QUOTES & PHILOSOPHIES
“You can win while you build a roster.”
This is the big one for which the Giants are still paying. Instead of starting a rebuild or going all-in in 2018, Gettleman split the difference. He admitted after two seasons and a coaching change that “I thought you could do both. I was wrong.” The Giants still blame the 2018 offseason spending spree for their current predicament.
“It wasn’t a mirage,” about sticking with Manning as the starting quarterback
The first of many quotes when Gettleman denied what was easy for many around the league to see: Manning was finished, and that’s why the previous fired regime tried to move on. Gettleman was tricked by one late-season game against the Eagles (a loss!) in 2017 into giving Manning another 18 starts to collect $33 million. Manning’s contract, especially as a backup in 2019, was an albatross preventing better resource allocation.
“The head coach job for the New York Football Giants is a job for an adult,” about hiring head coach Pat Shurmur
The not-so-veiled shot at Ben McAdoo — who was fired before Gettleman arrived — looked silly when Shurmur couldn’t corral Beckham’s antics any better than any other coach. Shurmur also proved to be as over-sensitive to questioning as advertised from his two years as Browns head coach — which made some in the building cringe — and was fired after going 9-23. None of the seven candidates the Giants interviewed in 2018 became good head coaches.
“Hurt guys get hurt” about the important of a players’ injury history
The scouting axiom Gettleman revealed in 2020 makes a lot of sense, if you abide by it. The Giants did not in 2021, when they signed Rudolph, Golladay and Adoree’ Jackson for a total of $123 million. Then they used a first-round pick on Toney, who had durability issues at Florida. Three of the four (not Jackson) essentially missed all of training camp and haven’t been right since.
“A lot of that’s nonsense … someone who had this idea and got into the analytics” — about drafting a running back No. 2 overall
This is the quote that gifted social media the popular image of Gettleman punching keys on an imaginary keyboard. It also made him a lot of enemies and revealed just how far behind the rest of the NFL the Giants are in incorporating analytics. Three years later, Gettleman doubled down when presented with the widely accepted logic that running backs have shorter career spans than other players: “I don’t know that that’s true.”
“You miss on a quarterback, you’ve really hurt the franchise for five years. It’s a five-year mistake.”
The jury is out on Jones, who has bounced between turnover-prone aggressive play and hyper-conservative play when healthy. He’s also missed 10 starts due to injury. The Giants almost have no choice but to decline his $21.3 million option for 2023 and make him play as a pending free agent in 2022.