New York Giants: Dave Gettleman’s growing disconnect

2019 Draft – Part 1

Moving on to this year’s draft. The New York Giants had a chance to do something special with the 6th, 17th, and 37th overall picks they owned. Gettleman repeatedly said in his comments the media that the G-Men would take the highest player rated on their board for each pick regardless of position.

In the opinion of many experts, they threw that opportunity away. The first gaffe was taking quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth pick. No one but Gettleman and ESPN’s Mel Kuiper thought that was a good idea. There was a high-stakes poker game going on and the Giants GM folded like a newspaper.

A dominant defensive player, linebacker Josh Allen from Kentucky, was still on the board. He’s the type of player many compared to Lawrence Taylor in terms of ability. After trading away their best pass rusher, Olivier Vernon, the Giants needed someone who could consistently get into the opponent’s backfield. So much for that.

The quarterback who was widely seen as the best at his position in this draft, Dwayne Haskins was also available. But Gettleman was in love with Jones.

Feeling the need to constantly re-explain his puzzling decision to select Jones so high, Gettleman offered a variety of excuses. One of them was that he didn’t think the former Duke signal caller would be available when the Giants came back up at 17, two other teams would have snapped him up (most likely Washington and Denver).

That assessment was flat out wrong as reported by both ESPN and NBC. He seriously misestimated the market. Frankly, Gettleman got played by his fellow GM’s around the league like a sucker at the county fair trying to win a teddy bear for the girl he wants to impress. Max Kellerman nailed this one completely on draft night.