Stop Giving Dave Gettleman Credit Where Credit is Due! By Hank Indictor
They say winning cures all and having to wait a decade for your first playoff win can bring out all sorts of excitement. Entering social media after such a victory has never felt so invigorating; yet, there’s one ridiculous take I keep hearing that’s been driving me bonkers.
Somehow some people are praising Dave Gettleman. Yes, that would be the same general manager that went 19-46 during the same span of a Presidential term and never spent a day over .500 during his reign of error.
I’m sorry, WHAT?!
Yes, I understand he was the one who drafted some of the current core of the roster, and yes some of his other acquisitions worked. The problem is there are too many failures that outweigh the positives. The purpose of this piece isn’t so much to bury Gettleman but also to put things into perspective for why we need to appreciate the current regime. Hopefully, it will give you something to think about regardless of what happens in Philadelphia.
To fully understand why some are praising Dave Gettleman, it is important to talk about some of his solid draft picks.
First and foremost – quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley. You can make a case for either one of these guys to be the MVP of the Giants' offense. Or better yet, if you want to tell me that Saquon Barkley has been the MVP of the first half of the season and Daniel Jones in the second half, I can get behind that. However, I’d also argue the case for left tackle Andrew Thomas is the MVP just for the sheer fact that he is a true security guard who rarely allows sacks and has helped to provide enough holes for Saquon Barkley to be among the league leaders in rushing yards!
Dexter Lawrence was one of the picks Dave Gettleman managed to swipe in the Odell [Beckham Jr.] trade, and he proceeded to lead the team in sacks this past season. Trading down and landing Azeez Ojulari also proved to be a steal. He may have lucked out when taking Xavier McKinney, in the 2nd round but that was a win nonetheless! Darius Slayton and Julian Love have also found ways to contribute to the Giants' turnaround season. In addition, every single player I mentioned had a hand in the upset win in Minnesota last week, and in a few days, they have a big opportunity to upset a hated rival!
But let's look at the big picture here. For every draft hit he’s made, there have been misses -- bad ones at that. And those are just one reason why he ultimately “retired.” For instance, in the same draft in which he took Saquon Barkley, Gettleman also took Will Hernandez (the “Hog Mollie” that he bragged about), Lorenzo Carter (who to be fair wasn’t terrible but this pick looks worse since Fred Warner was also available), and backup QB Kyle Lauletta. Not only are none of these players still on the team, but the last one is no longer in the league! His only other decent draft pick that year, B.J. Hill, was traded for a center, Billy Price, who was only a Giant for one year in a failed attempt to patch up the Offensive Line. Even taking Kadarius Toney in 2021 ruined what was otherwise one of his better drafts. A good cook can only use the ingredients he buys well if he truly knows how to use them properly!
And when you factor in his free agency acquisitions and trades…do you want to talk about some of the other positive acquisitions? Adoree Jackson was arguably his best free agent signing; he did a good job in containing Justin Jefferson and was easily the most valuable member of the Giants' secondary. Graham Gano also has to be considered in that category if only because they haven’t had a clutch kicker since possibly Lawrence Tynes. As far as trades go, trading for Leonard Williams seemed like a risk at the time, but fortunately, Gettleman was not only able to keep him, but he emerged as not only one of the more important members of the pass rush but he truly embraced his role as a team leader.
Ah, but we need to address the elephant in the room and that’s the Odell Beckham Jr. trade. One of the picks indeed became Dexter Lawrence, so the trade is somewhat redeemed because of that alone. But remember this is the same GM who extended him 8 months earlier and said, “I didn’t sign him just to trade him” and by extending him rather than trading him sooner, he created $16 million in dead cap. The other problem was he replaced him with free agent signing Golden Tate, who wasn’t horrible but not exactly a player you go after in an attempt to rebuild. And as I go back to one of his infamous draft bombs, remember this was the year that DK Metcalf, AJ Brown and Deebo Samuel all could’ve been taken. And to make matters worse, CB DeAndre Baker was taken six spots before the Niners went with Samuel. The less said about that draft bomb, the better.
As for his free agency and trade track record? Letting guys such as Justin Pugh and Landon Collins walk and then trading JPP was one thing. But how does it justify signing aging veterans such as Jonathan Stewart and Antoine Bethea and trading for Alec Ogletree? (Ogletree was released after two seasons). Let's go back to 2018. Not only was Gettleman throwing money at Nate Solder in an attempt to fix the O-Line a disaster, but he chose to keep the human turnstile known as Ereck Flowers (which looks worse when you remember Orlando Brown was available in the third round), in addition to signing human pylon Patrick Omameh, who was cut by November. Not surprisingly, Eli Manning took a season-high 47 sacks that year. Way to waste his final years!
Fast forward to 2021 and the same GM was so desperate to give Daniel Jones a weapon that he signed Kenny Golladay to a four-year, $72 million contract, this after cutting one of his better O-Linemen in Kevin Zeitler. At least trading down in the draft resulted in two first-round picks for the 2022 season even with the Toney pick. After all, Gettleman wasn’t going to be around to make those picks, and one reason why was that neither of the receivers he invested in would have a single touchdown catch that year. One year later, Toney would be traded and Golladay was relegated to a limited role throughout this season where he caught his only touchdown catch in Week 18 – in a game where most of the starters didn’t even play!
In short, his tenure was an utter disaster and it's truly a miracle that the new regime found a way to clean up most of his mess in only one year. In the end, and as a result of the moves that I mentioned, not only did Dave Gettleman finish with a 19-45 record (only the Jets finished with a worse record during his tenure), but -- in addition to never spending a day with a winning record -- he never had a season with double-digit wins. At the time of his departure, the Giants were left with a head coach in Joe Judge, who had a disastrous tenure that looked promising but ultimately ended as a failure for reasons in and out of his control. However, to a certain degree, it is very fair to accuse Gettleman of sabotaging Joe Judge. The salary cap was the equivalent of a college freshman using a credit card or the first time with -$19 million, and no that’s not a typo.
To say that the Giants were left as a barely functioning organization is no exaggeration. No matter how much talent on this team is on his fingerprints, there is no way you can truly credit Dave Gettleman for this turnaround.