Giants Country

New York Giants Mailbag: The "Getting Philosophical" Edition

We have a ginormous sized mailbag for you this week. Enjoy!

Patricia Traina

New York Giants Mailbag: The "Getting Philosophical" Edition
New York Giants Mailbag: The "Getting Philosophical" Edition /

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What's up, Pete? There's a website I use for injury analysis, ManGamesLost.com for this information.

They haven't posted the 2021 season data yet since it's still kind of early, but according to their data, the Colts, Giants, and Jaguars are among the top most-injured teams since the 2009 season. 

Hi Carl. I go back to when Joe Judge was hired and how there were rumors of Jason Garrett being eyed as a possible head coaching candidate once his contract expired in Dallas. I know that the Mara family has a high amount of respect for Jason as a person and as a football coach. 

I have no proof of this, just a strong hunch, but I believe that when Joe Judge was filling out his staff, Garrett came highly recommended to him by ownership. 

At the time, the logic was there. Garrett is a former NFL quarterback. The Giants had a young quarterback, so the match made sense, especially after seeing how Dak Prescott and Tony Romo, two undrafted quarterbacks, flourished under Garrett in Dallas.

The situation with Garrett is rather common across business landscapes. You hire someone who was with a competitor for a long time and who might be set in how they do things. 

When they come to the new organization whose personnel is different and maybe not as accomplished as from where he/she came, what might have worked before doesn't necessarily work now.

Garrett had an all-World offensive line in Dallas for several years, so his offenses could light up the scoreboard and stat sheets. Unfortunately, those same plays and concepts he brought to the Giants aren't working because the personnel hasn't been the same.

That said, where a coach earns his money is in his ability to adapt to the personnel. I'm not so sure I can say Garrett has done an A-plus job of that, can you?

They sure don't make it easy, do they? So I'll say this. As a one-time athlete myself (youth and high school), the competitive spirit in the players is worth believing in. 

I need to have my faith reinforced in the coaching, which I can't sit here and say I've been happy with from both a macro and micro levels. I still believe in Joe Judge, but I think he's fallen into a trap that so many employees tend to fall into when they move from one organization to another.

The simplest would be to plug in Wes Martin at the spot. And yes, I'm concerned about that, not because I think Martin isn't any good (I don't know if he is or isn't) but for the reasons I've outlined in my Keys article for this week.

The other is to move Matt Skura, who is more of a natural center, to guard. 

Again, either way, I'm not crazy about the options since we're talking two moves ahead of a game that will be played in a LOUD building against a defense that loves to run stunts.

Would any of us have a choice? Seriously, everyone seems to think the general manager has the final say on a new head coach.

 Such a move would heavily involve team ownership, and right now, I get a strong vibe that team ownership likes Joe Judge and is firmly behind him. So even if a new general manager comes in, don't automatically assume he will get a new head coach. 

You can't keep tearing things down and starting over--the Giants have done that now three times in the last six years. At some point, you have to stick with someone, warts and all, and let the program take root.

As fr the quarterback, if Daniel Jones is playing well, no general manager in their right mind would insist on having "their guy," not with there being pressure to hit the ground running.

I could see that happening once he gets up to speed on things. It's very telling (and concerning) that Matt Peart hasn't worked out at tackle to where they now have him learning guard to salvage that draft pick. 

With Jackson Barton (who I thought had a legitimate chance of coming up through the ranks) having been poached off the practice squad, the Giants don't have a solid answer at swing tackle, which is why I think they hooked up with Wilson. 

I just hope things work out for the young man.

Surprise! I AM going to comment. (Bet you didn't think I would, did you?)

Look, I always give people the benefit of the doubt. I don't sit here and profess to have all the answers to every question in life. When someone does something differently than I would, I try to see why they take the approach they have and avoid jumping to conclusions until I have more information to reach that conclusion.

That said, Dave Gettleman hasn't been perfect. He had some whiffs with the 2018 draft/free agency that delayed the franchise rebuild, and while I got the logic behind drafting Saquon Barkley that year, I thought it was short-sighted.

Some of his free-agent signings have been head-scratchers in terms of the money doled out--for instance, I got the logic behind the Jonathan Stewart signing, but the money paid out was ridiculous. I understood the Nate Solder signing, but again,

I also disagreed with the decision not to add to the offensive line, and quite honestly, I found the feedback from the organization less and less reassuring every time they said something. Even before the retirements of Looney and Fulton and the injuries to Lemieux and Gates, they were taking a gamble, and some of that has backfired.

I especially didn't agree with the free agency approach this year--it didn't work long term for them twice before, so why on this good green earth they thought it would work this year is beyond me--I see the looming mess that is their salary cap. I hope I'm wrong about this, but I have significant concerns for next year.

That all being said, this isn't all on Dave. I strongly disagree with how Joe Judge ran this training camp and preseason. I think he set this team back to start this season, and I've voiced my opinions about that on my podcast and will be reiterating that again in my forthcoming column. 

Furthermore, there are a couple of other philosophies Judge has that I disagree with. And there are things that ownership has done that I don't agree with either--I see what they were going for, but I also had questions about whether they would get there. (So far, they haven't.)

So bottom line: This mess we've seen so far is an organizational one, not just a Dave Gettleman-created mess. And for all our sakes, I hope they get this straightened out sooner than later; otherwise, it's going to be a long year. 

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I wish I knew, Ed. I've asked a few people about that and they're as perplexed as you and I are. 

The only logical answer we can come up with is they're keeping Rudolph in more to help with blocking given the knee injury Kaden Smith has been dealing with. 

If that's the case, then that's a big-time waste of their investment in Rudolph and his red-zone skills.

I think so. You can evaluate things with a quarterback regardless, e.g. his mental processing and decision-making. So yes, I do think if a new GM came in here he'd be able to look at the film and draw a conclusion on Jones. 

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Put it this way, John. I had Toney as a high second-round pick. But I don't do college scouting fulltime so I sort of base my opinions on a collection of reports done by those who are actually at the college games every week, and I try to draw a consensus.

I know this is for the podcast, but since I'm not sure when the mailbag will happen next week (I might be bumping it from Tuesday to Friday, depending on how my interview schedule goes), I'm going to answer this here.

Disclaimer: When Gettleman made this move, I understood the logic behind it. I don't agree with it, but I see where he was coming from.

Okay, so what move would I like them to have made? Not drafting Saquon Barkley at No. 2. I would have traded down for an offensive lineman.

I mentioned I understood the logic that went into the Barkley pick, so let me explain that.

Eli Manning was coming off three straight years of attempting 600+ passes per season. The thought was to give him a running game to take some of the pressure off him, and they also thought that a good running game might be what the doctor ordered for the new quarterback once he arrived.

Alas, it doesn't matter if the offensive line is a mess. And I think Dave should have focused on building the offensive line rather than drafting a running back. I equate this to build a car. The running back is like the hood ornament. The offensive line and the quarterback are the engine and body. That's where the priority should have been (offensive line), and that would be the move I wish they could go back in time and reverse.

From Sandy L: Who is responsible for making player and coach hiring decisions?

Hi Sandy. Team ownership, in cooperation with the general manager, makes the head coach hire. The head coach hires and fires his staff. As for players, that's mostly on the general manager, but if a blockbuster deal is forthcoming, ownership has to rubberstamp it.

From: William F.: Do you think the Giants' failures are because of John Mara's refusal to accept modern-day football?

What's up, William? I'm not sure what you mean by "refusal to accept modern day football"--I don't think anyone has a choice given how the game has evolved. That said, I think the Giants need to step outside their circle a bit more than they have and maybe look to bring in some voices that don't have previous ties to the organization.

I get it that there's a comfort level there and that the NFL circle is small. Still, if you look at the majority of major decisions this team has made through the years, they brought in people they either knew from a previous life or who they once employed recommended. 

I get it; that's how business works--heck I've done the same thing in my lifetime. But sometimes you have to take chances on finding taken outside of your circle, which I've also done, sometimes with success and sometimes without. 

From Billy P.: I'd like to get your take on the following numbers:

Belichick coaching tree....216-306-1......(.413)
Joe Judge.............................6-13...........(.316)
Belichick total.....................281-138........(.671)
Belichick w/o Brady ............63-75...........(.457)
Belichick since Brady left......8-11...........(.421)

I'm trying to understand why both owners and GMs are enamored with hiring from the Patriots/Belichick organization. It's not like these numbers are top secret information; one doesn't need a degree in sabermetrics to get them.

I am not questioning that Belichick is a great coach. I don't understand the rationale and common sense behind what owners and GMs alike are thinking when it comes to being lured to, to some extent, a façade built around a house of cards.

What's up, Billy? I think the hope is that the assistants from that tree learn enough to be winners once they "graduate" from the school of Belichick. The problem with that school of thought is that some coaches just aren't cut out to be head coaches, which becomes painfully obvious once they get out on their own.

In other words, the assistants are like apprentices. Some find success (Vrable, Flores), and some don't (Patricia, O'Brien).

From Nicholas G.: What’s going on with the Giants offense? They rank 24th in points/game after three games. With all of the new upgrades, I expected more TDs. Who's to blame?

Thanks for the question, Nick. I don't think there is one factor or person to blame, but with that said, let me share what bothers me about how the Giants have approached things. Joe Judge always says of his staff, "Don't tell me what a player can't do; tell me what he can do." Unless I misunderstand things, it almost sounds as though they're starting from scratch with players when they walk in the door.

Football is football, and there is always some overlap in schemes from team to team.

So this notion that "Oh the Giants didn't have Kyle Rudolph all summer?" Okay, granted, that was no one's fault. But you mean to tell me that the film they watched on the guy didn't give them a few ideas on how to adapt to what Rudolph could do well?

People will point to the offensive line. I don't think the unit has been as big of a disaster as we thought it might be. The major whiff right now is Matt Peart not winning that right tackle job. 

Come next year, I fear right tackle will be a significant need, and the Giants might not be able to fill it unless this Wilson kid they signed works out (and that's a gamble).

Some might point to the play-calling, which I think has some validity as a reason. I have long wondered if what Garrett likes to do is a fit for the personnel he has. 

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Patricia Traina
PATRICIA TRAINA

Patricia Traina has covered the New York Giants for 30+ seasons, and her work has appeared in multiple media outlets, including The Athletic, Forbes, Bleacher Report, and the Sports Illustrated media group. As a credentialed New York Giants press corps member, Patricia has also covered five Super Bowls (three featuring the Giants), the annual NFL draft, and the NFL Scouting Combine. She is the author of The Big 50: The Men and Moments that Made the New York Giants. In addition to her work with New York Giants On SI, Patricia hosts the Locked On Giants podcast. Patricia is also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the Football Writers Association of America.

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