Those who follow The Bobcat Prowl might remember that a little over a year ago, I wrote about New York Giants’ GM Dave Gettleman and his failed off-season. With Head Coach, Pat Shurmur, now gone and Joe Judge hired as the new HC, (he was a special teams coach before this, so I still have my doubts) as well as a shiny new offensive coordinator in Jason Garrett, Gettleman essentially had his job on the line entering the off-season, and he sure saved the it. Let’s see what he did.

Free Agency

Immediate fixes in Free Agency were addressed primarily to the defense. Specifically, the abysmal linebacking core that consists of Markus Golden and…well…Markus Golden. Not a whole lot else. Which prompted the Giants to look to Green Bay to nab two of their former defensive pieces named Blake Martinez and Kyler Fackrell. Both are good tacklers and work well in coverage. What I’m a little concerned with is consistency and execution. One of, if not both, will slide into a starting role on the defense and they need to perform. On top of the linebackers, the Giants needed a cornerback. With that in mind, the Giants picked up the consolation prize to the consolation prize to top corner Byron Jones: 26-year-old James Bradberry. He should complement DeAndre Baker very well and will add punch to a revamped secondary that we will get to later.

Coaching

Pat Shurmur is gone, thank the stars, and I hope he is never hired as a head coach again. I’m serious. In four years as an NFL Head Coach (he spent two years in Cleveland starting in 2011), Shurmur has a record of 18-46. I don’t think much else needs to be said. He’s gone. The new hire? 38-year-old Joe Judge. His most prolific title he’s ever had is Special Teams Coach for the New England Patriots. Now he’s a head coach. Quite the head scratcher, I know. However, I felt a little better when I found out his coordinators. First, the Offensive Coordinator will be Jason Garrett. Cowboys fans will be happy he’s not their coach anymore, but now he’s in charge of just the offense in New York. His 2019 offense ranked 6th in points per game and 1st in total yards per game. He’ll move from a very good running back in Ezekiel Elliot to a better running back in Saquon Barkley (Yeah I said it. Sue me). He’ll get to sculpt a young Daniel Jones and an electric Darius Slayton as well. The Defensive Coordinator will be Patrick Graham. A lesser known name, he has alternated roles as a D-Line coach and a linebackers coach. He even has a shiny ring from Super Bowl XLIX (that’s the one where the Seahawks didn’t run the freaking ball on the goal line) while with the Patriots. He even has experience with Big Blue, serving as the D-Line coach for the Giants in 2016.

Draft

I, like many other fans, only watched the first two rounds of the draft. So, I’ll break down those guys and touch on some others. I imagine GM Dave Gettleman saw who the Redskins picked with the second overall pick and said “oh shoot, we need to block him”. With the Nate Solder project being a huge bust, the Giants picked need over luster (the luster being LB Isaiah Simmons) and grabbed their left tackle for the next decade: Andrew Thomas. Was he the best tackle in the draft? Probably not. But, the Giants were high on the 6’5”, 315 pound Georgia Bulldog. Gettleman wanted to “fix the O-Line once and for all” in the draft and, with UConn’s Matt Peart and Oregon’s Shane Lemieux picked later in the draft, the Giants might have done just that. Their second round pick was used to grab safety Xavier McKinney and I loved that pick. Ranked 15th on Mel Kiper Jr.’s Big Board, McKinney is a lights out play maker that slides in alongside Jabrill Peppers and bumps Julian Love to be used as the nickel option. Another pick that I really liked was used in the seventh round. LB Carter Coughlin, while not known for his coverage skills, was a pretty explosive pass rusher in Minnesota and is a very good seventh round pick with fifth round value surrounding him.

Did Dave save his job as GM of the New York Football Giants? We won’t know until the NFL season starts…hopefully. Who knows if the season will actually start on time. While sports are slowly starting to trickle back into our lives, it’s not an excuse to rush things. Follow the rules, stay safe, enjoy the downtime, and stay calm. Everything will get fixed in due time. Until then, this is an official apology to GM Dave Gettleman. Sorry for having doubts. Here’s to a seven win season next year!