Giants must have a winning record in 2021 to justify keeping Gettleman
EAST RUTHERFORD » It’s ironic, really, how Giants ownership once forced out two-time Super Bowl champion coach Tom Coughlin.
Coughlin won at least nine games six times during his 12year tenure. He compiled four double-digit win totals. He captured three division titles.
But ultimately Coughlin had to resign in 2015 because John Mara and Steve Tisch felt his time had expired after two straight 6-10 seasons. General manager Jerry Reese followed him out the door two years later.
Meanwhile, current GM Dave Gettleman just oversaw the first six-win campaign of his tenure and the Giants have won only 15 games in his three seasons. Only three of those were against teams with winning records.
Yet a report from the New York Post on Monday night indicated that Gettleman will be back for a fourth season. That indeed appears to be the case as the 69-year-old is scheduled to speak to the media this week for the first time since September.
Ownership, it seems, suddenly values continuity more than winning.
Evaluating this COVID-19 season in a vacuum, it was a solid first season for head coach Joe Judge given the roster he inherited. Fans should be more optimistic moving forward than in the 2017, 2018 or 2019 offseasons.
But Gettleman has a body of work that must be assessed differently. He’s had three drafts and three stabs at free agency, and the Giants have shown only marginal improvement. That’s not good enough in a multi-billion-dollar industry where winning trumps everything, especially when you bill yourselves as a proud franchise with rich history and tradition.
Evidently Mara and Tisch believe that the Giants are finally heading in the right direction, but some of that is in spite of Gettleman’s roster building.
“Just making and building that foundation of the type of culture we’re gonna have in this building for years to come as long as coach Judge is our head coach, which I believe is gonna be a long time,” said linebacker Blake Martinez, one of Gettleman’s few strong free-agent signings who finished third in the NFL with 151 tackles. “It’s awesome to see. I think you look back at all the games we had this year, the close games … just making sure we go into next season winning those situations, winning those crucial points in those games to pull those close games out in 2021.”
Perhaps the Giants wouldn’t have lost five games by one score if they added a legitimate No. 1 receiver at any point in the last three years instead of aging veteran Golden Tate.
Or if they had acquired a forceful edge rusher. Or if they rebuilt the offensive line properly from the get-go. Or if they had assembled cornerback depth.
Judge and his staff overcame numerous roster issues that exist because of Gettleman’s poor decisions, and now it’s on the man upstairs to address those and finally get the Giants over the hump.
The bar in 2021 must be a winning record, meaning 9-7 or better.
No more participation trophies. No more incremental improvement.
Consider that the Browns and Colts both won 11 games this season. Those teams had the first and third draft picks, respectively, in 2018 while the Giants picked second. So what excuse do the Giants
have for taking so long to be good again?
In fairness, Gettleman does deserve credit for scoring big in free agency last year including deals with Martinez, cornerback Blake Martinez, defensive back Logan Ryan and kicker Graham Gano — who all played big roles in the Giants’ improvement.
Those moves helped compensate for the fact that Gettleman’s drafts have been pedestrian so far. The Giants have had minimal contributions from Gettleman’s first draft class (2018) outside of Saquon Barkley, who went No. 2 overall but has only played in 31 of 48 games because of injuries.
The jury is still out on Daniel Jones as a franchise quarterback and Andrew Thomas as the longterm long left tackle — two other first-round picks.
Gettleman drafted safety Xavier McKinney in the second round last year, and the Alabama product couldn’t get on the field until Week 12 because of a fractured foot but showed potential down the stretch, including a fourth-quarter interception in Sunday’s win against the Cowboys.
“The biggest thing for us this offseason will be just building that chemistry, because I feel that we didn’t really get to do that at its fullest potential,” McKinney said. “We didn’t really get to build all together, so I think this offseason is going to be big for us because we’re going to be able to do that. We’re going to have more time to do that. I think we’ve got a lot of guys that work hard and I think we’ve got a bright future ahead.”
The Giants’ secondary does have a solid foundation, but Gettleman must also acquire another solid cornerback in order to take the defense to the next level.
Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham preferred playing zone this season because the Giants simply didn’t have the personnel to match up with receivers oneon-one besides Bradberry, as they started four different players at the No. 2 corner spot.
Two possible upgrades are Bengals corner William Jackson in free agency or Alabama corner Patrick Surtain II in the draft.
At receiver, the free agent pool includes Allen Robinson, Kenny Golladay, Chris Godwin, Corey
Davis and JuJu Smith-Schuster.
As far as pass-rushing, the Giants will likely re-sign defensive lineman Leonard Williams for close to $20 million annually after he compiled a career-high 11.5 sacks. Perhaps they can also add an outside linebacker such as Haason Reddick, who had a breakout season with 12.5 sacks for the Cardinals.
The Giants are projected to have $17 million in cap space, according to Over the Cap, but the NFL’s 2021 salary cap isn’t finalized. That would rank 17th among teams in spending money, although you can be sure Gettleman will consider freeing up more space by cutting veterans such as Tate and right guard Kevin Zeitler.
No matter how it all shakes out, Gettleman doesn’t need to transform the Giants into a Super Bowl contender this offseason. But 2021 must produce winning for the general manager to keep his job — period.