The NY Giants did not even show up for a football game for the third straight week. The team’s many flaws were out in the open and exposed all game long.
The NY Giants are not a good football team.
As their ex-Head Coach Bill Parcells famously said, “You are what your record says you are”. That couldn’t be any more accurate than with the 2020 NY Giants.
Th Giants are 5-10, and following a disastrous 27-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, have lost double the amount of games that they’ve won. The team grossly outplayed and outperformed their best abilities during their 4-game win streak. This team has been left out to fail due to the lack of talent provided by the GM, David Gettleman.
This game confirms a pathetic fourth consecutive season with double-digit losses for the Giants. This team has not been put in a position to succeed or win all season because of inexperienced players in too many key spots and they’ve been utterly failed by their General Manger and Offensive Coordinator.
This team will need a miracle to sneak in the playoffs. And let’s not kid ourselves, the Giants don’t look like they can even beat the Jets right now let alone a playoff team as displayed by their three consecutive dismal performances against playoff-bound teams.
This team has several major flaws and these flaws are in too many critical spots in today’s NFL. The Ravens and Lamar Jackson completely exposed the Giants’ flaws today.
We go over the Giants’ flaws and weaknesses here.
The NY Giants front seven needs a major pass-rush overhaul.
This NY Giants defense will not take them far enough without a pass rush.
It’s been three consecutive weeks with absolutely zero pass rush, no consistent pressure, and just a few measly QB hits. This is what you get and pay for when your top rushers are veteran free agents off the street, undrafted rookies, and 7th round rookies at the EDGE position.
The team needs to aggressively target pass rushers from all viable paths in the NFL. Trade, sign, and draft any and every accomplished pass rusher this team can get. The team can’t go into another season with Gettleman bragging about his lack of a “blue goose” pass rusher. It’s a slap in the face to Pat Graham, the entire team, and the fanbase.
You can’t ever expect a defense to win with a pass rush consisting of three interior defensive linemen. It’s not gonna work and these guys up front are getting tired and gassed with little-to-zero support from their EDGE linebackers and the offense constantly providing 1-2 minute drives. It’s a hopeless combination that’s become a perfect storm of disastrous play from the three upfront and the entire front seven.
The team needs to address their pass rush in the draft with a plan to take at least 1-2 guys who can actually make a difference. They can’t keep relying on unproven players such as Carter and Ximines off the EDGE and need to find guys who can become reliable and consistent.
Having a reliable and steady presence off the EDGE makes all the difference for any defense. Just ask the Giants themselves.
Their rich history is ingrained and forever tied with dominant forces off the edge. From Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks to Strahan, Tuck, Umenyiora, and JPP, this team has always had pass rushers in abundance.
They must get back to their roots immediately and find impact players to get sacks and harass quarterbacks immediately. Having a pass rush is the difference between playoff teams and losing teams. Right now, the Giants are the latter and they have a passive rush instead of a pass rush.
The NY Giants need to gut their entire pass-catching group of players.
The NY Giants might have the worst receivers in the entire NFL.
The receivers and tight ends are a big reason why this is by far the worst Giants’ offense in 20 years. Not a single season compares to this one in terms of a lack of talent and a lack of production from both pass-catching position groups.
This is the first season in a long, long time the Giants have zero top-level talent or any home run hitters on offense. There is zero spark in this offense, they are exceptionally good at getting 10-20 yard drives that last 1-2 minutes, and then sending the tired defense back on the field with awful field position and then lets up more points.
This has been the Giants recipe of “playing football” for three consecutive weeks.
This offense has shown zero heart, progress, or even a glimpse of hope in over a calendar month. Every Giants offense of the last decade-plus had a gamebreaker in Saquon Barkley, Odell Beckham, Victor Cruz, and Hakeem Nicks. This team has never been more devoid of competent talent at receiver and tight end.
Eli Manning was also always Mr. Reliable and the definition of consistency in terms of availability as displayed by his ironman 210 game streak of starting. Daniel Jones has now missed two separate sequences of multiple games in his two years since taking over from Manning.
Despite all this, it’s abundantly clear this team is going nowhere with a receiving core of Darius Slayton, Sterling Shepard, Tate, Evan Engram, and Kaden Smith. All five players have massively failed to live up to their abilities and expectations this year. Tate will be easy to move on from, but the rest are likely here to stay for next season. Not one of these players should be every-down starters let alone even guys you can barely rely on to make plays in key spots or consistently pick up even 40-50 yards.
These five players create no separation, they can’t make contested catches, and they offer no threat on 2nd or 3rd down. Defenses have made a living all year with 7 and 8 men in the box with man coverage on the three or four guys who run downfield. Opposing teams have zero respect for the Giants’ group of pass-catchers and they know damn well they can feast on the Giants’ offense by playing man on the three receivers and blitzing 6,7, or 8 guys.
This disastrous combination has given the Giants no shot to succeed on offense. The poor playcalling by Jason Garrett has not helped at all, but the receivers and tight ends haven’t made nearly enough plays when the ball has come their way both short of the sticks and shots deeper downfield.
It’s time for Dave Gettleman to take his much-awaited retirement party to Cape Cod.
NY Giants fans all over the globe are desperately waiting to see Dave Gettleman make Cape Cod his permanent residence. When that happens, it will finally mean he is no longer in charge of the Giants’ personnel decisions and he will no longer be the General Manager.
That day can’t come soon enough as Gettleman’s stay in East Rutherford is long overdue to be over.
Gettleman has ruined this once-proud franchise into the embarrassing product this team has displayed over three seasons. He has designed, built together, and established a 14-33 record over three years.
Currently, six NFL teams have open GM positions. Every one of those six open spots was held by a General Manager this season with higher winning percentages, far more total wins, and much better products than whatever Gettleman has put together in three years. And yet, John Mara has stubbornly and much-too loyally has stayed committed to Gettleman who’s had ties to the Giants organization for four decades now. It’s simply time to cut ties and move on.
Gettleman traded away the team’s most recognizable and talented player in Odell Beckham since LT himself wreaking havoc in the ’80s and early ’90s.
He has promised to fix the trenches on both sides of the line. The offensive line is still a week-to-week major question mark where they can become human turnstiles on any given snap. They are still lost and confused with any sign of a complex defensive scheme and they are overwhelmed by stunts and twists from opposing defenders.
On defense, the front seven remains a total work in progress. The 3-4 scheme with three interior defensive linemen has led to them getting tired upfront with so many snaps and there’s been an invisible pass rush. The run defense has underachieved and failed them three weeks in a row now.
The linebackers still have major issues with coverage, both in man and zone. Blake Martinez will need a new starting inside linebacker next to him in 2021. There are too many backup-quality players being trusted into major, starting roles that they clearly cannot handle.
Gettleman had a successful 2020 offseason with free agents. It was his first time you can confidently say that his offseason signings have had a significant and positive impact on the team. His 2018 and 2019 free agent signings were nothing short of utter disasters.
When looking at his trades, most of them have been either underwhelming or not impactful enough to consider them positive transactions. Alec Ogletree was a complete failure, trading away JPP was a major mistake, Riley Dixon has been shaky at best, Isaac Yiadom has been inconsistent and isn’t a CB2. The team hasn’t adequately replaced Eli Apple, Damon Harrison, or JPP in any way. Trading for Leo Williams was a bad move at the time, and now the team is stuck with either overpaying him or letting him walk after 1.5 seasons with the team.
Gettleman’s drafts though, is where his demise lays.
The team has gotten absolutely nothing from their 2018 draft class. Barkley has missed so much time and hasn’t made a difference in the wins department, and Will Hernandez is on his way to becoming a bust. Lorenzo Carter hasn’t shown much in three years and is barely a starting player (when healthy).
The 2019 class has been much of the same with few answers and far more question marks. Daniel Jones has been inconsistent and he will be the defining move/player of Gettleman’s reign as GM. Gettleman already lost out on 2019 1st Rounder DeAndre Baker and has already moved on from 5 out of the 10 players in less than two years. these flat-out embarrassing, inexcusable numbers for any GM.
This team needs to move on from Gettleman and start fresh with a new General Manager. Joe Judge deserves to have a huge say, if not the biggest in the organization on who should be in charge of the team’s roster for the next several years. He is the only outsider in the organization’s hierarchy with zero previous ties to the team. He looks to be a part of the franchise for many years to come and he needs a like-minded GM who has modern, fresh, and innovative ideas on how to build a football team and win some games.