The New York Giants fired their head coach on Monday and kept their general manager safe. Dave Gettleman has served as the team’s general manager for the past two seasons in which the Giants won only 9 games. Additionally, Gettleman constructed the 2019 roster that featured not one single Pro Bowler.
Despite all of this, ownership is confident in Dave Gettleman. They believe he is the right man to lead them out of this mess. There has been a lot of improvement behind the scenes, particularly in the analytics and scouting departments.
Dave Gettleman conducted his end-of-season press-conference today. While getting grilled by members of the press, the Giants’ general manager shed some light on those behind-the-scenes improvements.
The Computer Folks
In April 2018, Dave Gettleman called the idea of using positional value and analytics to guide decision-making “nonsense†and began typing on a keyboard to mock those who rely on statistics. A video of this outrageous moment can be seen in the tweet below:
Here's Dave Gettleman's response when asked about the positional value of RBs: "a lot of that's nonsense […] someone who had this idea and got into the analytics of it" pic.twitter.com/8s23UQfoFE
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) April 27, 2018
It seems that Dave Gettleman has had a change of heart since then. He was even asked about his infamous keyboard mockery in his press conference. Dave claims that he did that “kidding around” and that he just meant to say that Saquon Barkley is a special talent.
According to owner John Mara, the Giants are “deeper into analytics and technology than ever before.†If true, this is a forward-thinking step in the right direction. Dave Gettleman’s press conference seemed to confirm this.
Dave Gettleman was asked about the state of the Giants during his press conference and where the team is headed. In his response, Gettleman explained how he thinks he has “set the team up for sustained success.” Dave has done this by “rebooting” the scouting and analytics department.
We have completely redone our scouting situation, how we look at college personnel, how we look at pro personnel. We are in the process, we have hired four computer folks, software, and we are completely redoing the backend of our college and pro scouting systems. – Dave Gettleman via Giants.com
This is an encouraging sign from Dave Gettleman. Even though his phrasing “computer folks” might be strange, it is important that the Giants are placing a greater emphasis on analytics moving forward. It is also reassuring to hear Dave Gettleman say that the Giants are “committed to being forward-thinking.” Time will quickly tell if Gettleman is telling the truth or just saying what fans want to hear.