Bill Belichick Questions Giants, Front Office After Blowout Loss to Eagles

The eight-time Super Bowl-winning head coach barely minced words as he publicly dissected the problems surrounding the Giants after their Week 7 embarassment.

Bill Belichick smiles during questions at a press conference. / Bob Breidenbach / USA TODAY NETWORK

The New York Giants' season fell to 2-5 on Sunday following a horrific 28-3 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. As the team quickly heads for another lost campaign, criticisms from a notable face of the organization’s past are firing at all cylinders. 

Bill Belichick, the Giants defensive coordinator from 1985 to 1990 (he also served in other coaching capacities with the Giants starting in 1979), who went on to have a Hall of Fame career as head coach of the New England Patriots, recently questioned some of the Giants decisions of late, most notably the one to allow running back Saquon Barkey, who single-handedly destroyed his former teammate by rushing for more yards all by himself than the Giants offense generated.

In 54 seconds, Bill Belichick
— Questions Josh Ezeudu at LT
— Scoffs at OL rebuild
— Bites his tongue on Daniel Jones
— doesnt understand how #Giants let their best player got a couple million $ (suggesting he read reporting w/ numbers in @nypostsports)
pic.twitter.com/TSxHDRkLSS

— Ryan Dunleavy (@rydunleavy) October 21, 2024

“In watching the Hard Knocks, it didn’t look like (head coach) Brian Daboll or John Mara wanted to get rid of Saquon,” Belichick said on The Pat McAfee Show this week. 

“This seemed like kind of a general manager thing of ‘Well, we don’t think anyone will pay him,’ when everyone in the league knew he was going to go to  the Eagles, so it didn’t seem like everyone was on the same page on that.”

Belichick also questioned the wisdom or lack thereof of not ponying up the money for Barkley. 

“He was their best player, and for a couple of million dollars more, they could have kept him, but instead, they got a guard or somebody, and that offensive line doesn’t look very good,” he said.

Barkley’s steamrolling certainly wasn’t the only problem that caught the eyes of Belichick and those who watched the game. The Giants were also playing without their stud left tackle, Andrew Thomas, who suffered a season-ending foot injury against Cincinnati. 

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The Giants, who last year tried Joshua Ezuedu at left tackle when Thomas missed weeks with a hamstring injury suffered in the Week 1 game, went right back to Ezeudu this past week, choosing not to shift veteran Jermaine Eluemenor over from the right end to the left side. They also by-passed former first-round pick Evan Neal, who had played left tackle in college.

The results weren’t pretty. Ezuedu was pushed back several times by the Eagles edge rush and succumbed to two of the Giants’ five sacks in the first half and a in his first start this season as the Giants offensive line allowed eight sacks in what was their worst performance of the season.

“They’re playing a guy at left tackle who shouldn’t be playing left tackle,” Belichick added on the Giants offensive line. “Evan Neal was drafted in the first round, and he’s not playing; they’ve got some UFA guards that are pretty suspect. It’s just a tough line.”

The play of quarterback Daniel Jones also didn’t escape Belichick’s eye. Jones has yet to throw a touchdown pass at home this season and has led an offense that has failed to score double-digit points in three of its four losses at home. 

“To be honest, I think that Daniel Jones is trying his best to hang in there, but it’s just been tough sledding,” Belichick said.

He’s right. Even with the porous blocking on Sunday, the emphasis of the conversation on the Giants awful stretch continues to be the play of Jones in the pocket. 

At times, when his front line has held up, the Duke product has been ridiculed for his lack of a deep throw beyond 15 yards and his ability to read beyond the first target his eyes lock onto.

Jones's stat sheets in the three games prior to Philadelphia were flashy, with at least 22 completions for 205 yards, two touchdowns, and an average pass of at least 4.7 yards, which had many thinking his confidence was building. 

That was until he lost the momentum against the Eagles in an abysmal stint that notched just 99 passing yards and an average offensive play of 2.2 yards for the worst aerial total in his career. 

Jones was benched in the fourth quarter and replaced by Locke to provide a spark as the contest grew out of hand, but even the backup gunslinger could not handle what Philadelphia was throwing at him. The drops from the wide receivers continued, Locke collected just six yards with his arm, and New York would go three-and-out on the rest of their possessions in the final 15 minutes to continue their scoring famine on home soil.  

If there is good news for the Giants, they’ll hit the road next week, where they have had some better luck. New York is averaging 22.6 points on the road versus 7.75 at home. But with a 2-5 record and with Washington and Philadlephia starting to pull away with records of 5-2 and 4-2 respectively, the Giants hopes of making a run toward the postseason have all but vanished.  

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