New York Giants - Week 1 Knee Jerk Overreactions
Written By: Frankie Zayas
PAIN PAIN PAIN
Alright, I know what everyone’s thinking, it's week 1, RELAX. But as football fans, THIS IS WHAT WE DO. We watch week 1, and we say a bunch of crazy shit, especially when our team loses. It’s just so frustrating being a fan of a team, waiting all offseason, going through the draft and free agency. Just to have the first game of the season, and your hopes and dreams are already crushed. Yes I 100% think the Giants season is over already, literally nothing has changed between week 17 last year, and week 1 now.
Let's start with the guy that for some odd reason still has a job, Jason Garrett. He has now been the offensive coordinator for 17 games, he has scored under 20 points in 10 of those games. The total points in those 17 games is 16,13,9,9,34,20,21,23,23,27,19,17,7,6,13,23, and 7 this past weekend. (No I am not counting that garbage time TD Jones punched in as time was running out) In today’s NFL, how is that possible? Do the Giants organization really have faith in Jason Garrett to put together a game winning drive when it matters most? Hell no. He has no concept of adapting to the flow of the game and changing your plan of attack. Why wouldn't he abandon the run and let Daniel Jones sling that ball around. Late in the game when the Giants absolutely needed a TD, Jason Garrett called a play for Rudolph where he and Jones were on the opposite page and Rudolph cut to the front pylon, while Jones threw it to the far on. And then….on 4th down….HE RAN THE EXACT SAME PLAY JUST WITH GOLLADAY INSTEAD. The Broncos covered it easily. Am I taking crazy pills???? Just an absolute lack of creativity in this offense and it shows. 3rd and 6? Let’s run a draw into a stacked box. Sick dude. So why does he still have a job? I’ll tell ya why, because the NFL is a revolving door where as long as you make friends somewhere, you’ll have a job for life.
Let’s move on to Danny Dimes, I hated the pick from the minute Roger Goodell said his name. I obviously hoped I was wrong, but year after year, it’s looking like the opposite.
Even though I want Garrett gone ASAP, I do believe Jones has the full year to make a huge stride, but if that doesn't happen he has to go as well. I don’t want to be the team that tries holding on to their first round QB too long, look at the Cardinals, realized Rosen wasn't the guy after a year and look how they turned out. Kylar Murray is QB1 and Rosen has been bouncing around the league as a backup and practice squad player. One thing that needs to be included in this huge stride I’m talking about, is ball security. At some point you need to stop making these bone head mistakes. He has 22 INTS + 30 fumbles for a total of 52 turnovers in 28 games played. You just cannot be a starting QB in the NFL with that many turnovers. This weeks back breaking fumble came at such a crucial time. The fact that he even tried to cover the ball up and brace for the tackle made him losing the ball even worse. His left arm came over and was literally touching nothing, just grasped air. You finally think he's going too hang on to the ball for once, but nope, popped out all the same. It’s so tough because he really does flash the potential, but it immediately dies when he does something so stupid it leaves you speechless.
Lastly I wanted to touch on the worst thing about the Giants organization right now, David Alan Gettleman. Since taking over as the Giants GM, he has not had a winning season. Since taking over, Gettleman owns the record for most losses since 2017. He has grossly mismanaged this offense line and made some really bad draft picks. Team needs full rebuilds, not the half ass shit Gettleman was doing in 2018 with Eli Manning. The hiring of Gettleman was already a puzzling one in 2017, yeah he helped rebuild the panthers and brought them to the SB, but was fired 2 years later. And that Carolina team was not built to last, when Cams body started failing him, the Panthers dropped off hard. But going back to my revolving door analogy, Gettleman spent 14 years within the Giants organization and made many friends. He started off on the wrong foot when he slammed the analytics movement and just sounded like an old man yelling at clouds. He then proved those statements true when he drafted a RB with the 2nd overall pick despite the obvious decline in value at RB in the modern day NFL. I have already touched on DJ but more recently in 2020, out of the 4 tackles taken in the first round, he picked the worst one, and the Giants had the top choice. This past year he drafted Kadarius Tony in the first round (yayyyyyy another WR) that had absolutely zero impact in week 1.
I can truly go on for pages and pages but I must stop this somewhere. The worst possible thing that can happen to the Giants in 2021 would be for them to get lucky and win the division at 7-10. Just because they won the shitty NFC East, John Mara would see it as a victory and Gettleman/Garrett/Jones would all likely be given new contracts and the Giants will continue to live in a state of mediocracy. But after watching them Sunday, I truly cannot see this team winning more than 7 games. 5-12 is my official prediction. And with a record like that, it truly will be time for a full rebuild, clean house and start over.
I know I didn’t touch on Joe Judge, I really didn't mean for this blog to be this long so I’ll be quick. I actually like him as HC, I think he brings an intensity that the Giants haven’t seen in an extremely long time. Unfortunately, the way the NFL works now is when you fire a GM, the new one is more than likely going to want to bring his guy in. If the 49ers have proved anything for the modern day NFL, is that your HC and GM should be in such sync, they should win 1st place in a 3 legged race against anyone.
With everything being said, it is only week 1, no matter what happens I’ll be watching every game and cheering on the G-men proudly. I would honestly love nothing more than for everyone I just talked shit on to prove me wrong and bring a once proud franchise back to glory.