Changes coming for New Look Giants in 2018

After very disappointing three-win, 13 losses 2017 season, many changes are coming to the New York Giants in the hope that these changes will lead them back to their winning ways.

New General Manager:  General manager (GM) Jerry Reese was fired near the end of the 2017 season.  Reece was the GM during the two championship seasons in 2007 and 2011.  The GM is ultimately responsible for providing the best players to the team through the college draft, player trades, and by signing free agents.  The drafts that Reese oversaw in recent years have been somewhat criticized.  Although Reese drafted superstar Odell Beckham, Jr, other draft choices such as Ereck Flowers, the under-achieving left tackle, have been criticized.  His apparent philosophy of going after talented “skill players,” such as receivers and defensive backs, at the expensive getting the highest-level lineman has been criticized.

Taking over as the GM is Dave Gentleman, who has an “old school” philosophy and who believes in emphasizing getting the best linemen, both offensive and defensive. This philosophy follows the belief that games are won and lost “in the trenches.” Gettleman has experience working for the Giants and has had good results recently as GM of the Carolina Panthers.

New Coach:  Ben McAdoo was fired as the head coach toward the end of his second season in 2017.   McAdoo had great success in his first season, leading the Giants to an 11 win and 5 loss record.  They lost in the first round of the playoffs.  However, this year the team’s performance was dismal, there were discipline problems in the locker room, and the Giants have decided to start over.  Although McAdoo is considered extremely smart, he had no experience as a head coach and limited experience as an offensive coordinator when he was hired.  The owners of the Giants, John Mara and Steve Tisch,  Tash have emphasized the importance of getting a new coach was had experience as a head coach or at least extensive experience as an offensive or defensive coordinator.  Whereas, the head coach runs the whole team, the coordinators are responsive to run either the offense or defense as the coaches “right hand man.”   With two of the high-profile coordinators of the always-successful New England Patriots expected to become head coaches elsewhere, the Giants are expected to hire Pat Shurmer, who has been highly successful as the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator and who has been a head coach with the Cleveland Browns.

New quarterback?  There is been speculation that Eli Manning’s days as a Giant may soon be all over.  There is been some enthusiasm for rookie quarterback Davis Webb, who was drafted last year.  However, because the Giants were so bad last year, there record allows them to pick second in the upcoming college draft.  This will give them an opportunity to draft an “elite” college quarterback to lead them in the future.

There are certainly a lot of questions regarding the future direction of “Big Blue.”  It will be exciting to see how these changes with impact the success of the team in 2018