Giants new GM Dave Gettleman promises return of 'big-boy football,' exactly what the team and fans want to hear
Gettleman is back with the Giants, and his first order of business is to fix the offensive line.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Two vital things to know about Dave Gettleman is why he thinks the Giants disintegrated into a 2-13 team and his philosophical similarities and differences from his predecessor, Jerry Reese. The first identifies the problem. The second indicates Gettleman’s fix.
At his introductory news conference on Friday morning at the Giants complex, Gettleman, who turns 67 in February, youthfully twisted and “twerked” his way through both subjects. It would be unfair, he artfully danced, to judge the Giants’ season without knowing the information and “emotion” that went into each decision.
And as far as Reese is concerned, he juked. He said he received a warm note from Reese, but also remarked, “We’re different people. Maybe you couldn’t get more different.”
Gettleman added “don’t go there” when talking about the character and integrity of Reese when no one was talking about the character and integrity of Reese. Gettleman became confused when discussing obviously a huge personal day for himself at the expense of Reese, whom he once worked under with the Giants.
In that moment, this rather straight-shooting guy got all tangled up.
It was a strange sound and sight but it all fit considering that Gettleman, who began his NFL career as a Buffalo Bills intern in 1986 and recently worked as the Carolina Panthers general manager before boomeranging back to the Giants, was in a trance-like atmosphere. He said this was a giant opportunity, a giant dream that he “never believed would happen.”
One difference between him and Reese eventually surfaced, and it was Gettleman’s willingness to hammer home the task of bolstering the Giants offensive line. Reese believed few NFL teams have great offensive lines and that offenses can get by with average ones if the scheme, the quarterback, and the skill players are efficient enough. Gettleman kept saying he believes in big people up front, tough people, dominating offensive lines.
He said it could take a year to build it. He said it could take two.
He said it might take longer.
“But we gotta fix the offensive line,” he said.
Cue music. I hear Giants fans singing.
Gettleman could have simply said those seven words — “But we gotta fix the offensive line” — and sat down. That would have been enough for Giants lovers. That’s the root of the Giants decay and it has stretched throughout every element of their failed season.
Gettleman talked about building quality depth and working with Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr., and how you “don’t quit on talent” in reference to troubled cornerback Eli Apple.
But the fact that Reese found the offensive line a part of the equation and Gettleman is willing to make it the equation is significant.
Team owner John Mara tried to keep things even.
But look where he, too, started.
“There are so many things, the offensive line, so many things that don’t go well when you’re 2-13; you’re 2-13 for a reason and usually it’s not just one reason.”
This was a Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch hire of comfort. They know Gettleman. He’s been around the place before. He has varied experience. He knows team building. He knows the NFL. He knows them. After this duo’s last major hire — now-fired head coach Ben McAdoo, young, fresh, from Green Bay and only around the place a little while before being elevated — both owners desired seasoned and familiar, traits that would instantly soothe 2-13.
Mara said ownership and Gettleman will get right to hiring a new head coach. They will request interviews on Monday of coaches on playoff teams. They might even interview one on Monday night, Mara said. The Giants expect a slew of NFL coaches to be fired on Monday. Other NFL teams will be plotting their head coaching search. The Giants hastened Gettleman in to be ready to pounce on New Year’s Day.
General managers advise and owners select.
The Giants new head coach is, ultimately, a Mara/Tisch decision.
As was this new general manager.
“Intelligence, vision, leadership,” Gettleman said in describing the new head coach he seeks. A CEO-type, he said.
Mara nodded.
Gettleman talked about asking the right questions to get the right answers. He said something about players sometimes getting their feelings hurt and then blurted out, “So what.”
Big-boy football, he chanted, is the style of football he seeks. Run the ball. Stop the run. Rush the passer.
Cue the music again.
“The culture is critical,” Gettleman stressed.
He talked about brutal honesty being his style.
Now, that could be a problem with these Giants players. They often employ huge ego-driven views that can get them in trouble in good times and induce deeper failure in the worst of times. Brutal honesty here?
Gettleman may have more makeover to do on this Giants roster than he thinks.
In the next few days and weeks it will be him, the video and a clicker in his hand, he says, as he assesses the Giants players from all angles.
He is looking for players who hate to lose, just as much as the Giants are looking for leadership from Gettleman that commands the room — with a head coach that follows suit.
There is no reason the Giants can’t go from worst to first in 2018, Mara said. It happens every NFL year, he said. Mara found a general manager who strikes old convictions in him. Now to find a head coach who does, too.