One of Dave Gettleman’s first orders of business after being hired as the New York Giants’ general manager was to dismiss long-time executive Marc Ross.
Ross, who served as the Vice President of Player Evaluation, had become expendable after a series of poor drafts alongside Jerry Reese, who had also relieved of duty weeks earlier.
Since his departure, Ross had taken several public potshots at the Giants and quarterback Eli Manning, which he took an opportunity to do again on Tuesday night.
“I know the E-hive is about to swarm right now, whenever I mention Eli Manning,” Ross said on NFL Network. “Whenever we talk about what he’s done, it’s not to disparage his past, but you have to look forward.”
For Ross, looking forward means moving on from Manning yesterday.
“I think they might have missed their opportunity [to draft a quarterback] last year, when they were in the No. 2 slot and could have taken Sam Darnold,” Ross said. “This year, there’s some opportunities to trade for Rosen, or there might be a quarterback at No. 6 that they like. But, I don’t think they’ll do it again.
“I think they’ll push the quarterback back another year. We saw the pass rushing stat, I think they’ll probably go pass rusher here and bank it all in on Eli. They traded for a guard [Kevin Zeitler], so that gives them the security to say that they built a wall for this guy and now he’s going to play and perform. I would think pass rusher now, as opposed to a quarterback. It will make a lot of people upset and some people happy.”
Ross’ criticisms, while valid to a degree, are somewhat cringe-worthy considering he was instrumental in compiling a less-than-stellar offensive line, which has undeniably contributed to some of Manning’s struggles.
Moreover, Ross’ relentless criticism of where the Giants currently are as an organization is ironic given his participation in getting them here. It’s easy to point fingers now that he’s on the outside looking in, but perhaps he should look in the mirror when he’s looking to place blame next time.
