Thanks, Dave!
The NFL draft, which is a few weeks away, often allows some teams to build winning franchises from the ground up, while also enabling other teams to send themselves back to the stone age in a multitude of ways - by drafting a highly touted player who doesn't pan out, by drafting a great player who was just a poor fit, or by not fielding calls from teams frantically trying to move up to draft the guy at the top of their board.
Which brings us to a certain GM who managed to do all three of the calamities mentioned above: Former New York Giants GM Dave Gettleman. Before I proceed, I do want to point out that, in Gettleman's first stint with the Giants as a director of pro personnel, he had plenty of say in acquiring players who eventually were part of either (or both) Super Bowl championship teams at the ends of the 2007 and 2011 seasons. So let's give him some credit there.
Having said that, his second stint with the G-men, as GM from 2018 to 2021, proved to be disastrous - not only did he fail to turn around a once-proud franchise that had become a flat out embarrassment following a 3-13 season in 2017, he also proceeded to plague the team with ill-advised draft selections and free-agent signings, some of which still haunt the team to this day.
Months after taking the reins, Gettleman was in charge of the 2018 draft, and had his sights set on Saquon Barkley, a fantastic running back from Penn State. The fact that the Giants had holes in practically every facet of the game meant nothing, apparently, and neither did conventional wisdom, which says running backs should not be top five draft picks. Eli Manning was also in the twilight of his career, so drafting a QB to eventually take over would have made sense - virtually all signs were pointing to drafting someone other than an RB.
None of that mattered to good old fashioned Dave, who considered Barkley to be 'touched by the hand of God'. A few weeks ago, word came out that the Denver Broncos, desperate to trade up from 6th to draft Sam Darnold, tried calling Gettleman to propose a trade for the Giants' No. 2 pick that year, but Gettleman never bothered to answer the phone. We'll probably never know what the offer was, but had Gettleman just answered the stupid phone he might have been offered a slew of additional draft picks just by dropping four spots in the draft. At the time, Josh Allen was still on the board at 6, as was Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson. But Gettleman kept the blinders on and proceeded to draft Barkley.
Sure, Barkley was the NFL offensive rookie of the year that year, but the team finished 5-11 for the season. So then in the 2019 draft, which was pretty thin on QB talent compared to 2018, Gettleman reaches for Duke QB Daniel Jones with the No. 6 pick, a selection that was widely panned at the time, and has only slightly mellowed with time. (Hey, at least he didn't draft Dwayne Haskins…) While Jones has shown flashes of being an elite QB, it's fair to say that he's had more than enough chances to prove himself, and to this point, has simply not been a franchise QB.
But Jones is a byproduct of the dominoes falling from the year before - if Gettleman does the right thing and drafts a QB in 2018, then he's not looking for a QB in 2019, and is drafting other positions instead. Granted, he might have drafted Darnold or Rosen instead of Allen or Jackson, but nonetheless the team would be giving whomever it was at least another season to work things out, and Jones is not picked 6th by the Giants.
In 2019, the Giants also had the No. 17 pick via Cleveland thanks to the trade involving Odell Beckham Jr. - Gettleman at least did the right thing there by shipping OBJ out of town - and used it on Dexter Lawrence, who has played well and would make the Pro Bowl in 2022. Pretty good pick, really. Gettleman also traded a 2nd, 4th and 5th round pick for a third first round pick that year, and used it on DeAndre Baker, at the time considered one of the best DBs in college football; he struggled through his rookie season before being benched for a lack of effort. Oh, and then he was accused of armed robbery, which led the Giants to cut him, even though the charges were eventually dropped because the witnesses recanted their statements.
Three first round draft picks in 2019, and nothing much to show for it - the Giants go 4-12 that year, head coach Pat Shurmur is fired after two years, and Joe Judge is hired.
In 2020, the first year of the post-Eli Manning era, Gettleman selected OT Andrew Thomas with the No. 4 pick. Thomas has been a somewhat steady presence among a constantly churning offensive line. The season was practically over after Barkley tore his ACL in Week 2 and would miss the rest of the year. His teammates would play on to a 6-10 record.
Finally, in what would turn out to be his last season, Gettleman actually trades down in the 2021 draft, giving up the 11th pick to Chicago for their 2021 first- and fifth-round picks, plus Chicago's 2022 first- and fourth-round picks. With the 20th pick obtained from Chicago, the Giants select Kadarius Toney, who was subsequently pawned off on the Chiefs early the following season. (The Bears, meanwhile, drafted Justin Fields, who's about to be discarded in favor of projected No. 1 draft pick Caleb Williams.) The Giants go 4-13 that season, and Joe Judge is fired, followed shortly thereafter by Gettleman's retirement.
We won't even get to some of the free agent fiascos, like Nate Solder, Golden Tate and Kenny Golladay - that's a whole other blog right there.
To recap - a No. 2 pick in 2018, Nos. 6, 17 and 30 in 2019, No. 4 in 2020, and No. 11 in 2021, and this team is not much better now than it was before those picks. What a waste. Thanks, Dave!
Fast forward to 2024, which will mark the 100th season of Giants football. GM Joe Schoen and HC Brian Daboll, both in their third year with Big Blue, are still working through the mess Gettleman has left them. After the Giants declined to tag Barkley for the second straight year, he is now a free agent, and it looks increasingly likely that he will head elsewhere; Jones, who Schoen inexplicably signed to a 4-year, $160M deal last year (maybe it was pressure from above?), is far from a lock to be QB1 for the 2024 season. Jones also suffered a neck injury (his second) and an ACL tear last season, so it's anyone's guess as to how good he'll actually be this year.
Will Schoen draft a QB this year and end the Jones era once and for all? I have to believe that he does - after all, both he and Daboll are finding that their seats are getting a little warmer in New Jersey, so Schoen likely would prefer to give it a go with one of his draft picks in the starting QB role instead of a leftover from the Gettleman era. Who that QB might be is totally in the air at this point (Throwing Bagels has thoughts), and it will probably remain a mystery until the New York Football Giants are on the clock.
Hopefully Schoen will at least answer the phone if it rings.