The New York Giants find themselves at 1-5 heading into their Week 7 outing against the conference-rival Carolina Panthers. They sit four games behind the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East and are pretty much already playing out the string in a lost season.
The backdrop here has been the inability of third-year quarterback Daniel Jones to progress under center, primarily due to injuries on the offensive side of the ball.
This unit took another hit recently with news that starting left tackle Andrew Thomas has been placed on injured reserve due to an ankle ailment. The sophomore blindside protector will now miss at least the next three games. He joins stud running back Saquon Barkley and others on the sideline.
To say that the Giants have been a disaster under second-year head coach Joe Judge would be an understatement. He appears to be in over his head right now, as evidenced by the fact that these New York Giants rank 27th in the NFL in scoring (19.0 per game) and 29th in points allowed (29.5 per game).
It’s now time for the Giants’ brass to make that difficult decision. The status quo is not working. It’s time to blow it all up and start anew.
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New York Giants must fire Joe Judge, David Gettleman
It was always going to be a tricky proposition for New York to hire a special teams coordinator as head coach. Sure we’ve seen the likes of John Harbaugh have the success making that transition. But it’s an exception to the rule.
In 22 games as New York’s head coach, Judge has done absolutely nothing to prove that he’s worthy of sticking around in Jersey. The Giants have posted a 7-15 record during this span. He’s continually been out-coached and outwitted. His guarantees have not come to fruition, and there’s no evidence that they will.
“I don’t know what kind of guarantee they want, but I can assure everyone who is a Giants fan who wants to know when it’s going to turn, we are working tirelessly to make sure we get this in the right direction. Not just for short-term results, but for long-term success,” Judge said following last week’s humiliating 38-11 home loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
The issue here is that things have not gotten better for the Giants under Judge. The team has lost its past two outings by a combined margin of 51 points. A lack of competitiveness should doom Judge to a short tenure with the Giants. Perhaps, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett or up-and-coming defensive coordinator Patrick Graham would be better options on an interim basis.
As for Gettleman, New York’s decision to hire him following the 2017 season was met with some major skepticism after he struggled in his final few seasons with the Carolina Panthers.
Not a thing the long-time general manager has done proves these skeptics wrong. His first pick as the Giants’ GM was to select a running back No. 2 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft.
We’re not here to question Saquon Barkley as an elite player. When on the field, he’s been just that. Rather, it’s Barkley’s inability to stay healthy coupled with reaching for a running back in the modern NFL that had people up in arms. That very same draft saw Josh Allen go seventh to the Buffalo Bills with NFL MVP Lamar Jackson selected 30th overall.
It’s been a continual theme. That is to say, draft busts in the years since Gettleman took over in Jersey. It now seems to be time for the hierarchy to end this disastrous test run.
Current Vice President of Football Operations and Assistant General Manager Kevin Abrams could make sense in an interim basis. Heck, former New York Giants great Jessie Armstead (current special assistant to Gettleman) could work.
New York Giants must flush its roster of veterans
Even if the Giants were to retain Gettleman and Judge, these two have to know that their current roster is not set up for success. That’s true both short term and long term. Why not trade off some veteran players for draft assets and start anew? There’s a number of players who might draw interest ahead of the NFL trade deadline.
- Sterling Shepard: The selection of Kadarius Toney in the 2021 NFL Draft and free-agent signing of Kenny Golladay might make Shepard expendable. The former second-round pick from Oklahoma has been pretty good this season, recording 28 catches for 299 yards and one touchdown. He’d have interest on the trade block.
- Evan Engram: While this might impact New York Giants QB Daniel Jones, moving off Engram would make more sense than anything. The athletic tight end is slated to become a free agent following the 2021 season. He might not have a long-term future in New York. Why not move him to a contending team for what promises to be valuable draft capital?
- James Bradberry: Sure this 2020 free-agent signing has been pretty darn good in New York. But it’s not about all of that. The question becomes whether his presence is going to make the difference for a non-contending team? I doubt it. Instead, New York capitalizes on his recent success and the value of cornerbacks in today’s NFL. It could net the team a nice return.
Bottom line: New York Giants are going nowhere fast
It might be too early to give up on Jones. That’s a difficult decision given the injuries New York has had on offense since the start of last season.
Even then, the current iteration of these Giants are bottom feeders. They lack widespread young talent to build around and don’t have elite-level veteran talent to help bridge the gap.
David Gettleman and Joe Judge should be the first out the door. After that, the Giants must bring in new faces to help turns things around. Because right now, irrelevance is the name of the game in the Meadowlands.