It’s only sensible to give a general manager three offseasons to point his team in the right direction after taking over. That rule of thumb should not be any different for Dave Gettleman of the New York Giants.
Gettleman has made a slew of changes since taking the job in December of 2017 including hiring a new coaching staff and installing a new franchise quarterback. He still has a long way to go as the Giants have gotten worse since he’s taken over, not better.
That could be due to a number of reasons. The Giants have an extremely young football team. Gettleman’s idea of flipping his roster begins with the NFL Draft and he’s got 27 players on the active roster with less than three years of NFL experience, including 11 rookies.
So, what is the course of action Gettleman must take as he heads into his crucial third offseason? Very simple. He’s got to make sure that Pat Shurmur is man who can lead his football team out of the wilderness. Thus far, Shurmur has not shown the ability to a) win football games, b) make the proper in-game adjustments and c) develop players. Those are three main characteristics of a head coach and he has been poor at all three.
If Shurmur stays, then Gettleman must upgrade the personnel. He’s gotta do that no matter what. He still needs upgrades all over the roster, even though he’s spun his wheels trying to fill holes and build the past two years.
The Giants may have found their franchise QB in Daniel Jones, but the cinderblock of moves he dropped on his secondary has been a bust so far. His offensive line is still below average. His star running back has come crashing back to Earth. The pass rush is better but still not good enough. Â The linebacker core needs a bopper (or two) in the middle and so on and so on…
It looks like the Giants will have a Top 5 pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. Unless they are staring at a game-changing talent such as Ohio State’s Chase Young, they need to trade that pick for trove of picks. They are still eons away from being competitive, so one guy isn’t going to cut it.
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Since Gettleman foolishly dealt his third round pick to the Jets for defensive lineman Leonard Williams, he’ll need to recoup that pick via a trade. I won’t get into how nonsensical the Williams trade was, but it has to be Gettleman’s last folly. He has to have all hits going forward for the Giants to stand a chance at turning this around.
The Giants only have two picks in the first 100 in the upcoming draft. They will have three if the league compensates them with a third rounder for losing Landon Collins in free agency. They need more. Trading down out of the Top 5 is a key. Gettleman should have done this two years ago instead of taking Saquon Barkley. Now, he’s paying the price as Barkley is hobbled and the Giants are sinking like a stone. He may never duplicate his rookie season.
This is Gettleman’ last stand. He better make it count.