The New York Giants have won just 12 of their last 48 games and have become easy targets for so-called experts who love to kick teams when they are down.
But don’t blame these experts, blame the Giants. Blame general manager Dave Gettleman who is bucking all of the modern methods teams have embraced when it comes to building their rosters, fortifying their organizations and getting and edge on the rest of the league.
The Giants, by admission, are and ‘old school’ outfit that seems to be run by whims and Gettleman’s inexplicable gambles. The NFL is a passing league and he is trying to turn the Giants into a running team and a team that stops the run. Unfortunately, he’s been largely unsuccessful in doing so.
“I don’t think you can win doing it their way,” founder of Football Outsiders Aaron Schatz told NJ Advance Media. “There definitely is a feeling that it’s a very old-school concentration on the running game. When the passing game and passing defense just rule the roost in the modern NFL.
“When you look at the draft decisions that they’ve made, there’s just such a concentration on the running game, and not just with Saquon. They took defensive tackle, Dexter Lawrence, in the first round — taking a primarily run-stopping defensive tackle rather than more of a pass-defender.”
Multiple experts criticized Gettleman’s use of a No. 2 overall selection on a running back, even though that player was Saquon Barkley. Another curious move that they panned was the trade for defensive lineman Leonard Williams, impending free agent that is not a difference maker.
“It’s been a very bizarre management process to kind of follow,” Vice President of Football and research at Sports Information Solutions Matt Manocherian said. “I don’t really know what that process is in New York… If you’re just going to pay lip service and not incorporate analytics … into a new process, you’re just spinning your wheels.”
The Giants just hired a new head coach in Joe Judge, who basically used the term ‘old school’ in his initial presser several times which excited some, but frightened others who believe the Giants could be mired in their rut for the long term.
“If [Gettleman] said his philosophy was still primarily to build a team to run the ball and stop the run, I wouldn’t want to take the [head coach] job,” Schatz said. “Because the roster wouldn’t be built to run the team that I really wanted or needed to run it in order to win.”
