Who might replace Dave Gettleman if John Mara fires NY Giants GM? NFL sources have suggestions

With the NY Giants in the midst of another disappointing season, general manager Dave Gettleman could be on the hot-seat, and could be on his way out this offseason

John Mara repeated his now semi-annual mantra that he needed to see progress from the NY Giants in 2021 if Dave Gettleman was to return in 2022.

“Let’s see what happens during the season,” Mara said back in August, echoing a similar sentiment the NY Giants’ owner made regarding Gettleman and Pat Shurmur’s futures in 2019. “Let’s see what kind of progress we’ve made.”

At 2-5, it’s difficult to see any progress being made, outside of some strides made by Daniel Jones in the quarterback’s pivotal third NFL season.

Whether Gettleman returns for a fifth season, despite a 17-38 record, or is fired at season’s end, the NY Giants’ general manager is going to have quite a mess to clean up.

From deciding whether to extend former No. 2 overall pick, but recently oft-injured running back Saquon Barkley to replacing potentially as many as four starters along the offensive line, and building a stable of edge rushers — virtually from the ground up — the NY Giants are seemingly closer to the beginning of a rebuild than the end of one.

So, who will be in charge of the NY Giants’ future?

FanSided spoke to several league sources to get a sense of who some candidates outside the organization — besides assistant general manager Kevin Abrams, Vice President of Player Evaluation Chris Mara, etc. would make sense as the NY Giants’ next general manager.

Here are three potential replacements for Dave Gettleman as NY Giants general manager:

Alonzo Highsmith

Current position: Seattle Seahawks personnel executive

While Highsmith has never served as a general manager, he has been a personnel executive for three of the more stable and successful front offices of the past decade.

Highsmith worked under general managers Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson as a Green Bay Packers senior personnel executive from 2012-2017, before spending the next two seasons as the Cleveland Browns’ Vice President of Player Personnel until 2019 before joining the Seattle Seahawks as a personnel executive last season.

“He has the experience of being around some great, great personnel executives over the years,” a veteran NFL executive tells FanSided. “He’s a solid evaluator, but he’s even better at building relationships inside a building and out. He’s learned from some of the best, and certainly has the temperament to be a general manager.”

The teams Highsmith has been part of have made six trips to the postseason. If the NY Giants are looking for a new voice, and a first-time general manager, Highsmith’s experience and wealth of connections make him a strong candidate for the general manager role.