Giants: The Sad Reality

The Giants lost to a very mediocre Redskins team.  Once again, the offensive line’s ineptness cost them any chance of a victory.  

The season is a disaster. I’m not saying that based on the record of 1-7.  Bad seasons will happen. Unlike last season’s 3-13 record, the Giants made moves that could have long term pain.  It’s become glaringly obvious that Gettleman is in over his head.  Virtually every move he has made has been a bad one.

He is a decent, but below average talent evaluator. Probably as importantly, he doesn’t understand salary cap management and values of positions and/or of player talent. This is essential for a GM.

Trading away JPP preseason didn’t make sense. The cap hit was similar as to if he was still here.  He was made for a 304 and he is in fact playing great in Tampa. Not resigning Kennard was also a mistake as he is playing well in Detroit.

The one good thing about a new GM is that since they have a clean slate they are not likely to cover past mistakes by keeping old draft picks longer than they should. However, if you start signing your old Carolina players and over-valuing them it’s the same thing.  Omameh has been a disaster.  Stewart was an obvious disaster before he was signed.  And they could have had so much better if they would have simply used the extra 3.8m on their own guy.  Trading Bert Jones who they desperately need and getting only a 7th round pick for him was absurd.  7th rounders have almost no value. To have starting caliber lineman at what he was making is a big deal.

That brings me to the recent trades of Harrison and Apple. They were bad trades.  I’m all for the idea that you should start turning the page and thinking about next year. This year isn’t happening, and they should do that. However, the name of the game is to accumulate talent at a cost of less than their intrinsic value. I’ve written about this topic when discussing the Darnold versus Barkley issue.

Harrison is an elite run-stuffer and his value is greater than his annual cost. Apple, for all of his troubles and his not playing like a first round pick, is still very much a starting caliber cornerback and since he is on a rookie contract, is also playing for less than his value. As such, these needed to net at least 3rd, if not 2nd round picks. This is not who they should have been trading. The Rams got this formula correctly last year when they dumped Ogletree on us.  They got a 3rd round pick and got rid of a player with a big contract who was not playing up to the contract.  The Giant team is full of players who get paid more than the value they add. Anyone willing to take them can have them for anything, but trading Harrison for a 5th and Apple for a 4th doesn’t cut it. It’s rare to find good talent after round 3. The average player taken down there is not a starter. They needed to get more.

Overpaying on long term contracts for guys who don’t meet the contractual status is how you lock yourself into being a bad team for a while to come.  Having a GM who doesn’t understand the basics means they will be bad for years to come.

On Eli:
Eli is still a solid quarterback.  He is not a top 10 as he was as recently as 4 years ago. But he is a solid 15-20. He is playing behind an awful line. Yes, a more mobile quarterback could handle that better, but Aaron Rodgers couldn’t play behind this line. Every quarterback is bad with no time to throw.  Even so, he is on the decline and won’t be around when they get good again.

Sadly, the quarterback class of 2019 doesn’t look so promising and now all the Florida based teams have realized they need a QB. Miami may move on from Tannehill, Jags will almost certainly do that with Bortles and even the Bucs look ready to move on from Winston. The Giants will likely try to draft a quarterback. Another possibility is getting Manning to play for $10m instead of the enormous number he has coming. Nobody else will offer him a starting job next year and if he wants to keep playing I’m sure he’d prefer New Jersey and won’t get more than $10m elsewhere.
 
 -Ari Glass