What if I told you that in four years, a general manager assembled a roster that featured: A quarterback whose team would lead the league in scoring, a running back who would win NFL Offensive Player of the Year, a left tackle who would be an All-Pro, a defensive tackle who would be an All-Pro, another defensive tackle who would be a Pro Bowler, a cornerback who would be an All-Pro, a safety who would be an All-Pro and another safety who would be a Pro Bowler. Would you expect success?
If I told you that the GM who assembled that group was Dave Gettleman, you’d surely agree that his four-year tenure with the Giants was a failure, and his “retirement” in 2022 was warranted after he posted a .292 winning percentage.
Yet, four years later, the hope that successor Joe Schoen can turn this group into a winner is being used as justification to keep a GM with a .336 winning percentage.
The Giants fired coach Brian Daboll on Monday in a move that was completely justified. The on-field product has been untenable for too long. But in typical Giants’ fashion, they stopped at a half measure.
Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch announced in a statement that Schoen will remain in his position as general manager.
“We feel like Joe has assembled a good young nucleus of talent, and we look forward to its development,” Mara said. “Unfortunately, the results over the past three years have not been what any of us want. We take full responsibility for those results and look forward to the kind of success our fans expect.”
That’s all we know about the decision to retain Schoen because no one from ownership was made available to address the questions fans want answered. Chiefly, why is Schoen being spared from the results that claimed Daboll’s job?
There won’t be any answers coming from Schoen, who wasn’t even quoted in the release announcing Daboll’s firing.
It’s obvious the finger is being pointed exclusively at Daboll for a team that has the second-worst record in the NFL since the start of the 2023 season. It’s similar to how all of the blame was previously pinned on quarterback Daniel Jones, who is now leading the NFL in passing yards for the 8-2 Colts.
Unquestionably, there is talent on the roster, which is to be expected when a general manager makes six first-round picks, including four in the top seven, over a four-year period. Again, Gettleman showed it’s impossible not to hit on some top picks, like Saquon Barkley (the NFL Offensive Player of the Year running back), Andrew Thomas (the All-Pro left tackle) and Dexter Lawrence (the All-Pro defensive tackle). Then the law of averages suggests some hits on Days 2 and 3 of the draft, like Gettleman did with Xavier McKinney (the All-Pro safety) and Julian Love (the Pro Bowl safety).
Add in three consecutive offseasons of big spending and splash trades, there should be some high-end veteran talent on the roster. Gettleman showed that by acquiring Leonard Williams (the Pro Bowl defensive tackle) and James Bradberry (the All-Pro cornerback).
Does Schoen’s “young nucleus” of quarterback Jaxson Dart, running back Cam Skattebo, wide receiver Malik Nabers and outside linebacker Abdul Carter measure up to Gettleman’s draft hits? Do Schoen’s big-money additions of outside linebacker Brian Burns, cornerback Paulson Adebo and safety Jevon Holland compare favorably to the vets Gettleman added?
The fact that it’s debatable says everything. The bar should be much higher than having a talented young nucleus when a general manager is heading into Year 5. That’s especially true when the talent pool is thinner than ownership seems to think.
A defining characteristic during the Giants’ extended malaise is overrating their talent. That trait was on display when Mara used the supposed strength of the 2024 draft class last January as a primary reason for retaining Schoen after an embarrassing 3-14 season. Aside from Nabers, who was the sixth pick in last year’s draft and only appeared in four games this season before tearing his ACL, are there any sure-fire stars in that class?
Moving on to 2025, Schoen deserves credit for landing Dart, skillfully maneuvering to trade up for the quarterback with the 25th pick in this year’s draft. But Daboll’s heavy role in the quarterback evaluation process can’t be ignored. If Dart alone couldn’t save Daboll, he shouldn’t save Schoen.
If having a promising young quarterback is a selling point for Schoen to stay, then the Giants’ horrible record with that promising young quarterback is an indictment of the overall state of the roster. Schoen bet on Jones being responsible for the offensive ineptitude last year, so he brought back the other 10 starters. But even with Dart’s impressive performances — which came after Schoen free agent Russell Wilson flopped in three starts — the Giants are 2-8 for a third consecutive season.
There are more roster holes than meet the eye. Wan’Dale Robinson, who has stepped up as the leading receiver in Nabers’ absence, will be a free agent. Same goes for Cor’Dale Flott, the team’s most consistent cornerback this season. Both starters on the right side of the offensive line — guard Greg Van Roten and tackle Jermaine Eluemunor — are in the final year of their contracts.
The impending free agents don’t account for the need to make upgrades at positions like defensive tackle, linebacker and safety. The Giants are in a healthy cap position, but they’ll need to spend to cover for past mistakes, just as they paid Adebo after missing on 2023 first-round pick Deonte Banks and Holland after letting McKinney walk in free agency a year earlier.
For all of the draft whiffs and bad free agent signings, no misevaluation was more costly than Schoen believing the surprising success in 2022 was sustainable. Schoen tried to “expedite” his planned rebuild in the 2023 offseason. The Giants have gone 11-33 since that point.
With the on-field product indefensible, prepare to hear leaks referencing all of the enhancements Schoen has made behind the scenes. It’s great that he led the scouting department out of the stone age, but there are plenty of qualified candidates who would be capable of operating the touchscreens he had installed in the draft war room.
The reality is it’s easier for ownership to maintain the status quo at general manager. An overhaul in the front office is more disruptive for ownership, especially with Mara battling cancer. That involves hiring and firing scouts and executives. It means forging new bonds with the people who will work most closely with ownership, including Schoen ally Tim McDonnell, who is the director of player personnel and Mara’s nephew.
That’s why Jerry Reese outlasted Tom Coughlin and Gettleman outlasted Pat Shurmur. And even though those GMs met their inevitable demise within two years of the coach firings, ownership clearly didn’t learn any lessons about the ineffectiveness of partial house-cleanings.
The coach is somewhat removed from ownership, spending most of his time with the players. The coach is in the spotlight as the team struggles on game day, while the GM sits in a suite with members of ownership.
Changing coaches is far less turbulent, and ownership has cycled through five head coaches over the past decade. But the experience hasn’t made the Giants any better at finding a winning coach.
Now they’re entrusting Schoen to lead a second coaching search. Of all of his shortcomings as GM, Schoen’s biggest failure was the Daboll hire, considering the coach is being held solely responsible for the plight of the team.
Schoen thought Daboll was the best option in 2022 after working together closely for four years in Buffalo. If Schoen was so wrong in that assessment, what gives ownership faith that Schoen will get it right this time, especially when the candidate pool could be limited by the presence of a GM with his track record?
The limited success the Giants enjoyed under the Daboll-Schoen regime came in their first season when they unexpectedly went 9-7-1 and won a playoff game. That success was mostly driven by coaching, since Schoen’s hands were tied in his first year by the messy cap situation he inherited from Gettleman. As Schoen’s imprint on the roster has grown, the results have gotten worse every year.
Ownership couldn’t ignore the results any longer, so Daboll was fired. But that didn’t address the whole problem. This type of half measure has become as expected from the Giants as losing.
