Giants Quotables: Kevin Gilbride reflects on 2013 personnel

Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Well, he won’t disappear just yet.

Recently retired Giants offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, was a guest on Sirius XM NFL Radio’s Late Hits program on Tuesday evening. During the interview with Alex Marvez and Bill Polian, Gilbride highlighted talent shortcomings that led to the Giants offensive downfall, and eventual “modification” of the gameplan. While there is no clear angst to his tone, Gilbride’s detailed indictments are an indirect shot at the personnel department and team assembler Jerry Reese. It’s difficult to argue with his overall appraisal of the situation, but by no means does that alleviate blame from his shoulders.

On the mash unit offensive line: 

"“I would say the offensive line, first and foremost, has to be addressed. I think they need another significant upgrade in the O-line and certainly some added depth,” Gilbride said.“It just made it impossible for our quarterback to function. (Eli Manning) is a guy where if you give him enough time, he’s always going to be throwing the ball to the right person. He’s going to know what you’re doing defensively, he’s going to see through your disguises, he’s going to be an accurate passer. But he’s not a scrambler and you’ve got to give him some help. And if you give him some help he’s proven that he can win a championship for you.”"

Forced to abandon offensive identity…

"“I think philosophically, we modified substantially what we normally do. We’ve been kind of a dynamic, explosive, throw-the-ball-down-the-field (offense), let your guys do a lot of vertical read-type of stretch principles. And we had to abandoned those. Those are the things that we’ve done very well that allowed us to be in the Top 10 offensively for a long time. You can’t do it because the quarterback would be on his back while you’re waiting for those things to happen.”"

Where are you Hakeem? 

"“It became readily apparent to defenses that we weren’t playing well on the outside with the outside receiver positions. Think that became an area where people just had no reservations about lining up just bump and run, and getting an extra guy down in the box making it more difficult and challenging to run, and forcing you to throw the ball vertically a little bit.”"

On dishing out 5/$37 to left tackle Will Beatty:

"“We made the gamble that Will Beatty would be the guy. He played very well last year. This year he did not have as good a year, he was much more inconsistent. There’s no question that he has the physical skills to play the left tackle position. I just think he has to demonstrate again the commitment and the toughness that you have to have on a play-in and and play-out basis.”"

Partial audio (4:45) can be found here from SoundCloud