Nothing personal against Jerry Reese or Ben McAdoo, but moving on was the right decision.
At Monday’s press conference, New York Giants co-owner John Mara appeared conflicted. Before he met the assembled media, Mara had to meet with both McAdoo and Reese. He then had to convey the news to the rest of the Giants family.
For a decent person, surely that was a difficult job in a compressed time frame.
No one said his job was be easy. But the fact of the matter remains that the results speak volumes. The NFL should be a results-oriented business. And by now, hopefully everyone understands that this was not a playoff team. Conversely, the Giants are not league bottom feeders either. Certainly McAdoo lacked important skills to make him a winning NFL coach, and that may impact his future. But the roster was defective too.
The sum total shows an organizational failure, hence the GM and coach get fired.
McAdoo will likely have to rebuild his career as a position coach before another coordinator opportunity presents itself. On the other hand, Reese may have an easier road. Despite his poor draft track record, other teams have experienced extremely long-term futility. The Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns come to mind.
So, let the dust settle and allow both men to move forward. Hopefully, the duo learned their lesson about dignity with this experience. If they have not, then any future success will be doomed as well.
Two wrongs, don’t make a right – so ill will should be eschewed.
Too Many Failures
The biggest issue, among many big issues, was the inability of the franchise to be honest with itself. There are far too many circumstances to name, but we can start with the Josh Brown contract. We can also point to a continued pattern without discipline for Odell Beckham. In addition, many, many whiffs in the draft occurred. Guys like Damontre Moore, Marvin Austin, Andre Williams and Clint Sintim were never contributors, and that’s not healthy.
New York Giants
Unfortunately, a false sense of security came nicely packaged by the New York media. Right now, the New York Giants are red meat in front of a tiger. But nary a beat writer, with the exception of ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, voiced skepticism over the offensive line before the season began.
The team’s narrative never quite aligned with the results.
On Monday, Mara could have totally wiped the slate clean by acknowledging the obvious. Everyone knows that this administration botched the Eli Manning situation.
From a football standpoint, the plan made little sense. From a franchise standpoint, the plan made absolutely no sense. At the press conference, Mara fell on the sword for how things transpired – which demonstrated leadership.
But also be aware that his football “experts” clearly fumbled the ball.
Admit It
Are we to think that a seven-point loss to the Oakland Raiders caused action on Monday?
Remember the game was played out west with the team’s back-up quarterback in charge. Actually the result was probably closer than most expected. NJ Advance Media also thinks the timing appears suspect:
"“Mara said firing Reese and McAdoo now had nothing to do with the fiasco that consumed the team after Eli Manning was benched, but let’s be real. He and co-owner Steve Tisch issued a statement insisting there would be no in-season changes after losing to the previously winless 49ers in San Francisco.”"
At the end of the day, ex-players and fans caused Mara and Steve Tisch to push the reset button. The elongated chants over social media and on sports talk radio kept getting louder. So much so that any wise businessperson would have reacted. But Manning’s benching was the straw that broke the camel’s back – and rightfully so.
Related Story: McAdoo, Reese Firings: What it means for New York Giants
Out of deference to McAdoo and Reese, Mara held on. For him, in the future, he needs to understand that more credibility must be given to the other stakeholders – primarily the fans. Without the fans, Mara and Tisch sit on an empty $2 billion white elephant.
And there’s no harm in saying that we understand that our fans are suffering with an inferior product. Loyalty remains a two-way street. Monday was a start, but Mara still needs to show that he has the fanbase’s back.