Ranking Dave Gettleman’s 5 worst Giants moves after the Kenny Golladay release

Dave Gettleman was the worst general manager in New York Giants history. In four seasons as Giants GM, Gettleman’s teams won just 29 percent of games they played in, putting up an abysmal 19-46 record.

Anything Gettleman touched while running the Giants turned into dust. Whether it was atrocious coaching hires, horrendous free agent signings, or brutal missed draft picks, the Gettleman era was a complete and utter disaster.

The former GM does deserve credit for drafting Daniel Jones, Dexter Lawrence, and Andrew Thomas, but it’s no coincidence all three had career seasons the year after Gettleman retired. With that said, here are the five worst moves of the Dave Gettleman era – the list includes bringing in Kenny Golladay, who was recently released by the Giants. But first…

5. Hiring Joe Judge as head coach

Fans were stunned and disappointed when the Giants hired Joe Judge in January of 2020. Despite a near NFC East title in 2020 that got the hopes of the fan base up, the Judge era ended exactly like most would have predicted.

A year after drafting Jones No. 6 overall, Gettleman fired Pat Shurmur, an offensive-minded coach who Jones was showing serious promise under, to hire Judge, a special teams and wide receivers coach. Judge’s wide receiving unit in New England in 2019 was one of the worst in the NFL. In no realistic scenario would hiring a special teams coach to develop a young quarterback ever work.

Judge went 9-23 in two seasons as the Giants coach. His fake tough guy act got old quickly in the locker room and in the media. The Giants inability to hold on to a lead or run a functioning offensive were both direct reflections of Judge’s inept head coaching abilities.

Judge consistently mismanaged the clock and was absurdly conservative, which consistently drew the ire of the Giants faithful. When Judge ordered his offense to run a QB sneak on third down in the 2021 season finale, it was the most embarrassed I have ever been as a die-hard Giants fan.