This New Story Proves the Obvious: Former NY Giants’ GM Was a Disgrace

Breaking news: Dave Gettleman was a bad General Manager for the New York Giants.

I'll pause while you collect your jaw from the floor.

Sadly, this is anything but breaking news, as every Giants' fan, and most football fans, know this very well. Gettleman replaced Jerry Reese as New York's general manager in December of 2017, returning to the franchise at which he worked from 1998 to 2012. Things had already started to go south for the team, and Gettleman's arrival only sped that process up.

A number of decisions that were made over Dave Gettleman's tenure were questionable at best, and a recently-released NFL Draft story belongs right at the top of the list.

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"He Didn't Pick Up the Phone", Say Reporters About Former Giants' GM

As reported in a story from Barstool Sports and other outlets, former New York Giants' General Manager, Dave Gettleman, is back in the news for a decision he made during the 2018 NFL Entry Draft.

The story begins as the draft begins, with the Cleveland Browns on the clock, readying to make the first overall pick in 2018. Cleveland chose to take Baker Mayfield with their pick, leaving the New York Giants with their pick of the litter at No. 2 overall.

At the time, the Giants were in a bit of a holding pattern as a franchise. There seemed to be some disagreement as to whether they should draft Eli Manning's replacement and begin their rebuild, or continue to draft players around their aging core and attempt to stay competitive. In hindsight, it appears as though New York chose the latter of the two options, and because of this, they had teams calling them to discuss trading for their 2nd overall pick.

Unfortunately, Dave Gettleman wouldn't even answer the phone.

Credit to Barstool's Reags for finding this exchange between two NFL reporters, both of whom reached the same conclusion: the Giants would've been offered a massive trade in exchange for their 2nd overall pick, but Dave Gettleman (and the rest of the front office) wouldn't entertain any offers. They wanted Saquon Barkley on their team, and by gosh, they got him.

First, a brief defense of Gettleman: Barkley was largely regarded as the best player in the draft that year. Every prominent draft analyst had him at the top of their rankings, and based on how he performed as a rookie in New York, it's easy to see why.

All of that being said, it ended up being a disastrous decision, and there's a very simple reason why. The Giants' front office had the incorrect perception of where the franchise was headed at that time. They believed they were still ready to compete for a Super Bowl, and adding a dynamic offensive player to compliment Eli Manning was the perfect decision in their eyes.

As it turned out, the team crumbled around Barkley, and the offensive line has allowed him to get punished for the majority of his professional career. Choosing Barkley also set the team up to draft Daniel Jones, and it really began to unravel from there.

Not picking up the phone when John Elway and the Denver Broncos called wasn't the first mistake that Dave Gettleman made, nor was it the last, but it was certainly one of the more painful ones made.