REMAKING THE GIANTS
How the Big Blue front office transformed a broken franchise to once again back in the playoffs
To Charley Casserly, the key to this Giants roster came two days after last season ended.
On that day, owner John Mara met with reporters and said of general manager Jerry Reese: “Jerry knows this is on him. I’ve had that discussion. You can’t hide from the record. It’s up to you to get it fixed because the last three years are just not acceptable.”
That was a blank check for Reese. He used it to sign defensive end Olivier Vernon, defensive tackle Damon Harrison and cornerback Janoris Jenkins — a trio that completed this roster and propelled the Giants into the playoffs. The total bill came to just under $200 million.
“I’ve been in that position,” said Casserly, the former Redskins and Texans GM and current NFL analyst. “You do it because you have an owner that says, ‘Get ’em.’ Then, the owner will write the check now because every one of those was a difficult negotiation. They clearly overpaid for players but that’s what you do in free agency. You’re not going to get them if you don’t overpay.”
The spending spree last March filled gaping holes on the Giants’ defense. Teams preach that building through the draft is the only way to be successful, but the Giants’ turnaround showed free
agency can work.
Teams usually fear spending big in free agency because free agents could be on the verge of decline, could stop playing hard after a big payday or could be a bad system fit. The Giants have not hit any of those problems.
“You have to have a really high batting average being right in who you invest all the money in,” said Joe Banner, the former Eagles president, former Browns CEO and current ESPN analyst. “Seeing teams invest a lot of free-agency dollars and then not be good, mostly it was because they put their money, especially their big money, into the wrong people. What’s compelling about what the Giants did is they basically hit — and significantly hit, not just like they were pretty good — with the guys they signed making big impacts. I don’t care who you are, it’s very hard to hit at that high a rate.”
The Giants are not completely a product of free agency. Of their 22 starters on offense and defense, nine were draft picks, eight were pro free agents, four were undrafted college free agents and quarterback Eli Manning technically arrived via trade.
Banner said he thinks this roster could be a long-term winner because the Giants signed younger free agents. Vernon (26), Jenkins (28) and Harrison (28) are all in their primes.
“There’s a risk if you don’t sign young players as they did, that it becomes a very short-term fix on a long-term problem,” Banner said. “Because most of the guys they signed are young, and they are certainly going to need to complement it with very good drafting, but I do think in this instance it could be a sustainable success story.”