Despite the NY Giants late-season playoff push, Dave Gettleman remains on the hot seat.
At the start of this season, fans assumed that the NY Giants general manager Dave Gettleman would be on the chopping block. After two abysmal years, the team that he built started 0-5.
But as fans began to sharpen their pitchforks to run him out of town, the Giants miraculously began winning games. In the putrid NFC East, the effort of the Giants started pulling ahead. And the team entered the bye week in a legitimate hunt for the division title.
This possible playoff berth has given Gettleman the benefit of the doubt, at least for the time being. The Giants are notorious when it comes to retaining management; their reluctance to fire Jerry Reese caused many of the problems Gettleman inherited.
But this is now Gettleman’s team. Aside from a few holdovers from the previous regime, these are the players the Giants GM hand selected.
With that in mind, let’s review the biggest reasons for and against keeping Gettleman.
2020 Offseason Signing
Perhaps Dave Gettleman did more this offseason to save his job than in any of his tenure as the Giants’ GM. Three player signings in particular have completely turned around the Giants defense.
Blake Martinez, Logan Ryan, and James Bradberry have all been phenomenal. Through the first 10 weeks of the year, they should be championed by Gettleman as his ability to scout talent. Older talent, as we’ll get into later, but talent nevertheless.
Martinez was signed for 3 years, $30.75 million. Not only does he lead the team in tackles, but he entered the bye week in Week 11 tied as the league leader with 96 tackles. Roquan Smith of the Chicago Bears was tied with him. But after the Thursday Week 11 game, Bobby Wagner bumped his tackle total up to 96 as well.
Smith was only drafted in 2018 and still playing off his rookie contract. But Wagner is currently on a three year, $54 million contract. Having Martinez compete at the same level as a known name like Wagner for a far cheaper price is a steal for Gettleman to tout.
Bradberry is also a league leader. He’s tied for first in pass breakups with 14, along with Carlton Davis. Davis is still working off his rookie contract, while Bradberry’s was for more money than Martinez’s: three years, $43.5 million.
But compare that salary to Patrick Peterson, considered one of the best corners in the NFL today, and you see the value Gettleman received. Peterson is working on a five year, $70.1 million contract. He currently has just six pass deflects. Both Bradberry and Peterson have 32 tackles and three interceptions.
Another steal this year was Logan Ryan, who was signed on a one year, $5.1 million contract. Ryan is second on the team in tackles (59) and pass deflections (seven). He’s been a tremendous asset in an otherwise spotty secondary, and he’s someone Gettleman should absolutely sign over the long term.
How Gettleman maneuvers Ryan could be a determining factor in assessing if he stays or goes.
The Beckham Trade
Despite becoming a distraction both on and off the field, no NY Giants fan could have thought the team would trade away their only perennial superstar. But that’s exactly what Gettleman did in March of 2019 when he traded Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns.
It certainly did not look like a good trade that year. Beckham had led the Giants in receiving with over 1000+ yards in four of the five years he was with the team. He hit that mark again for the Browns in 2019, with 1,035 on 74 receptions. His presence, while debated since, put the Browns into playoff conversations for the first time in a long time.
In that trade, the Giants received safety Jabrill Pepper and the Brown’s 2019 first-round pick as well as a 2019 third-round pick. The Giants drafted defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence in the first round and linebacker Oshane Ximines in the third.
Peppers finished with 76 tackles in 2019, fourth on the team, but was otherwise seen as a work in progress. Tomlinson finished with just 3.5 sacks, while Ximines finished with 4.5.
But this year things changed. Peppers is third on the Giants in tackles with 50, and has six pass deflections, an interception, 1.5 sacks, and a fumble recovery. He plays with a confidence and an attitude that was not there last year, and it’s showing on the field as well as the stat sheet.
While Ximines has been hurt, he still has potential to come back after the bye. He could be a sneaky pass rusher for the Giants. And in doing so, he’ll put three more defensive players in Gettleman’s corner for why he should stay.
The trade has also created one less distraction the Giants offense and the team in general has had to deal with. Though his play is certainly missed, his absence helps a young quarterback focus solely on his own developments, as opposed to feeding looks to the superstar.
Let the Judge Rule
Gettleman came to the organization in 2018, the same year as Pat Shurmuer. Shurmur helped piece together a Minnesota Vikings offense that lead them to the conference championship with Case Keenum. The hope was he could give Eli Manning one last shot at a title. He could not.
Shurmur was fired after just two losing seasons, which really moved Gettleman in the hot seat. Whoever was selected as the next coach would have to turn this organization around.
Thus far, that’s exactly what head coach Joe Judge has done. He’s been able to keep this team in a playoff race despite it starting out 0-5. And a large part of that is Gettleman staying out of Judge’s way.
Judge has already caused a stir with bringing in new coaches midseason. A GM wouldn’t be wrong from questioning a first year head coach’s decision. But it seems like Gettleman knows that his own job rests on Judge’s ability to lead this team. And he’s been letting Judge rule however he sees fit, from firing coaches to benching playmakers.
It’s important for the head coach and the GM to be on the same page. The Houston Texans’ experiment proves that while they do need to work together, it probably shouldn’t be the same person who does both.
But if Judge can focus on coaching the team that Gettleman pieces together, this could be a dynamic relationship.
All Offseason Moves Before 2020
As good as some of Gettleman’s decisions were this offseason, it doesn’t make up for some of the big misses in the past.
Just some of the names that Gettleman either signed or traded for who are no longer on the team: Antoine Bethea, Jonathan Stewart, Alec Ogletree. And while Golden Tate and Nate Solder are on the team, those are questionable moves, too.
Bethea received a two year, $6.5 million contract with the team. He was 35 when he played for the Giants and received that deal in 2019. And while he led the pathetic 2019 Giants defense in tackles, the team did not exercise his contract option for the 2020 season. He is currently a free agent.
Stewart, who Gettleman had known from his time in Carolina, received a two year, $6.8 million dollar contract from the Giants, $3.45 million of which was guaranteed. In what was the stand-out year for Saquon Barkley, who would go on to win offensive rookie of the year, Stewart only suited up for three games for the Giants. He had six rushes for 17 yards. He hasn’t played in an NFL game since.
Gettleman traded away two draft picks for Alec Ogletree from the LA Rams. In his two years with the Giants, he never played more than 13 games in a season. He led the Giants with five interceptions in 2018, was second on the team in tackles that season with 93, and third on the team in tackles in 2019 with 80.
Since then, Ogletree was signed onto the Jets’ practice squad. He’s played in two games and racked up three tackles.
Those players show Gettleman misses as much as he hits on older talent. But what can end up hurting him is the signings of Golden Tate and Nate Solder.
Solder understandably opted out of the 2020 season. And he was right to, since Will Hernandez on the offensive line ended up testing positive.
Questions only arise from what Solder has shown on the field. Pro Football Focus gave his first year with the Giants an overall ranking of 64.9. He racked up five penalties and allowed 11 sacks. That isn’t the kind of play Gettleman had in mind when he made Solder the highest paid left tackle that year, signing him to a four year, $62 million contract. $34.8 million of that contract is guaranteed.
Golden Tate was brought in the same year. In Beckham’s absence, the Giants needed a playmaker for both their old and new quarterbacks. In comes Tate, who signed a four year, $37.5 million contract, with $23 million guaranteed.
Tate was second on the team in reception yards with 676 in 2019. But this year he’s proving to fill the Beckham drama role with on and off field issues. Judge benched Tate before the Giants second win in Washington. But he did come back for the Eagles game with 2 receptions for 44 yards. He’s currently fourth on the team with 270 reception yards, hardly making him the playmaker Gettleman hoped he could be.
Draft Picks
Outside of Saquon Barkley, all of Gettleman’s draft picks are works in progress at best, and complete busts at worst.
Starting in that 2018 class, Barkley was drafted second overall. He is unquestionably the Giants best player. He was offensive rookie of the year in 2018, as he led the Giants with 1,307 yards rushing. He added another 721 yards receiving. He also rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 2019, despite missing three games to injury. But he played in just two games this season before going down with a season-ending injury. And while no one can question his ability, his durability now raises concern.
Of that 2018 draft class, B.J. Hill, drafted in the third round, has been the next best. Will Hernandez, taken in the second, falls behind him.
The Giants had three first round picks thanks to Gettleman in 2019. They drafted Daniel Jones at #6, Dexter Lawrence at #17, and Deandre Baker at #30. They also drafted Oshane Ximines, Julian Love, Darius Slayton, and Corey Ballentine that season.
Jones has shown promise, but many of the games lost over the past two seasons are due to his inability to hold onto the ball. Lawrence has helped strengthen the defensive line. Baker had a dreadful rookie year before being arrested this offseason and consequently released from the team. And that was a worry other teams had about him, which was why he fell to the Giants at the end of the first round.
Love has held his own this year in a weak Giants secondary, and Slayton continues to be a solid receiver. The Giants hope he can fill the gap left by Odell, but he’s not quite there yet. I mention Ballentine in this post only because he was released this year. He is now on the NY Jets.
In 2020, Gettleman drafted Andrew Thomas with the #4 pick overall. And while it’s unfair to Thomas to be thrown into the left tackle spot so soon, because Solder opting out, the fact is he has not played up to his draft status.
Thomas showing some improvements, but Judge just fired their offensive line coach because the line has been a revolving door, allowing Jones to be sacked 31 times this year. The Giants kept Eric Flowers in that left tackle position for way too long, and if Gettleman makes the same mistake as his predecessor, it will be detrimental to the development of Jones.
Record Speaks for Itself
Let’s not forget that the Giants are a 3-7 team. Yes, they are still alive to win the division. But the fact is they started 0-5, they enter the bye week 3-7, and unless they win their next six games, they’ll have their third losing season under Gettleman’s watch.
Right now, Gettleman has put together a team talented enough for only 12 wins since 2018.
It’s a young team that Gettleman is hoping will come together soon. But head coach Joe Judge is really to thank for getting this team to compete. The players show they’re willing to play hard for Judge.
But players can only play to their ability. This team might only have three wins because, put simply, they’re a bad team. They have an offensive line filled with rookies who are not performing consistent. After DeAndre Baker’s terrible rookie season, the first rounder who was supposed to help a porous secondary is no longer is on the team. The best player Gettleman drafted is hurt. And the most important player he drafted has a turnover problem.
Gentleman’s biggest question is his ability to judge young talent. One good, injury prone running back and a quarterback who shows potential via a few good throws a game is hardly something that a GM should brag about.
If the young players Gettleman has brought in via trades, drafts, and offseason signings don’t pan out, his inability to assess young talent will be the biggest reason for why he should be fired.