The New York Giants were able to pick up a win this week against Philadelphia, but some fans may find another piece of recent news more exciting. Dave Gettleman is currently in an uncertain position thanks to the team’s poor start and overall under-performance with the roster he built, and next season, it looks more and more like Gettleman won’t be with the team at all. According to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Gettleman is unlikely to continue into 2022.
The Giants may not have to fire Gettleman either – the report says that Gettleman himself choosing retirement is a likely outcome.
General manager Dave Gettleman, who has run the team’s personnel department since 2018, is unlikely to return in 2022, sources with knowledge of the situation and those with deep knowledge of the league say. With two first-round picks in the next draft and a critical offseason ahead, don’t be surprised if there is another voice making the final call alongside head coach Joe Judge.
The report also notes that Gettleman is 71 next season. And based on the circumstances, it’s not hard to see why Gettleman might choose retirement at that age. The job of the GM next season will include fixing one of the worst offensive lines in the league, answering the question of who will be the team’s long term quarterback, and dealing with a precarious salary cap situation.
It’s obviously a stressful job, and Gettleman is already under pressure due to his track record so far. At this point, walking away may be the more attractive option.
Finding the next New York Giants GM
Of course, if Gettleman does walk away, the Giants will have to pick a new GM and avoid the same poor outcome as last time.
Rapoport claims the team is likely to look at candidates closer to Joe Judge’s way of thinking, but also that the Giants have strong options in-house.
In the building, there would be some strong candidates to replace him, notably VP of football operations and assistant GM Kevin Abrams. Outside the building, the organization will likely look at some candidates with a background in the New England scouting system more in-line with Judge’s thinking, along with others.
For many who have followed the team’s decisions during the past decade, the idea of picking an in-house candidate will be alarming.
The team has consistently missed on high first round draft picks since their last Super Bowl win and, in general, struggled to continue winning with a more traditional approach. Even the hiring of Gettleman himself, a clearly unsuccessful move, has largely been blamed on the Giants’ bias towards candidates with a past history in the organization. It’s hard to imagine another hire with ties to the largely unsuccessful Giants organization receiving anything but an overwhelmingly negative reaction.
If there is a GM search this offseason, the franchise will stand at a crossroads with a couple of choices; go with the usual way of thinking and make a hire like Abrams, or follow in the model of some of the league’s more forward-thinking teams.
Popular sentiment right now leans heavily in favor of the latter option, but as usual, there’s scarce news at this point indicating which way John Mara and franchise ownership leans on the issue.