The 2021 season for the New York Giants has mercifully ended for all involved.
Along with it, so too did the tenures of former general manager Dave Gettleman, who retired, and former head coach Joe Judge, who was fired earlier this week.
The search for a new general manager has begun, as the Giants have lined up their wish list of candidates and are currently seeking permission from several teams to interview them.
The New York Giants have requested interviews from nine candidates and two have been completed in former NFL player and Arizona Cardinal executive Adrian Wilson and Buffalo Bills Assistant GM Joe Schoen. Co-owner John Mara is leading the “comprehensive search” he promised and sat in the first two interviews along with co-owner Steve Tisch and senior vice president of personnel Chris Mara.
With five losing seasons in a row, Gettleman has buried the NY Giants in bad roster moves and poor financial management, leaving the new GM to immediately upgrade these key areas in order for them to turn the franchise around.
Here’s a look at three positions the New York Giants’ GM will need to immediately upgrade;
New York Giants offensive line
The New York Giants ended up with the No. 5 and No. 7 overall picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Using these two picks on the offensive line would not be a bad thing at all. The NY Giants have handled the building of the line poorly with overvaluing prospects like Will Hernandez, who showed promise as a second-round pick in 2018 but has regressed greatly over the course of the last three years.
Another reach on UCONN’s Matt Peart who was drafted in Round 3 of the 2020 NFL Draft. Peart could not beat out journeyman Nate Solder this year for the starting right tackle position, leading the charge that the Giants have been poor in their player evaluations.
As for Solder, when Gettleman made him the highest-paid offensive lineman it was a grave overpay and backfired completely. Solder opted out of the 2020 season and was a shell of his former self trying to come back in 2021. Solder, Peart, and fan-favorite Nick Gates hold the three highest offensive line cap hits against the 2022 cap. Peart and Gates both suffered ACL injuries in 2021, so neither would likely be ready for 2022, nor very will be part of the 2022 fix.
With two top tier lineman, C Tyler Linderbaum (Iowa) and T Evan Neal (Alabama), both expected to be on the board, it would be a great start for the NY Giants to start their rebuild around LT Andrew Thomas.