We won the Superbowl in 2011. As awful as the 2012 draft was, it at least made sense from the standpoint of patching a championship team and letting them take another crack at it as is. And IIRC that team did start well before the wheels fell off.
But that should've been the sign to commit to a real rebuild. Instead the team continued with the idea of "patch things and hope Eli can pull a rabbit out of a hat." Every decision this team made - including hiring a familiar face in Gettleman as GM, or hiring Shurmur to "fix" an old Eli, can be traced to this idea.
Then when it was abundantly clear even to the Giants that Eli was shot, they picked ultimately the wrong QB to build around in Jones. And then had no plan whatsoever beyond that.
To mimic the "Take the gun from Plax" how about a "get that gas mask
The offense with Eli at the helm had been dysfunctional since the last super bowl. In reality the offensive numbers, particularly in 2015, were inflated by yards picked up in garbage time when games were already out of reach. And in games where they were competitive, having Odell on the field during his early years really masked a lot of the issues.
Beckham on his own extended Eli's career past it's expiration point - it would have been much clearer that it was time to find a replacement for Eli sooner rather than later had the offense been left to try and function without the big plays that he generated.
It would also have meant the wheels likely fall off the bus sooner without having Beckham there as a playmaker, and in all likelihood the Giants would have been searching for a new GM a year or two earlier. In which case they would have missed out on Dave Gettleman who was still tied up in Carolina.
I don't think there was any way to avoid at least some pain over the past 10 years, but ultimately the biggest mistake in this franchise's history was hiring Gettleman (we're probably looking at 2025 as the earliest this team will be able to fully recover from the decisions that he made as GM). And I think that mistake was precipitated by sticking with Eli as the starter for slightly too long.
We won the Superbowl in 2011. As awful as the 2012 draft was, it at least made sense from the standpoint of patching a championship team and letting them take another crack at it as is. And IIRC that team did start well before the wheels fell off.
But that should've been the sign to commit to a real rebuild. Instead the team continued with the idea of "patch things and hope Eli can pull a rabbit out of a hat." Every decision this team made - including hiring a familiar face in Gettleman as GM, or hiring Shurmur to "fix" an old Eli, can be traced to this idea.
Then when it was abundantly clear even to the Giants that Eli was shot, they picked ultimately the wrong QB to build around in Jones. And then had no plan whatsoever beyond that.
Quote:
From Plaxico
Another great one.
That Giant's team was on pace to be the best Giants team in franchise history.
John Madden said of Plaxico Burress, "If you cover Plaxico Burress with only one defender, he's essentially open on every play."
Beckham on his own extended Eli's career past it's expiration point - it would have been much clearer that it was time to find a replacement for Eli sooner rather than later had the offense been left to try and function without the big plays that he generated.
It would also have meant the wheels likely fall off the bus sooner without having Beckham there as a playmaker, and in all likelihood the Giants would have been searching for a new GM a year or two earlier. In which case they would have missed out on Dave Gettleman who was still tied up in Carolina.
I don't think there was any way to avoid at least some pain over the past 10 years, but ultimately the biggest mistake in this franchise's history was hiring Gettleman (we're probably looking at 2025 as the earliest this team will be able to fully recover from the decisions that he made as GM). And I think that mistake was precipitated by sticking with Eli as the starter for slightly too long.