John Mara New York Giants
Mike Lawrie/Getty Images

The New York Giants parted ways with head coach Pat Shurmur but decided to retain general manager Dave Gettleman.

On Monday morning, Pat Shurmur‘s tenure as the New York Giants head coach came to an end. The organization fired him after he conjured up just nine total wins in two seasons. Big Blue has thus begun the search for a new head coach for 2020 and beyond.

Dave Gettleman, on the other hand, will be retained by the Giants. The general manager has made some head-scratching moves these last two years with New York, which have definitely contributed to the organization’s losing ways. So why did the Giants decide to keep him but not Shurmur?

Co-owner John Mara weighed in on Monday’s big decisions.

“[Co-owner] Steve [Tisch] and I have had many extensive discussions about the state of the Giants,” Mara said, per Danny Abriano of SNY. “This morning, we made the very difficult decision that it would be in the best interest of the franchise that we relieve Pat of his duties. The last three seasons have been extremely disappointing for the organization and our fans. Pat has been a successful and highly-respected NFL coach for 21 years and he is not solely responsible for our record. But we came to the conclusion it is best to have a fresh start with the coaching staff.”

Despite the opinions of many fans, Mara believes Gettleman is the correct man for the job and will put this organization on the right path.

“Dave Gettleman is our general manager in 2020 and hopefully for many years after that,” Mara added. “We believe he is the right person to lead us going forward. Dave has a long record of success. We think he’s capable of putting a great team together and he’s going to get that opportunity. To the extent we need to make changes in personnel or the way we do things, we’re going to discuss that.”

Gettleman could have a big say in who the Giants hire to be their next head coach. Hopefully, the decision they make won’t be like the one they made almost two years ago with Shurmur.

Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.