Many of you who visit our site know we do not sugar coat our opinions or perspectives as it relates to the Giants. We do not wear rose-colored glasses and put positive spin on any decision or current state of the team.
Although we are not inspired by the hire of Shurmur as the next Head Coach, we must give the guy an opportunity. He certainly gets kudos for how the Vikings turned around their OL play from last season. The QB play has to be credited to his coaching as well as the adaptation of losing perhaps their best offensive player in running back Dalvin Cook. Who he hires for his staff will be telling as it relates to decision-making as head coach. There are signs Steve Spagnuolo will be back as DC. If this is true, this is a decision which does not inspire much confidence. His defense was at the bottom of the NFL in yards allowed and 31st in toxic differential. It is my truth, a clean slate would be preferred from the mess we witnessed in that locker room. Spags also has been terribly inconsistent as it relates to the performance of his units year by year. His success in 2007-2008 is not Teflon. He needs to be held accountable for the poor showing with the Giants, Saints, as well as the Ravens. (with the Ravens he was defensive backs coach)
Our biggest concern with the organization starts with the man who inherited the keys from his father, Wellington- John Kevin Mara. We keep reading and hearing about how there is this perception league wide on how coveted the HC or GM job is. What has John Mara done to earn this perception since he inherited the organization since 2005?
We believe he is more concerned with protecting or feeding his cash cow versus building a fully functioning and winning organization. Wellington would NOT have been in support of PSLs, period. Remember, Wellington was the driving force on instituting revenue sharing that ultimately was a boon for the league and lead to the games huge popularity. He understood that it was for the good of the league and their customers, the fans.
John Mara’s decision-making came in question when he made the half hearted measure of firing a 2-time super bowl winning head coach in Tom Coughlin. We agreed it was time to make a change but there was also another individual that deserved to be jettisoned even more, Jerry Reach. It was Jerry Reese, we feel, that forced Ben McAdoo on TC with John Mara’s blessing. It was Jerry Reese who neglected the OL and relied on aging players to hold up. His draft record was also extremely spotty at that juncture in time. The optics was quite bad in terms of how a 2-time winning super bowl coach was treated in this firing. TC was obviously very angry at Mara. You force an OC on him and keep the guy who kept handing him a compromised roster.
OBJ is an incredible talent that we will never dispute. There were warning signs with his behavior from the very start of his career on the field, and we are very confident that there were behind closed doors. The organization failed to address it from the start and it evolved into a full-blown unnecessary distraction. By not addressing it early and often, they enabled OBJ. Mara was embarrassed after the GB game when OBJ punched and made a hole in the wall as well as the bad optics of the boat trip. John Mara should have been embarrassed with himself for letting it come to this.
Then we have this past dumpster fire of a season. There were signs of locker room dissension all season that strong leadership should have proactively addressed. The sudden poorly handled decision of McAdoo to bench Eli was the final straw of a season gone horribly wrong. Fans reacted with vitriol and the potential ghost town of an empty MetLife stadium would have embarrassed Mara. Scheduled protesting fans forced Mara into his reactive decision. The decision was driven by the bottom line. This whole circus show was a far cry from an organization that has a reputation of a classy professional organization that does not react to the fan’s emotional ire.
There were many reports from reporters who have had inside access for many years, including Myers of the NY Daily News, that Matt Patricia was the guy for the next Head Coaching gig. Patricia balked and is now headed to Detroit. We believe that the mythical perception of the Giants’ being a coveted job was affirmed by Patricia decision. Schwartz of NY Post reported that the limelight of NY as well as the microscope of the local media scared off Patricia. A source believed that Patricia is not ready for a “high profile job.” Again this is total hogwash! This would mean that Patricia is not competitive enough for any head coaching position. If he were not up to the challenge of coaching in NY why would he be for any head coaching position, period? This would be an excuse not to fail.
There were rumblings of discontent within the scouting world over the handling of Gettleman’s hiring. Many feel that Gettleman was the pick all along and there was no vetting of candidates for the GM position. The scouting community is a brotherhood and those sources, from the Shrine game practices, reflect distaste for Gettleman. The fact that they only interviewed 3 insiders and only 1 outside of the organization speaks volumes. The fact that only two front office executives were fired contradicts John Mara’s directive that there will be “wholesale changes.” We infer that nothing really has changed as an organization and doesn’t send a message that the dysfunction will not continue.
We strongly believe that Patricia walked away from taking the job as Head Coach of the NY Giants due to the dysfunctional leadership displayed by their owner, John Kevin Mara. The handling of this past season’s disaster, the current make up of the front office and the leadership under John Mara scared Patricia off.
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