I believe the Giants will retain Dave Gettleman as the GM for 2021 and I also believe this is the right move.
Gettleman was part of the hiring team that brought on Joe Judge as the head coach. They appear to have a good relationship and a shared vision of what the team should be. Both have stated the importance of running the football and stopping the run. They both emphasize fundamentals, toughness, and versatility. Their vision of the team appears to meld as a “blue collar”, tough, versatile team composed of hard-working, team players. Gettleman has weeded out players that did not appear to be “team” oriented players. Even when public opinion did not agree such as the O’dell Beckham trade. This shared vision is very important for a coach and GM to build a team together. Judge will be heavily involved in draft and free agency decisions and Gettleman is fine with that,
Gettleman has made some good decisions since he joined the Giants for the 2018 offseason. in my post For the Giants Woes – Is Gettleman Really To Blame? in October I listed all the picks and transactions of the Dave Gettleman era. Many are still applicable although a few players have since departed, See the October post for a detailed analysis. Here is a summary of his highlights
Daniel Jones – Record Rookie season. Has the indications of a potential “franchise ” quarterback. See recent post of Daniel Jones’ First 25 Starts
Saquon Barkley – 2018 AP Rookie of the Year. Barkley is 13th since the 1970 NFL merger in yards from scrimmage for a running back’s first 31 games. Of the top twenty Barkley is sixth in yards per rush attempt with 4.72 yards per attempt.
Leonard Williams – In 2020 ranks eighth in the league in total pressures and third among defensive tackles. Leads the Giants in sacks. Ranks fourth in the league in QB knockdowns among all players,
Blake Martinez – Tie for third in the league in total tackles and eighth in solo tackles. PFF ranks Martinez ninth among 89 linebackers. Since 1987 Martinez is second among all Giants in total tackles thru 15 games in a season.
James Bradberry – Fourth in the league in passes defended. PFF ranks Bradberry as 5th among 126 cornerbacks in 2020. Bradberry has allowed only one catch for 25+ yards this season. He is the first Giants cornerback to make the Pro Bowl since Janoris Jenkins in 2016.
Dexter Lawrence – 2019 All Rookie Team. PFF ranked 21st of 131 defensive linemen in 2020.
B.J. Hill – In 2018 PFF ranked Hill in the top five rookies at their respective positions. In 2020 PFF has Hill ranked as 30th among 131 defensive linemen.
Graham Gano – ranks third in the league in field goal percent with 96.8 among kickers with over seven attempts. Gano has made 30 of 31 attempts this season.
Darius Slayton – A fifth round pick that ranks sixth in the league among all players in yards before catch per reception with 12.1 yards.This helps him make tops on the Giants in first down receptions and 38th in the league.
Lorenzo Carter – In 2018 PFF had Carter ranked as a top five rookie at their position. Carter and Bradley Chubb only 2 active players that in first 35 games had 9+ sacks, 27+ QB hits, 66+ solo tackles and 15 tackles for loss.
Will Hernandez – 2018 All Rookie Team.
According to Spotrac numbers Gettleman has brought the cap space for 2021 to 16th best in the league with just over $19 million. They have 43 players signed for 2021 which is tenth best in the league. The average age of the Giant players for 2021 is 25.98 which is 15th youngest. Overall not in bad shape heading into 2021.
The combination of a good working relationship with Joe Judge, a shared vision for building the team, positive additions to the team under Gettleman and managing the team cap space would give reason to retain Dave Gettleman for 2021.
On the position of offensive coordinator the notion has arisen that Jason Garrett’s days may be numbered due to the poor offensive production of the Giants in 2020.
Daniel Jones has already had two different offensive coordinators in each of his first two years. To make it three in his first three years is not good for a developing young quarterback. There is a lot to be said for maintaining continuity/stability.
Garrett had a lot to deal with given the Covid -19 pandemic. He installed a new offensive system with no spring OTAs and no preseason games. In addition he lost his star running back two games into the season. Their starting left tackle opted out of the season and a rookie started in his place.
There were seven teams that had a significant change at offensive coordinator. Four other teams had a new offensive coordinator but those four teams maintained continuity because the head coach of the Eagles, Bears and Rams was calling plays. The Vikings had a change at OC but they had been running the new OC (Gary Kubiak) offense already, The seven teams that had real OC changes are listed in the table below. Also shown are the offense rank in 2020 for points and yards, as well as the rank for 2019.
| 2020 pts | 2020 yds | 2019 pts | 2019 yds | diff pts | diff yds | Sum diff | |
| Dolphins | 15 | 23 | 25 | 27 | 10 | 4 | 14 |
| Browns | 14 | 16 | 22 | 22 | 8 | 6 | 14 |
| Redskins | 26 | 30 | 32 | 31 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| Broncos | 29 | 27 | 28 | 28 | -1 | 1 | 0 |
| Panthers | 23 | 20 | 20 | 19 | -3 | -1 | -4 |
| Jaguars | 29 | 26 | 26 | 20 | -3 | -6 | -9 |
| Giants | 31 | 31 | 18 | 23 | -13 | -8 | -21 |
Four of the seven teams had no change or a positive change in their offensive rank for 2020. Only the Panthers, Jaguars and Giants had a worse offensive rank from 2019 to 2020. The Giants had the worst decrease in rank going down 13 positions in points scored and 8 positions in yards. This was drastically worse than the drops by the Panthers and Jaguars.
The Giants scored 67 less points thru the first 15 games from 2019 to 2020. That is not that bad and comes out to 4.46 points per game. The league scored on average 29 more points over 15 games or roughly 2 points more per game.Twenty-three of the thirty-two teams scored more points in 2020, The other teams with large point drops (Ravens, Patriots and 49ers) had scored a high number of points in 2019. This accounts for the large position drop for the Giants,
The yards are similar. The league averaged 160 yards more over 15 games or roughly 10 yards more per game. The Giants were – 561 yards over 15 games or roughly 37 yards less per game. Twenty-one teams had more yards in 2020.
The Giants offensively produced less than the 2019 Giants but not by significantly less. The league on average did better. Those that did worse point wise were high scorers in 2019.
One coach that intrigues me as a new offensive coordinator for the Giants would be Jay Gruden. He’s had success as OC on the Bengals in 2011-2013. In that time-frame their offensive standing improved each year. Gruden has had success with developing quarterbacks such as Andy Dalton and Gardner Minshew. He favors a West Coast offense, a good run game with a pass catching back and a mobile quarterback.
For continuity sake and given Garrett’s success with Tony Romo and the Dallas offense, I could also see staying with Jason Garrett. Give him another year to develop this offense. The Giants offense was bad in 2020. But checking the numbers it was not much worse than the 2019 offense and had a lot more obstacles to overcome.
In conclusion the Giants should keep Gettleman on as GM in 2021. For the Offensive coordinator position the Giants should explore possibilities. One of which should be a look at Jay Gruden. However keeping Jason Garrett is also a viable option.
