While the Philadelphia Eagles worked the phones through Tuesday’s trade deadline, Giants general manager Joe Schoen was either on PTO, mixed up the dates, or likely just decided to sit the whole thing out. Whatever the reason, no moves was a real bummer for Giants fans.
The G-Men weren't alone. The day was relatively quiet, especially for deadline standards. But not everyone sat on their hands.
Related: Giants next move after trade deadline no-show couldn’t be clearer
Much to the chagrin of Big Blue Nation, Howie Roseman was up to his usual tricks, slinging deals to improve Philly's roster in the hopes of another Super Bowl run. The 50-year-old is one of the league's best at wheeling and dealing, and he was up to his old tricks, grabbing pass-rusher Jaelan Phillips from the Miami Dolphins. His motto: no risk, no reward — something Giants fans know maddeningly little about.
Roseman spoke to reporters after Philly’s trade deadline masterclass, with a not-so-subtle message for the teams still scared to make moves — the Giants very much included:
"When there’s opportunities to be aggressive for the right players, we’re not going to sit on our hands. You don’t have great success without taking great risks. … We can’t be afraid to fail."Eagles GM Howie Roseman
Giants fans can only dream Joe Schoen had Howie Roseman's mentality
Where there's a will, there's a way... at least it works like that in Philly. In East Rutherford, things are vastly different. Avoiding risks is the norm around these parts, and it's put Big Blue in a compromising spot.
Being afraid to fail has literally been this team's M.O. for years. It's resulted in four head coaching failures and three general manager disasters in 11 seasons since Tom Coughlin was walking the sidelines. Fear holds this team back more than anything else and that comes from ownership.
However, fear trickles from the top down, and let's just say Schoen's afraid of the dark and then some. He's avoided taking risks and big swings in the hopes a more calculated approach triumphs.
Spoiler alert: it hasn't, making Roseman's comments hit harder than they should.
Funny enough, his two biggest risks — trading for pass-rusher Brian Burns and trading back into the first round to draft quarterback Jaxson Dart (a move head coach Brian Daboll clamored for) — have proved to be major successes. It's actually a shame his speed is wait and see.
Roseman's words are so much more than "we make trades." If they believe they don't have the right players to win — because that's why they play the game — they go full-send to the ends of the earth to get them. And that's the difference between a two-time Super Bowl-winning GM and one who's gone 20-39-1 in four seasons.
The fact that Schoen didn't make a single move on Tuesday says it all. No one's saying he has to swing for the fences for a blockbuster move, but lacking all conviction behind standing pat is a recipe for losing. There's nothing the team has shown over the past nine games to suggest anything will be different moving forward, doing the same thing. Rinse, repeat.
Roseman understands that. Giants fans understand that. Schoen doesn't. And that's infuriating.