New York Giants GM Dave Gettleman has made a plethora of head-scratching personnel moves during his tenure, here are the top ten worst.
If you’re familiar with this site, you’re likely already very in tune with how I feel about Dave Gettleman as a general manager. During my time here, I’ve made no secrets about the fact that I think the New York Giants set the franchise back for an untold amount of years by bringing the stubborn, anti-analytical former Big Blue staffer back to lead the team’s charge back to relevancy.
Through it all I’ve been called a hater, irrational and much worse – nothing I can’t handle (by the way, we already released a top ten best Gettleman moves list last month). I’ve tried to maintain consistency, and not get too emotional in terms of having my judging of his moves be too much about whether I like a particular player or not. My main problem with Gettleman has always been that he has no semblance of a concise, measured plan when it comes to this team’s path back to competitiveness.
As you’ll see over the course of this list, these moves are all over the map when it comes to sticking to a plan, as we’ve seen Gettleman’s infamous “winning while building” strategy has not been one that was ever possible. If Gettleman had took over the mess he inherited and made the (correct) move to blow it all up and start this thing over, I’d have almost no problem with him.
Instead, the archaic ex-scout attempted to put several band-aids on multiple bullet holes, and this franchise is now in a much-worse place than it what when he took over, when it was realistically only a few key players at a few key positions away from being competitive (which is no small task, but is nothing compared to what we’ve got now).
Since he took over, the Giants have the worst record in the NFL, and have no extra draft capital outside of their own inside the first sixth rounds of the 2020 draft (and only a middling amount of 2020 cap space).
When you realize that there are numerous teams that have been attempting to rebuild (like the Miami Dolphins, who punted away their 2019 season) that have managed to win more games than the win at all costs Giants, this mess becomes even more inexplainable.
When you couple this with how crass, pompous and patronizing he’s been throughout it all, it’s impossible to have any level of sympathy for the situation he took over, or cut him any slack for the many things that haven’t worked out
After reading through this list, you’ll likely be amazed to realize that all of these moves came within a span of just eighteen months, as most respected GMs don’t make anywhere near this amount of truly awful moves throughout their entire careers. While it wasn’t so hard to narrow this list down to ten it was excruciating to rank them 1-10, as they all are so indefensible.
While it’s true that Gettleman has been a solid talent evaluater when it comes to the draft (particularly late-round picks), he’s been as bad as it gets when it comes to free agency and trades (and that 2018 draft ain’t looking so hot anymore, either). That really speaks to my point that Gettleman is a scout, and not an executive, as executives are people that make decisions based not off emotion or gut, but logic and information.
In an effort to make this list as fair as possible, I attempted to weigh the moves out while factoring in the philosophy/reasoning behind them, the expectations of the player, how they fit in with the plan, and then the outcome.
Without any further ado, here are your top ten worst moves of the Dave Gettleman era.
Enjoy?
10. Eli Apple trade
New York Giants fans were thrilled at the time of this trade, and I still struggle to understand how anyone could have ever liked this move in any capacity. Sure, the fact that Eli Apple has blossomed into a solid, starting cornerback on one of the league’s best defenses has only helped strengthen my argument that this was a boneheaded move, but this was never a move that should have been considered.
The reasoning why is simple, and it comes down to simple risk and reward. The risk? Giving up on a 23-year-old top ten pick only two years into his career, while his salary is already fully-guaranteed and going to count against your cap either way due to the new rookie scale. The potential reward? A late-fourth round draft pick, as the team you’re trading with is a Super Bowl contender.
This move reeked of Gettleman attempting to fill his “culture wins games” narrative, as Apple was surely immature and loud during his two years with the Giants. He was also a Jerry Reese draft pick, so he was likely doomed from the start, as we’ve seen Gettleman jettison many quality players for that presumed reason.
Despite his immaturity, and his failure to get his head around on the ball, Apple showed flashes of being a legitimate man corner in this league during his time with Big Blue. Sean Payton and the Saints were all too happy to give up such menial draft compensation to take a chance on a big-time talent at a difficult position to find competence at. Apple is amongst the league leaders in yards allowed per quarterback attempt this season (top ten).
To make matters worse, Gettleman has badly-missed when it comes to finding a competent replacement for Apple, as he’s invested a third and a first-round pick at the cornerback position for two huge question marks. If he would have just stayed pat, he’d have a solid cornerback on a rookie deal, while having an extra first and third-round pick that he could have invested elsewhere.
Instead, he ends up looking foolish while the Saints hit a home run at his expense.
9. Bringing back Eli Manning in 2019
The decline of Eli Manning over the better part of the last five seasons has been tough to watch for any New York Giant fan. In the grand scheme of the NFL, we were the last ones to really admit what was going on, and you can’t really blame us, as Eli has been such a legendary player and person for this franchise.
However, by the end of 2018, it was as clear as day to anyone that Eli Manning was done as a winning starting quarterback in this league – well, to anyone but Dave Gettleman, that is. Gettleman was graced with the opportunity to get out from under Eli’s contract in 2019, only being guaranteed to pay him 6M$. Instead, he didn’t even broach the idea of Manning taking a pay cut, and brought him back for 23M$.
To make this move even worse, he ended up taking Daniel Jones with the sixth-overall pick in the 2019 draft anyway, further muddying the waters. Any reasonable executive would have seen before the off-season that this team was far away, and bringing back a 38-year-old expensive QB made little sense.
It apparently took until draft night for Gettleman to realize this, so while you can give him a credit for picking Jones (who I love), you’ve got to take some of that away when you assess the route he took to get there.
8. Kareem Martin signing
Although this is only #8 on my list, this really is one of the worst of them all to me. The Kareem Martin signing signifies two of Gettleman’s biggest flaws as New York Giants GM; bringing in retreads from Arizona (for Bettcher) or Carolina (from his time there), and jettisoning quality players just because they were Jerry Reese guys.
Despite not eclipsing 1.5 sacks in any of his four seasons in Arizona, Gettleman somehow thought Martin was worth bringing in to the tune of 3/15M$. At the same time, ‘DG’ let two quality pass-rushers in Devon Kennard and Romero Okwara walk, only to have their production blow Martin’s out of the water.
Kennard wound up signing for about the exact same deal as Martin with Detroit, as both players got three years with about a 5M$ APY. The difference? Martin has 1.5 sacks with the Giants in two years, Kennard has 13 with the Lions. Okwara also signed on with the Lions, and generated 7.5 sacks in 2018 for just a 1.5M$ cap hit
Martin has been an absolute liability in pass-coverage as well, making him almost unplayable. When you realize that Dave Gettleman paid Kareem Martin 10.5M$ for just 1.5 sacks, while letting two players at the same position walk, only to vastly outperform him, this move really cannot be defended on any level.
You truly have to think Gettleman was bidding against himself on this one, something that’s seemed to be all too common during his tenure.
7. Jonathan Stewart signing
Another move that probably isn’t getting the justice it deserves being so low on this list, the signing of Jonathan Stewart is one of the more puzzling moves you’ll ever see a general manager make. So often, we see productive, young runningbacks hit the open market in their early-to-mid 20’s and not even sniff the type of deal Stewart got. Those runningbacks just didn’t have the luxury of dealing with the only GM in football that still thinks runningbacks are the focal point of a roster.
Despite being 31-years-old, and recording averages of 3.4 and 3.8 per rush in his two prior seasons, Stewart was able to extract a 2/8.4M$ contract from his former boss in Carolina. The Giants ended up paying him about half of that for 17 rushing yards and six carries. Talk about return on investment.
The icing on the cake here is that Gettleman went on to draft Saquon Barkley with the #2 overall pick in the 2018 draft only about a month later, further making this move one of the more laughable ones of all-time. To put that in perspective, in a league where most teams are using committees or investing only mid-round draft picks on runningbacks, Gettleman tossed 8M$ and the #2 overall pick in the draft at the position in just a months time.
It wouldn’t of even mattered much if Stewart was to play well, but it makes it so much worse that he wasn’t even able to get on the field for Big Blue.
Another one of those situations where Gettleman had to be bidding against himself.
6. Signing Odell Beckham Jr. only to trade him
I know this one is a hot button issue for a lot of New York Giant fans, but let me try to be the voice of reason here. Many are divided on whether they like Odell Beckham Jr. or not, and whether they think he’s a total diva or just a guy that wants to win. I myself am of the belief that you don’t trade a guy of Odell’s caliber, ever, and that he more so was a frustrated player that wanted to win that a bad team guy, but I can see why he rubs many the wrong way.
However, what I’m here to tell you is none of that even matters when grading this move, and the handling of the OBJ situation in general. If Dave Gettleman would have made the determination that Odell wasn’t a guy he wanted around for the long term before handing him a record contract (that included 40M$ guaranteed), and traded him, I would have been totally fine with it. At the time, it would have been a prudent move to extract the rumored two-first round drat picks many were willing to part with for OBJ, while avoiding paying him big-time money.
Instead, in classic Gettleman fashion, he did neither. The foolish GM instead paid OBJ 40M$ for one season of play, and traded him for just one first-round draft pick, while not even letting the rest of the league know that the transcendent player was available. You heard that right, teams were reportedly upset with the GM for not letting them know OBJ was for sale, and that makes this so much worse, as the offer the Giants ended up taking from the Browns was a putrid one.
What was the rush to make that deal two months before the draft, before even talking to 30 other teams (Gettleman himself admitted he only talked to 2/32 teams about an Odell trade in 2019)? To make it all worse, the know-it-all GM spit right in our faces as fans when he proudly proclaimed just a short time before trading Odell that, “We didn’t sign Odell to trade him.”
To be fair, Odell did record a foolish interview during the 2018 season where he expressed frustration with Eli Manning and the franchise. Still, if that’s all it was going to take for you to trade a player you just signed to the highest-paid WR contract of all-time, then should you have really signed him in the first place?
Again, it doesn’t matter which side of the fence you are when it comes to the polarizing player that Odell Beckham Jr. (rightly) is. This comes down to a gross asset mismanagement, and a GM that flies by the seat of his pants far too often. You just don’t see other executives doing these kinds of things.
5. Nate Solder signing
Many will likely be surprised to see this one not higher on the list, but like I said in the beginning, it was very hard to separate these terrible moves. I tried to weigh multiple factors when determining which move was truly the worst, and for a few reasons Nate Solder slides in just at the middle of this list, instead of at the top. The fact that he only checks in at #5 has a lot more to do with how bad some of the other moves are, much more than with anything Solder has done on the field.
For starters, as mediocre as Solder has been, he’s at least been on the field and made some type of contribution to the team, as lukewarm as that contribution has been. For the most part, Solder has given up far too many big plays to opposing edge rushers, as he’s gotten Eli Manning and Daniel Jones killed time and time again. However, he seems to hold up okay for most of the game, only to get beaten badly two or three times.
While that’s very bad, and not something you want to give a record contract to (Solder signed the highest OL contract of all-time), it’s still not as bad as some of the things still lingering on this list. I don’t want to downplay how horrendous of a move this was, as paying a guy a record contract who had been in the league for years and never even made a pro bowl is as outlandish as it gets.
This move reeked of desperation, and although Jerry Reese’s biggest criticism has always been that he didn’t put enough resources into the offensive line, at least he was able to use those resources in other places. Gettleman on the other hand, invested a ton into the offensive line to only get the same (or really even worse) results. Solder has allowed the second-most sacks in the NFL this year, and has been a horrid run blocker during his time with Big Blue.
To really put the icing on this poop cake, Gettleman thought it was wise to kick the can further down the road in 2019, as the GM actually restructured this already all-time bad contract to make Solder an almost lock to be on this team in 2020.
Ugh.
4. Patrick Omameh signing
Again, I know I’ll likely receive some backlash about having this signing be higher on the list than Nate Solder, but hear me out. At least Solder has played and been a starter for the New York Giants, Patrick Omameh didn’t even last halfway through one season before being canned by the same guy that signed him.
It’s hard to understand what Gettleman saw from Omameh during his first four years in the league (with three different teams) to think he warranted a 3/15M$ deal, and it’s downright impossible now after seeing how his Big Blue career played out.
The Giants were desperate for offensive line help, and still cut Omameh midway through 2018 – that’s how bad he was. The former Michigan Wolverine registered just a 51.5 Pro Football Focus grade, and started only six games for Big Blue. In total, Gettleman paid the mediocre guard 5.5M$ (and he cost 8.5M$ against the cap in total over two years) for just six starts. Another one of those fantastic return on investments.
I know i’m sounding like a broken record, but this is yet another case of Gettleman clearly bidding against himself for a mediocre player.
3. Alec Ogletree trade
To be fair here, unlike many of the rest of these, this is a move I actually really liked at the time. Alec Ogletree was just a year removed from making an All-Pro team in 2016, and Jerry Reese had left the New York Giants completely devoid of talent in the linebacker department over the years. For once, it seemed, we’d finally have a sideline-to-sideline linebacker for the first time since Antonio Pierce.
Wrong. To say Alec Ogletree has been bad at his job since becoming a Giant would be a true slap in the face to the many people around this country that are actually just bad at their job. Ogletree has been an abomination for his entire tenure with Big Blue, and his interceptions in 2018 helped masked just how awful he really was (50.6 PFF grade in ’18 despite the five picks).
A linebacker with a completion percentage allowed of 88% would be bad enough under any circumstance, but it becomes exponentially worse when the team gave up a fourth and a sixth-round draft pick for the ‘right’ to pay said linebacker 42M$ over four years. Gettleman should have been wary when the Rams were so willing to part with a young player they just locked up to a big deal with zero character concerns, but he wasn’t.
This one has everything to do with outcome rather than failing to line up with a plan or predicting that this would happen, but it still rightly lands in the top three all the same. There is no describing just how bad Ogletree has been, and the only time the Giant defense looked functional this season was in the second half of the Tampa Bay game in Week 3 when he left with an injury early on, and the Washington game the following week that he missed as well.
This is one Gettleman would like to have back, big time, as it was one of his seminal moves, and probably the one that’s hurt this porous defense the most.
2. Leonard Williams trade
I came out scorched earth the day this trade was made, and although i’m very glad to see the many that told me I was crazy for hating this move so much at the time have come around, the salient point is still being missed on why this is such a historically bad move.
As I said at the time, this trade highlighted Dave Gettleman’s biggest flaws as general manager of the New York Giants. The move showed a stunning lack of awareness in adhering to a concrete rebuilding plan, and having a general sense of timing on when to make a move like this.
I will say this loudly until it is accepted by everyone; Under NO circumstances (outside of a QB, who are almost never on the market anyway), should a 2-6, rebuilding football team ever give up assets in a lost season for a player that is an impending free agent.
As I also said at the time, this move reeked of desperation, as it was Gettleman still being so out of touch with what was going on that he truly had to believe that this team had it in them to make a stretch run. There is no other explanation to how this trade could be thought of as one that had to be done, and it really should be the final nail in the coffin.
It wouldn’t matter if Leonard Williams all of a sudden blossomed into the stud player he’s always supposed to have been. In fact, that might have even made things worse. Dave Gettleman already boxed himself and the team into such a corner by pulling the trigger on this deal, that Williams putting up big numbers only forces him to give him an even bigger deal. The reason this trade can never be made is about process and rebuilding, although sure, the fact that Williams has still not picked up a sack in 2019 makes it look even worse.
There are few, -if any – players in the NFL that would be worth a top 70 draft pick for simply the right to negotiate with for a few months before they became a free agent – Leonard Williams is far from one of them. If a smart GM had interest in Williams, they would have simply waited until the off-season and approached him about a deal while weighing whether the numbers made sense compared to the rest of the field.
Instead, Gettleman gives up a ton of draft capital (the team will also send the Jets a fourth or fifth-round pick), which gives Williams all of the leverage in the world. Williams and his agent know that DG has to get a deal done here to save face, or else he’ll go down as the guy that gave up a three and a five for a player to finish out the second half of a 2-4 win season.
Even after being so frustrated and upset with Gettleman for not pulling the trigger on the rebuild for a year and a half, and pushing us so far in the other direction with his one foot in, one foot out strategy, I was still ready to give him a shot to finally do the right thing heading into the trade deadline and acquire assets.
I was a fool to do so, as the embattled executive somehow unloaded assets instead of bringing them in, at 2-6 (now 2-10) in 2019, and 5-11 in 2018. To make this even worse, I’m not sure if I would rather the Giants sign Williams, or not. I’m leaning towards a hard no, because he has shown himself to be not much of a difference maker, we already have numerous other productive players at the position, and he’s going to ask for the moon and the stars.
I just don’t see how this situation could ever be one that even a middling executive would entertain, and it’s going to look even worse in a few months.
All-time bad move.
1. Taking a RB at #2 overall in 2018
Now, before everyone gets up in arms (as most New York Giants fans tend to do the second a negative word is dared to be uttered about Saquon Barkley), this has very little to do with Saquon, and everything to do with failing to understand positional value (which Gettleman has said is a hoax), and not taking advantage of a golden opportunity to make a move that would have jump-started a proper rebuild.
For all of those that say Gettleman took over such a bad situation, understand that he had the #2 pick in what was considered to be one of the best and deepest QB drafts in recent memory, while there were numerous teams that were desperate to land their QB of the future. To a shrewd GM, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to take advantage of the field, and coax a ton of draft capital to move down and set your team up for a true rebuild. As we’ve seen throughout his time here, Dave Gettleman is anything but a shrewd GM.
In this situation, you’ve either got to take a QB, or get off the pot. I’m totally fine with DG not loving any of these QB’s and not taking one, but once he made that assessment, he simply had to do what the Indianapolis Colts did and trade down. The Colts were able to more back only three spots to #6, and pick up three top 50 draft selections in doing so.
Objectively, (while leaving out punter) runningback is either last or second to last on the list of positional value. I could actually make a coherent argument as to why having a great kicker is much more impactful to a team than having a great runningback, but either way, it’s one of the least valuable positions in football due to how dependent it is on others, the shelf life and how easily replaceable runningbacks have proven to be.
What sounds better for a rebuilding (or really any) team? Quenton Nelson (maybe the best offensive lineman in all of football) and three high second-round picks, or Saquon Barkley? I don’t even think its much of a question at this point any more, but it shouldn’t have been at the time, either. Not to mention the Giants could have gotten even more from the Jets than the Colts did because they had the #2 pick instead of #3.
For a team that was completely devoid of offensive line and edge rushers to even think about taking a runningback with the second pick of the draft is so outlandish to me that I almost can’t fathom it. With the way the rookie pay scale is set up now, Gettleman decided to fork over 8M$ per year to a runningback, instead of using that on an offensive lineman, edge rusher, quarterback or any other impact position. So, instead of paying about 1/3 or 1/2 of what an elite player at their position gets, he paid basically the full price for the most replaceable position in football.
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For those that want to point to Saquon’s struggles in 2019 and talk about how poor the Giants’ offensive line, is you’re literally making the argument as to why a rebuilding team should never consider taking a runningback this high in the draft. When the Cowboys took Ezekiel Elliot at #4 in 2016, it was a completely different situation. They only fell that far in the draft because Tony Romo had been injured, and they already had a deep roster and the best offensive line in all of football.
And while it’s true I totally favor a runningback with Zeke’s style of matriculating the ball down the field rather than a home-run type like Saquon, Barkley would surely be a video game type player on the right team. Saquon is an all-world talent and person, and I hate that his career has to be questioned by people like me due to where he was drafted, but this was just never the right pick for this team to make.
So while Saquon Barkley will likely not go down as a bust because he’ll probably put up big numbers during his career, this move gets #1 on this list due to the overall impact it will have on this franchise over the course of the next 5-10 years.
Dave Gettleman was basically dealt blackjack and decided to surrender, taking only about 1/4 of the amount of payoff that was right there for the taking.