Is This Where the New York Giants Went Wrong?
The New York Giants unsurprisingly announced on Monday that, amidst another terrible season, quarterback Daniel Jones will miss the remainder of the year. This is a good decision regardless of the Giants horrible record. As orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine expert Dr. Max Alley from the Bone & Joint Center in Albany explained on The Drive with Charlie & Dan, muscle injuries in the neck area are complex because of circumstances that may involve the swelling muscle tissue being combined with the nerves in spinal cord causing pressure. These injuries are difficult to pinpoint and recovery times will vary. But the question that has to be asked, is Daniel Jones missing games really the root of the New York Giants problems?
Giants fans will unquestionably point to multiple deficiencies on each side of the ball. If there are so many problems with the Giants, what happened? Well, let's look at the last playoff season for the Giants, 2016. There was a new head coach, Ben McAdoo. Tom Coughlin was politely sent packing by former general manager Jerry Reese after four dismal years in a row. Eli Manning was the quarterback in 2016. He threw for over 4000 yards and 26 touchdowns. Wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. owned over 1300 of those yards from Manning and had 10 of those touchdown receptions. To many, that was the end of the good times for Big Blue and their fans.
After the brutal 3-13 season in 2017 and Reese was fired, the choices that have followed, have sunk the Giants. Most of the moves that general manager Dave Gettleman has made, have not paid off. His first coaching hire, Pat Shurmur gave the Giants 9 wins and 23 losses in 2 seasons. Joe Judge doesn't seem to be on a much better track. Gettleman's 2nd overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, was Saquon Barkley out of Penn State. He played all 16 games in his rookie year, when the Giants won 5 games. In the next 2 years, he has played 12. Gettleman had another shot with the 6th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2019 draft. The Giants GM surprised everyone when he took Daniel Jones out of Duke University. Jones has started 37 games and won 12 of them. He has missed games each year due to injury.
We can go on about the missteps of Dave Gettleman as general manager of the Giants but he did get some pretty good value for Odell Beckham, Jr. For the amount that OBJ has played, that was a very good trade for the Giants. It seems like a foregone conclusion that he will 'retire' at the end of the season. The Giants need a dynamic mind to build a foundation of a successful franchise. They should begin that with solidifying an offensive line. Then the new GM can build from there. No players on the Giants current roster should be untouchable and then Big Blue can begin to build a winning franchise again.