For mostly unknown reasons, NY Giants GM Dave Gettleman has been infatuated with journeyman QB Alex Tanney. It’s time to finally move on from the mediocre signal-caller.
We’ve heard it all before. ‘Alex Tanney adds so much to our quarterback room’, ‘His leadership will aid Daniel Jones tremendously’….yada yada yada. At the end of the day, Alex Tanney adds little (if anything at all) to the NY Giants in terms of realistically being able to make a difference on the field and as such should not command one of the valuable 53 spots on this roster.
With Eli Manning now retired, Alex Tanney would only be one play away from being forced into action as the starting quarterback with how the roster is currently constructed – that is a disaster scenario. Even with Eli on the roster, keeping Tanney around as a mentor of sorts made little sense as Manning already fit that bill in spades.
At this point – in year two – Daniel Jones should not need to have a second quarterbacks coach around him for him to be successful. I don’t think even Dave Gettleman himself would tell you Tanney is a realistic option as a quarterback on a successful team, so on what planet does it make sense to keep him around in 2020?
As discussed previously on the site, keeping Tanney on the roster as a mentor greatly hampers the team’s roster flexibility. 53 may sound like a lot of players, but when you break it down by position the margins are razor-thin and there simply is not a scenario where keeping a player that cannot help you on the field around makes sense.
The NY Giants should be in the market for a veteran backup quarterback this off-season — just one that can actually play. Tanney has spent time (mostly on practice squads) with nine different teams in his eight-year career and has thrown just 15 passes in that time – mostly in one game with Tennesee in 2015.
The journeyman will be 33 next season and is under contract for 900K, but just 30K of that would come as a dead cap charge if he’s released. The more appropriate route for the team to take would be to sign a veteran backup in free agency and look to draft a developmental young QB late or sign a couple of undrafted free agents to get a look at in pre-season as potential practice squad guys.
While I don’t think Kyle Lauletta will end up being a starter in this league, I do think Big Blue will still rue the day they decided to release him one year into his career as a fourth-round draft pick in favor of keeping Alex Tanney around. The Eagles were all too happy to swoop in and make him their developmental piece, and you just know there’s gonna be a game in the future where Carson Wentz goes down and he torches us.
So while Dave Gettleman clearly has a love affair with Tanney, it’s time for him to realize that keeping players around simply for ‘culture’ reasons is not a winning strategy in the NFL.
He can and should start that wave off by moving on from the most useless player on the entire team.