It’s over.
The promise of last year’s successful run to the playoffs is now gone and done for the New York Giants, a team that is clearly playing out the string when they should be playing for the NFC East. It is a team that needs a drastic change from top to bottom.
Time, in other words, to start over. Sunday’s 51-17 loss to the Los Angeles Rams just the latest exhibit in some termination folders that will be handed out this January.
It is a team with precious little depth but also an equal lack of heart, something that falls on general manager Jerry Reese. Yes, Reese deserves full credit in the annals of Giants history for being the architect of those two Super Bowl winning teams.
He is also the architect of this team, from the head coach he picked to a roster that has failed miserably to contend.
A drastic overhaul isn’t needed for this Giants team but what they must somehow procure is a plan. A definite purpose on how to take this group of talented individuals on a roster littered with Pro Bowl talent and elevate them to where they should be. The current plan is underwhelming, to say the least.
The Giants roster, as it stands, doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of intentionality to it. Yes, there are difference makers at skill positions but years of neglecting needs along the offensive line, at linebacker and at running back as well have caught up with this team.
It is almost with an arrogance that the Giants ignored these deficiencies.
Look at the Giants drafting history over the past four years and you will see this neglecting of pressing areas repeatedly. The lack of direction in building this team as well as a lack of identity has hampered the Giants this year. It was a major reason why the Giants lost in the playoffs last year to a Green Bay Packers team that was built with purpose and sustainability in mind. Not just a hodgepodge of free agent spending.
What Reese brought to those two championship teams is the polar-opposite of these Giants. His teams were founded on unquestioned heart and soul, locker rooms that took the hard route from the Wild Card to the championship, once beating an undefeated team in the Super Bowl when no one gave them a chance.
The team he built last year and certainly this go-around lacked that backbone to push through. When the going got tough these Giants instead got on Justin Bieber’s boat.
These mercenaries, brought in via free agency, weren’t all bad. Some like Damon Harrison certainly care. But too many didn’t bleed Giants blue, they were only too interested in money green or after parties. They largely weren’t drafted as Giants.
Instead, they signed giant checks and that mindset shows up in games like this. When the Giants needed their players to dig down following the bye week, they instead saw them roll over.
And that has led the Giants to this 1-7 record and its current mess.
Sunday’s loss was no surprise against a Rams team that is young and hungry. The Rams had something to prove and played that way. The Giants didn’t because they are none of those things.
They certainly aren’t a team at this point and time, just a bunch of individuals wearing the same uniform. That problem falls squarely on Reese.
