Welcome back, Dave Gettleman.
After a four-year stint as GM in Carolina, Gettleman is back in the Meadowlands, where he spent 15 years primarily working with personnel.
It sounds like a perfect match. Giants owners John Mara and Steve Tisch basically expressed a sense of regained organization and direction with Gettleman’s hire, calling his experience “unparalleled” in a released statement.
Welcome to the Giants’ continuous dysfunctional, calamitous state.
It is as agonizing as collecting the holiday present to return and then waiting in long lines.
Plenty of issues and questions abound.
The sage of cornerback Eli Apple needs to come to an end. Apple was suspended Wednesday for conduct “for a pattern of behavior that is conduct detrimental to the team,” according to team officials.
Apple does have talent, but his antics have risen to a breaking point. His latest episode was an argument with coaches at practice. Landon Collins referred to him as a “cancer” and then apologized.
What is with the secondary anyway? Three cornerbacks have been suspended this year.
The Giants need to release Apple. In the final wash, the Giants could be charged about 4.5 million in dead cap space money.
For Gettleman, this should be one of his moves.
Next there is Eli Manning.
When his benching debacle happened, I was in favor of releasing him and letting him find a new home. At the time, Jacksonville looked like a perfect fit, but things have drastically changed there.
Now Manning is being mentioned as a mentor to the future franchise quarterback, any of the three or more projected ones.
But Manning doesn’t appear to relish the role Kurt Warner once played for him. He has two years left on his contract and will begin next season at age 37. If he stays, Manning could play the entire season depending on the development of the future quarterback.
Seeing Manning has shown some signs of an aging quarterback this season as well as brilliant ones, this could emerge as an eventual clumsy situation.
For Gettleman, this is a tricky call.
That brings us to the future quarterback.
Does Davis Webb have a stake in it? Webb has been elevated to backup status and apparently could see some time this week against Washington in the season finale at Met Life. Is this just a bone for the fans or a real audition?
Webb should have been bumped up a while ago. Maybe the Giants would rather see a competition between Webb and the future pick next season or have enough faith in Webb to draft in another direction.
It is hard to pass on this quarterback crop, though.
Next is the offensive line.
Justin Pugh and Weston Richburg are unrestricted free agents and Brett Jones is a restricted one. There are rumblings Pugh could want to return home to Philadelphia and Richburg is a strong candidate to join the Jets.
Does Ereck Flowers and/or Bobby Hart have a future here?
This is an issue that already should have been sorted out during the summer. Hasn’t free agent left tackle Andrew Whitworth fit in nicely with the Rams this season?
For Gettleman, there are plenty of issues to deal with in this ever growing fiasco. Oh, there is a game against Washington Sunday at Met Life.
Fittingly, Giants’ fans will be enduring the coldest game temperatures of the season during a game that once was imagined in the humid summer days as a tune-up for the playoffs.
Mr. Gettleman, we wish you well. There can be a new-found confidence in the air that Monday usuquestions will be answered and issues will be addressed.