New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman “understands” the Pat Shurmur firing in the results-driven business of football.
The New York Giants made the unsurprising decision to move on from head coach Pat Shurmur after a disappointing 4-12 season. While there were clear issues with Shurmur’s game plans, as he was often outcoached, the roster he was given was very devoid of talent.
That lack of talent made it somewhat surprising that the team retained general manager Dave Gettleman despite a rocky two-year tenure in which the team has not shown any significant improvement.
Gettleman addressed the media on Tuesday after all the dust settled and he addressed the fact that he was retained and that his seat is presumably fairly hot entering his third season.
“Every day is a job interview in this industry and we accept that,” Gettleman said per Danny Abriano of SNY. “So I understand the question of why was Pat dismissed and I was not. Just to be clear: There were substantive discussions between myself and ownership regarding my job performance and vision moving forward over the past two weeks. So John (Mara) and Steve (Tisch) made their decisions and here I stand.”
This is really the only answer that Gettleman, who went on to praise Shurmur as one of the finest men he’s ever worked with, could have given. It obviously wasn’t up to him whether he would be retained, as that decision came down to Mara and Tisch.
However, he also understands that the team is not good enough to contend. There are teams that are good enough to win that lose because of their coaches every year, but the Giants simply didn’t have the talent to win.
There was no realistic way for Gettleman to stand at the podium and say they needed better coaching while also failing to acknowledge that he has failed to be effective in acquiring the talent needed to win in the NFL.
That said, he’ll need to land some very talented players in the draft (where he has been successful) and in free agency (where he has been dreadful) in order to cool his seat down after a disappointing start to his tenure. Otherwise, Gettleman might be joining Shurmur in the ranks of the unemployed.
