The New York Giants have not been good for a long time and there is plenty of blame to go around. In recent years, we’ve seen an uncharacteristic shuffling of staff as ownership tries to steady course, but those rough seas may not have passed just yet.
Following the conclusion of the 2019 season, the Giants fired head coach Pat Shurmur and the majority of his staff, and they nearly parted ways with general manager Dave Gettleman as well.
Gettleman managed to talk his way back into the fold, but he hadn’t exactly been given a long leash.
In a Monday column for The Athletic, NFL insider Jay Glazer noted that Gettleman was nearly sent out to pasture earlier this year before being given one more season to turn things around.
“I don’t know if he’ll end up retiring but yeah, I think he was close this year. He made a case to ownership to come back. He presented a plan for how he’ll turn it around in a year. That needs to happen. If it doesn’t happen, he’ll be gone and rightfully so. If he doesn’t follow through, it’s time to go. I would hope that Gettleman has also learned a bit about himself and his interactions with people during this process. Anytime you’re on the hot seat, you have to look inside yourself and say, ‘What’s my responsibility in this?’ and make changes,” Glazer wrote.
One of the major knocks on Gettleman isn’t necessarily his ability to evaluate talent or his roster building skills, but his interpersonal skills. He’s not well-versed in the societal subtitles during conversation and that tends to rub people the wrong way — other executives, players and especially the media, who hang on his every word.
Of course, Gettleman also completely overhauled the team’s roster and left glaring weaknesses at several positions, but Jerry Reese deserves a part of that blame as well.
Ultimately however, the onus of success falls squarely on the shoulders of Gettleman, who campaigned to replace Reese in the first place, so at this point, there are no other excuses to be had.
As Glazer alludes, if Gettleman is unable to up his batting average, as co-owner John Mara put it earlier this year, then he’ll end up riding pine right alongside Reese.
