I want to preface my remarks that I never called for the Giants to trade Odell. And when I tuned into BBI on the night he got traded, my first response was "Holy (blank)... they traded him!"
But if there was one common refrain I saw from the past five years or so on BBI it was, "I hate this team!"
Fancy that... fans tend to dislike their team when it is not winning. But there seemed to be something deeper than that. BBI was around during other dark times during the 1990s and 2000s. Other than 2016, the team seemed largely dysfunctional. We drafted guys from winning collegiate programs who seemed to quickly become too comfortable with losing. It got to the point where something happened that I never thought I'd see as a Giants fan: Giants fans stopped watching. They stopped going to the games. They didn't watch on TV. Other than the last game or two of a losing season, I had never seen that before. And I can't imagine how empty the seats would have been had Saquon Barkley not been on this team last year despite the fact that these seats were already paid for!
"I hate this team!"
Some folks have mocked posters like Greg and bw who smelled the rot. I don't know if the Giants are turning a corner or not. I don't know if the rot has stopped (those who want Eli out of here yesterday obviously think it hasn't). But something has been "off" on this team for quite some time. Rightly or wrongly, Beckham got caught up in that. He may have contributed to the rot, or been a victim of it... everyone will have a different opinion.
But it is quite clear that Gettleman has smelled the rot. He's purging ALMOST EVERY player from this roster acquired by the previous regime. It's obvious now. Parcells did this after the 1983 season when there wasn't any free agency. He dumped half the team. Gettleman will have almost completely dumped the entire team in two years. Just wait until we compare the September 2019 roster with the September 2017 roster. Hardly anyone will be left.
Why is Odell gone? Right or wrong, Gettleman hated the old team too.
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In comment 14339452 Go Terps said:
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Gettleman made Beckham the highest paid receiver in the NFL. If this was the plan, it was poorly executed and is only now being onto the right course.
I think the plan changed. I think Shurmur stuck his neck out for Beckham and it blew up in his face. Now they've done the best they can to make it right for everyone.
Yes, the plan did change. Just like it changed with Collins. That is the concern.
Building a team is a fluid process, things change. You re trying to hard to put Gettleman in a box. It s a strength to changes direction if you see an original plan is flawed, not a sign of incompetence
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are somehow good this year and make the playoffs.....lot of posters dont show up on this site. Cause they will deny everything what they have said.
Will you do the same if they don't make the playoffs?
Googs, although you're not talking to me, I'll be one of the first (if not the first) to say I was wrong. But I'm withholding judgement until after the draft. With so many changes it will take some time to gel, but I'm a Gettleman/Shurmur supporter, and if I'm wrong, I'll say so.
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You know who sure didn't look like they were scared to lose? The 2009 Giants who got the living shit beaten out of them by a mediocre Panthers team to get knocked out off playoff contention. In the very last game in Giants Stadium, no less. Just one of a boatload of embarassing defeats that marked the second half of Coughlin's tenure.
Not to pile on, but weren't many of those losses followed by the statement "I don't understand. We had a good week of practice"? A good many Coughlin teams shit the bed in critical games. But I digress...
I was at at hat game, it was brutal.
Panthers and specifically S Smith skull fucked us.
I remember the play S Smith got his arm broke on a TD catch and still was sticking it in our faces.
What a way to send out the old stadium.
average 4 wins the last 2 yrs-with a hard schedule and your best player out...
I would surely hope by default that they can be better this year. to make signing vets to 20m guaranteed worth it... we kind of need to make the playoffs imo.... i hope that happens, currently dont see it.
Where is the nucleus on this team to build around? There are two guys: Barkley and an aging Manning. We got rid of all the other possibilities. Where is the tradition of organization and mission? Shurmur, who seems like a good guy, has no record of success as a HC, neither the FO nor the owners pay any attention to him, and he follows the totally incompetent McAdoo.
Sorry folks. This resembles an expansion team more than a team re-building and it sure as hell doesn't resemble a "win now" team as jt suggests the delusional owners believe.
And then 2011 came along and washed that shit away. What’s done is done. That regime owes us nothing. Wasn’t perfect but it was more than good enough.
[quote] Only thing I’ll add is Eli is not part of the rot. He’s just not good when playing behind a shaky OL. Call it excuses call is whatever you want, it’s the truth. Eli can play when given time everyone can see that and even if he’s a decaying presence at qb he’s not infecting the roster or locker room. In short, he’s harmless. He’s coming off the books in 2020 unless he has a very very good year. There’s nothing wrong with letting this play out. His big cap hit isn’t preventing the giants from signing some amazing long term fix in fa and next year’s fa will yiel
Eli personally is not part of the problem.
But managements decision making being impacted buy his stature with the fan base most certainly is.
He is also not fixing the locker room, which you would expect a player of his stature to do. You would hope your two time SB MVP can be described as something better than "harmless"
People keep focusing on the wrong things... the team simply doesn't have enough TALENT. They were the least talented defensive team in the sport in 2018. They weren't able to get everything they could out of the talent they had on offense because of a lack of talent along the o-line, a declining talent at QB, and perhaps underwhelming coaching talent. But back to the defense... they've been a terrible defense for 4 of the past 5 seasons and most of that is talent-related.
When/if this team starts winning again, it won't be because of "culture". It will be because they have more talent. It will probably be spread out more than just one generational talent who plays WR or RB. The Giants won 2 Super Bowls not primarily on culture. They won 2 Super Bowls because they used a shitload of picks to acquire a 1st overall pick QB with balls of Saturn. That 38 yard throw up the sideline to Mario Manningham took TALENT and balls. They won because they had talented WRs. They won because Michael Strahan, Osi, Tuck, and JPP were all great DEs. In 2004 and 2005, they had to spend a lot of money on Shaun O'Hara and Kareem McKenzie.
You want to talk about culture after you get the talent? Fine, but first you have to get the talent. I'm not dismissing "culture" completely, but I think it's something people say when football players don't fit into the perfect little box they'd prefer. Part of professional sports is dealing with personalities that can be flamboyant, self-absorbed, like to party, etc. It's part of what made Phil Jackson a great coach, for example. If people or the Giants front office think they can win while entirely avoiding players like that, then good luck with that.
I also said, you have to clean it all out.
I mentioned my own past experience taking over rotten projects. And that I could not blame DG for doing what I've done in the past.
Here is the thing. Yes I cleaned house on that project, I terminated all the contractors, I pushed all but 1 of the employees off the project. I threw out all the code and came up with a completely different design approach. I did it despite the fact we were facing some tight deadlines. The new team delivered... On Time...
Yay team... Or NOT...
You would have expected after taking over a failing but critical project and delivering it would have resulted in kudos.
Turns out, I may have cleaned up the team and project, but in doing so, I ruffled the feathers of some senior people.
Instead of kudos, I got a major backlash. They waited until after I delivered, but it got so bad I left the company. Some of the rot I cleaned out was rot connected to more rot that was higher up.
The analogy here, is that I'm not convinced that the Maras and Tisches hate/fear losing. Not much I can do about it, I don't spend time worrying about it. The hope I have is that Gettleman, can clean up enough rot like I did, the rot he has control over, and he can put a winning team out there. But, even if he does, this team will not be able to sustain success for long.
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had turned out to be merely above-average starting NFL linemen, I'm guessing the past five years would have felt a lot different.
You basically just said if the Giants had different players, they would be a different team. (And note the high-level of the draft picks you just listed).
That was my point, Eric. I was simply saying out that if Reese/Ross/scouts/coaches had been better at evaluating talent -- at the positions they rightly identified as a priority -- we would have had a lot more wins, Eli might have looked good, and this whole rot might have been avoided. Whoever signed off on these guys was really bad, or really unlucky.
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Yet, after a less than inspiring season last year, both are still here.
You wanted Shurmur fires after 1 season? Yikes!
As far as the current Giants go most of you are missing the big picture. Once Ernie "retired" that ended the George Young era of player evaluation and of Mara's in the background. Once Ernie's players retired or were traded away the Mara brothers got front and center and they've sent the franchise right back into the 1970's. It;s like Wellington Deja Vu. Tiny circle of trust, old school pen and paper vs high tech. The Giants are a F150 with 200,000 miles on it and the Eagles are a F1 Car. Good luck winning that race.
Lots of you younger fans think Wellington was a great guy and the Mara family has whitewashed his history. But when he ran the Giants he was a combination of Fred Wilpon and James Dolan but less popular. Hating this team is nothing new if you're old enough.
Why, though? There were plenty of posters going into last season who said the Giants were making the playoffs, and they didn't come close. And all of those posters still post here daily.
Talk about a lack of self-awareness.
As far as the current Giants go most of you are missing the big picture. Once Ernie "retired" that ended the George Young era of player evaluation and of Mara's in the background. Once Ernie's players retired or were traded away the Mara brothers got front and center and they've sent the franchise right back into the 1970's. It;s like Wellington Deja Vu. Tiny circle of trust, old school pen and paper vs high tech. The Giants are a F150 with 200,000 miles on it and the Eagles are a F1 Car. Good luck winning that race.
Lots of you younger fans think Wellington was a great guy and the Mara family has whitewashed his history. But when he ran the Giants he was a combination of Fred Wilpon and James Dolan but less popular. Hating this team is nothing new if you're old enough.
LT didn't need Brian Kelley and Brad Van Pelt to show him those ropes, he was pretty good at figuring it out on his own. I always found it funny they were sent away for being bad influences. It also helped that the Giants brought in Banks and Reasons in 1984, and they had Hunt and Headen on the roster already.
I also said, you have to clean it all out.
I mentioned my own past experience taking over rotten projects. And that I could not blame DG for doing what I've done in the past.
Here is the thing. Yes I cleaned house on that project, I terminated all the contractors, I pushed all but 1 of the employees off the project. I threw out all the code and came up with a completely different design approach. I did it despite the fact we were facing some tight deadlines. The new team delivered... On Time...
It doesn't take any talent to tear something down. That's all Gettleman has really shown the ability to do as a NFL GM. It takes a heckuva lot of talent to build something. The foundation pieces of the Carolina Panters were already in place when he arrived. I know it's early, but things like the Solder contract, not getting assets for Landon Collins, and tethering ourselves to Eli Manning in order to win/compete in 2019 don't give me even an ounce of confidence in DG. I honestly hope he proves me wrong.
Why should we immediately be upset that when the organization wanted to go back to their SB champ status of 7 years earlier they brought in a guy who was a critical part of that success and they knew well? It's NOT like how Washington has done things - chasing the hottest newest FA, coaches and GM's. They brought back a guy who helped them construct a SB championship roster and gave him the keys to try to do so again.
That's why I've urged patience with DG. Let's see what he does. In another 2-4 years I may be completely soured on him, but right now I want to see where he's going with this re-organization of the roster.
If you're biased against him and think he's a part of the problem, then no wonder you turned on him from the time of the hire and continue to find evidence that all he does is lose in every move he makes.
Otherwise, maybe he is getting things right and time will tell. We'll see.
And guess what? That game took place a full 2 years before Beckham even got drafted.
Whatever the black cloud was/is, it started way before Beckham even dressed for a game as a Giant.
And guess what? That game took place a full 2 years before Beckham even got drafted.
Whatever the black cloud was/is, it started way before Beckham even dressed for a game as a Giant.
Bingo
And guess what? That game took place a full 2 years before Beckham even got drafted.
Whatever the black cloud was/is, it started way before Beckham even dressed for a game as a Giant.
I'd suggest it started when we put Ross in charge of college scouting, got worse when we lost Gettleman in January of 2013. The front office bought into blaming coaches while the talent brought in generally was a disaster, with a few bright exceptions like Beckham.
There isn't one member of the Giants hierarchy since 2012 who isn't at fault. Coughling, Reese, Mara, Tisch, Mcadoo, Spags, Gilbride, Ross, Fewell, etc.
They're complicit.
Team very good and 2007, could have repeated in 2008 had Burress not shot himself. won it all in 2011. Which brings us to the next 7-8 years.
Biggest problems - deterioration of Oline, Gilbride (warned the Front Office re: the need to rebuild front 5 - warnings ignored, OLine deteriorated and in turn the offense - Mara, who ignored Gilbride, concluded that the offense was broken and that it was Gilbride's fault.
There's no rot - reese and scouts and the front office were simply not competent at meeting their primary job responsibilities "find talent -get talent - keep talent -discard deicient talent."
Coughlin, not even Lombardi, could overcome the talent deficit so eventually they bring in a new guy McAdoo. Problem with hot coordinators - people always looking for the next great young mind. McAdoo inherited an undertalented team and was probably thrown to the wolves, not ripe for the picking. Quite common - the desire to grab the next great football mind BEFORE another team does results in grabbing someone before they're ready. I wouldn't fault F.O. for this failure - very difficult to get this decision right.
Odell - high strung player who came into an unstable environment. Young inexperienced coach, undertalented team. Odell probably needed a firm stable hand and environment. He was analogous to a kid in a family right before the divorce. But, Odell could have handled it differently. Some kids spiral out of control in unstable homes, some step up and even become de facto parents.
There's no rot. Just key people incompetent at their jobs, they've been fired and looks like the replacemenst we have now have a reasonable grasp of the situation and are taking reasonable steps to correct it.
they were probably giving PS the benefit of the doubt, perhaps Beckham not so much
If Eli doesn’t get benched and the uproar doesn’t follow I’d bet you Reese and Ross are running the team last year.
If Eli doesn’t get benched and the uproar doesn’t follow I’d bet you Reese and Ross are running the team last year.
That’s rot.
Just such a weird non-Giants like feel to it. I mean we have had periods of bad seasons but that just felt like a completely different team
You just, like, sign, like, all the, like,best free agents and go, like, $100 million over the cap. It's so simple. Just, like, do it!
TC arrested it to a degree but b/c of his age & personality could not reverse it.
Until John Mara learns the lessons his father did, likely in the same manner his father did, the team will struggle like it did.
The only real difference is the league itself is so watered down and diluted, that you can see which teams are doing things differently (NE and Seattle as examples) and being rewarded for it. Vs the rest of the league adhering to models and mindsets that are out of date.
You just, like, sign, like, all the, like,best free agents and go, like, $100 million over the cap. It's so simple. Just, like, do it!
Literally nobody says this.
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The tide started to turn for me last year and it finished the day the traded OBJ. My immediate reaction was that there were reasons we had not heard about. It’s in the thread. I don’t hate Eli, I love him. I just think he has lost the thing that made him special. I thought it was he had played so long behind a terrible OL, they had robbed him of his “IT”. I think it may have been the rot.
He was on team that clearly loved and played for each other. They unceremoniously fired the man that treated him like a son. We heard it when he left. I think what the team transformed into broke his heart. OBJ the face of the franchise? Just no. The guy showed up to every fucking game and played hurt. Fuck OBJ. Hunt, OBJ and Mayfield with a first year coach lololoolol
I am glad they are doing this. I am GLAD they are giving Eli another shot. I am fucking hope he kills it. Fuck all the Giant haters, no really. FUCK YOU, you intolerant assholes. Sounds like a 180 for me? You are damn fucking right and I feel a shit ton better. Rather root for a classy organization then one that makes immature assholes their face. I AM PROUD OF THE NY GIANTS TODAY! I have not been since the fire TC over Reese.
I have a strong suspicion that they are going to be a lot better than anyone thinks. GO GIANTS!!!!!
Thumbs up!
I agree Britt, great post.
Every game during warmups, Beckham one handed catches would be televised.
The camera would always find Beckham on the sidelines.
Beckham would often become a national media story, just a few examples off the top of my head:
-Carolina game in 2015
-Minnesota game in 2016
-Outburst with the kicking net
-Pissing like a dog
-Shouting at the fan against Philly in 2018
-ESPN interview
-Missing the final 4 games last year
It just didn’t feel like a team dynamic, it felt like Beckham transcended the team.
It’s refreshing to think it’ll be different this year.
To my point the other day, the real rot is at the top. We may bring in some shit kickers who clean it up for a while, but it will always come back.
I worry that perhaps the rot is ownership (Tisch, Maras including Chris) and the FO. Hopefully it is not the repeat of the 70's when Rozelle finally had to step in and 'foist' (thank goodness) Young on the Giants.
Of course that is the rot. Who else made the choice to fire Coughlin and keep Reese? And who else has lacked the sense of honor or accountability to step forward and acknowledge blame? Maybe DG has what it takes, and maybe he doesn't. But whoever is the GM, ownership should get the hell away from football decisions. That is the basic thing they owe to the fans.