During the halftime celebration for the 10th anniversary of Super Bowl XLVI this past Sunday, Tom Coughlin highlighted how the NFL season is long; boy is he right.
The Giants are now 1-5 and it feels like déjà vu all over again. Since 2018, the Giants have started off 1-7, 2-11, 1-7, and now the aforementioned 1-5. Those teams finished off 5-11, 4-12, and 6-10. The man at the helm at all of those teams: Dave Gettleman. Through all of these losing seasons, there has been some sort of caveat to keep him in charge. First was the fact that his drafts looked solid, which now are filled with question marks. Coming into this year, his saving grace was that him and Joe Judge were able to build what looked like a solid foundation of a team. That foundation has offered minimal optimism. If the Giants don’t win Sunday, Dave Gettleman should be relieved of his duties immediately.
Before writing this blog, I honestly searched for reasons for the Giants not to fire Dave Gettleman today. I came up with one: it feels too early. Does that sound as weak as it feels? It’s a reach, but there are 11 games left, and things can change. The Giants were working with a lot going against them on Sunday. They were already playing without Kenny Golladay, Saquon Barkley, and Darius Slayton before then losing Andrew Thomas and Kadarius Toney in the first half. It’s hard to win missing that much on offense. Despite all this going against the Giants, good teams find ways to compete even without their star players. The Giants continue to show that they simply aren’t a good team right now.
The excuses for Dave Gettleman have ran out. I don’t want to hear injuries when it comes to the receiver room, this team has enough depth at receiver and tight end to make up for their lack of weapons this past week. So maybe the offensive struggles fall on the shoulders of Daniel Jones, Joe Judge, and Jason Garrett. You know what doesn’t? The poor play of the offensive line. What did Dave Gettleman set out to do when he took this job? Fix our broken offensive line. You know what is still broken four years later? The offensive line. Nate Solder, who is Dave Gettleman’s worst acquisition as GM, continues to start despite looking awful. Second year tackle Matt Peart didn’t look much better, and it’s been a revolving door at left guard. Before I hear injuries, yes that has a lot to do with the offensive line this year, but in years past it hasn’t! Patrick Omemah was given a three year, 15 million dollar contract as Gettleman’s initial solution at guard and was cut mid-season! Guys like Jamon Brown were picked up midseason to fill holes on this line. Players like Jon Halapio were starting, when they should have been depth pieces. The offense isn’t the only problem on this team, how about we look at the defense that was SUPPOSED to be good?
Could the defense’s struggles have to do with coaching as well? Yes. But it has to land on Gettleman as well. Outside of 2020, Gettleman has built defense’s that finished 24th in 2018 and 25th in 2019. Gettleman has attempted to fill spots with vets like Connor Barwin, Josh Mauro, Antonie Bethea, and Kareem Martin . His draft picks such as Lorenzo Carter, Oshane Ximines, and Sam Beal have yet to make an impact, and others like DeAndre Baker and BJ Hill are no longer here. Gettleman went out and paid Adoree Jackson a hefty 39-million-dollar contract this year and he has yet to make an impact. The defense has 11 games to turn it around, but quite frankly, Gettleman shouldn’t be afforded that much time.
The Giants have gone through a decade of losing, and the last 3 years and change have been lead by Dave Gettleman. I am not usually one to call for firings in October, but is there really a good reason to wait? Four years into the Dave Gettleman era, and they have never been above .500 at any point. Dave Gettleman survived one coaching change based on the presumption that he was building a solid foundation…nothing has changed since. If the Giants don’t win or look fantastic in a loss on Sunday, Dave Gettleman should be fired
The Jig is up, win or go home Mr. Gettleman.
(Photo: ESPN)
