise’s co-owner plays judge and jury on his franchise’s third 0-3 start since 1996.
This roster is nowhere close, as Sunday’s 36-9 home loss to an injury-decimated 49ers team proved again. The talent isn’t there.
San Francisco was playing without 10 of its typical starting 22 on Sunday, but the Niners' personnel losses meant nothing. The Giants are starting players all over their roster who would be backups on any good team.
Mara seemed like he was finally assessing his team honestly coming out of last year’s 4-12 disaster. He fired Pat Shurmur and hired Joe Judge, entrusting the Bill Belichick Patriots' protege with a long-term rebuild of his franchise’s process, production and image.
But by retaining GM Dave Gettleman, Mara indicated he didn’t fully grasp the futility. He wasn’t truly accepting how far behind Gettleman’s 2018-19 operations had set the roster back.
And if Mara is looking for someone to blame now, Gettleman is overdue.
Alec Ogletree, the captain of last year’s defense, was a street free agent until signing on Sept. 11 to the practice squad of one of the NFL’s worst teams, the Jets. Gettleman traded for him in the spring of 2018.
Antoine Bethea, last season’s starting free safety, is not in the league. Curtis Riley, the 2018 starting free safety, is a journeyman backup. B.W. Webb, a starting corner in 2018, isn’t in the league.
Three starters on last year’s team are not on an NFL roster after offseason arrests: DeAndre Baker, Cody Latimer and Aldrick Rosas. Three Week 1 starters from last season have retired: Eli Manning, Zak DeOssie and Rhett Ellison (concussions). So did running back Jonathan Stewart one year after Gettleman inked him in 2018.
Patrick Omameh, Gettleman’s starting free agent guard signing in 2018, was only signed to the Raiders' practice squad in mid-September. Corner Antonio Hamilton and linebacker Tae Davis both started in Week 1 for this defense last year. Hamilton is valuable as a backup for the reigning Super Bowl champion Chiefs. Davis is a backup on the Browns.
Gettleman’s proud draft history isn’t looking so great, either.
He traded up into the first round for Baker. He drafted Kyle Lauletta, who was then arrested and released. He used a third-round supplementary pick on Sam Beal. He thought Ryan Connelly was a steal; they cut him. Late rounders DT R.J. McIntosh, DT Chris Slayton and OT George Asafo-Adjei all have been whiffs.
Players like Oshane Ximines, Julian Love and B.J. Hill are backups, even if they’re starting at times. Corey Ballentine can’t cut it. Lorenzo Carter may turn a corner but had a scary bad game on Sunday.
Daniel Jones, Will Hernandez, Darius Slayton, Dexter Lawrence and Barkley may be feathers in the GM’s draft cap at the moment, but the only high-impact possible star is Barkley, who is not only injured but also flawed. Jones also just had his worst game as a pro.
This is all with Gettleman having the advantage of holding picks Nos. 2, 6 and 4 overall due to the Giants' recent annual irrelevance.
What is the point of listing all of these failed acquisitions and backfiring decisions?
The point is to illustrate that the Giants are not in the middle of a rebuild. Gettleman spent his first two years mostly bringing in players who aren’t here anymore or who are proving now that they aren’t difference-makers.
A major reason is because Mara and Gettleman tried to win immediately in 2018 and get Manning on one last playoff run, rather than rebuild. That strategy included their No. 2 overall selection of Saquon Barkley in 2018.
That was not a rebuild pick. That was a win-now pick.
Even last fall, Gettleman traded for Leonard Williams four losses into a nine-game losing streak because he was trying to give his floundering team a jolt. It wasn’t a long-term move. It was a trade to win more games down the stretch with the GM’s job on the line.
Judge is here because Mara finally seems to understand that the Giants have to do things differently, and the co-owner finally seems willing to be patient to let a new program take hold.
When an 0-3 team looks as bad as the Giants did on Sunday, the temptation can be to “blow the whole thing up” again, as Mara called it in September. But Mara was right not to commit to any specific amount of losses that would provoke his ire because this season and situation are unique.
He has hired a 38-year-old head coach and arranged a marriage with an incumbent GM who hired and scapegoated the previous head coach. He has tasked Judge with turning around the NFL’s worst team (12-39) since the start of the 2017 NFL season.
Gettleman traded the team’s best player Odell Beckham Jr. to Cleveland after the 2018 season, and on Sunday the Giants didn’t run an offensive play in the red zone.
These things are related.
Jason Garrett’s offense now is averaging 12.7 points per game in 2020. The Giants' defense can’t string a full game together. And it’s time for Mara to recognize that his personnel is the primary problem.
For Judge’s sake, at least the new head coach doesn’t have to bench Manning again, or he’d probably meet the same fate the last two coaches did.
For Mara’s sake, if he wants to turn this around, it is time to commit to the long-term process he hired Judge to execute. And it is time to cut ties with the GM who, in tandem with Mara, did not commence a true rebuild until recently.
It is time for an overdue change at the top.
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