John Mara promised a fresh start for New York Giants, but is still stuck in old ways

John Mara has vowed a fresh start and clean-sweep for the New York Giants, but as a GM search begins is still empowering family members who have had personnel input for years

John Mara promised, following Dave Gettleman’s retirement as general manager and the New York Giants moving on from head coach Joe Judge, that a fresh start and clean-sweep was coming for his franchise that has lost 100 games since 2012 but is delivering yet another half-measure.

To Mara’s and the Giants‘ credit, New York is conducting a litany of interviews to fill the general manager vacancy with a slate of outside voices and outside perspectives. Certainly a welcomed change from an insular culture that has played a key role in the once-proud franchise descending into an embarrassment over the past decade.

However, with Mara’s brother Chris still in place as Senior Vice President of Player personnel and his nephew Tim McDonnell the New York Giants’ Co-Director of Player personnel, it is difficult to imagine a new general manager having full autonomy over his scouting and personnel staff.

Mara, during a brief 15-minute press conference with reporters over Zoom Wednesday, vociferously defended his decision to keep his family members in influential roles, including Chris Mara on the interview with assistant Buffalo Bills general manager Joe Schoen Wednesday.

“The perception [that family members aren’t held to accountability during this stretch] has been created by you and others,” Mara chided a reporter. “The reality is that in terms of my brother, my brother spent the bulk of his time doing the evaluation of college players. His grades go into our system, and he participates in the draft.

“All personnel decisions in this building, and this has always been the case, have been made by the general manager and the head coach. When they agree on a decision, they come to me with it. As long as they are both in agreement, I okay it.”

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It is reassuring that Mara has empowered his general manager and head coach to oversee personnel decisions in the past, but it is unclear whether an incoming general manager would have the authority and autonomy to decline either Chris Marra or McDonnell’s evaluations, in lieu of building his own personnel department from the ground up.

Given that the New York Giants are just 61-100 since the confetti flew following Super Bowl XLVI in Feb. 2012, and have made the postseason just once over that span with three consecutive head coaches being fired in two seasons or fewer, perhaps Mara needs to examine the organization’s entire evaluation process and philosophy.

“We’re going to get it right this time,” Mara said of the general manager hire.

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Time will tell whether the general manager will be able to hire his own staff, or if a candidate will even be hired without agreeing to keep Mar and McDonnell in their current roles. Mara was not made available to answer that question.

“Chris is a very skilled evaluator, but he does not have any authority here other than that I will go to him on occasion and ask him about players,” Mara explained. “Tim is probably the most respected person we have in this building. Coaches, front office staff, the general manager go to him and ask his advice on players because he’s a good evaluator, he’s worked his way up from the bottom, and he’s earned his stripes. He does not have any authority here.

“The personnel decisions have always been made, and will always be made by the general manager and the head coach. If they agree on a draft pick, on a UFA, then I’m going to okay it 99.99 percent of the time. The only reason I will raise an issue with that is if there’s a conduct issue. I’ll question them, I’ll make them defend their position, and make sure they’re on the same page. But, at the end of the day, if they’re in agreement, that’s the direction we’re going in.”

Perhaps, the Giants would benefit significantly from altering their process to the point that the data and the evaluations of potential players that the incoming general manager will use to make their decisions come from fresh sets of eyes.