I Think it's Time for a Rant...

[Gman329]

I am not sure Reese gets the blame he had some bad draft picks, some didn't make it due to injuries and some he drafted on potential that never came to be. He missed on free agency quite a bit though...Walton, Baas, Schwartz and resigning Beason. He's been better in the draft the past few years. With the depletion of their safeties Collins is playing out of position and thwy have to drop him into to coverage more than he should be as a FS. He should be a thumper similar to Chancellor. I am not sure who blame the Moore project on. I think the coaches have done a poor job developing him for sure and he learns nothing in limited playing time, but has Coughlin "He can't trust him." It's possibly he's just beyond developing and Spags said he's worked with him "quite a bit." So I guess you can someone like Moore on Reese, but there is talent there and I guess he figured they would find a way to harness that talent

 

Granted Walton, Baas & Schwartz have not worked out as we hoped but you have to remember the circumstances when those guys were signed. We were desperate for OL talent and depth and, especially Baas & Schwartz, those guys were considered the top FA OLs at the time. Give Reese credit for landing the players he targeted and cut him some slack if he had to overpay a little, because he didn't have much choice. If he hadn't gone after them and we had lesser FA's or rookies, drafted and/or undrafted, you'd be screaming about why didn't we go get Schwartz...or whoever. With Beason, we all knew the injury risk but we all thought it was worth a roll of the dice. Hasn't worked out but again, I can't fault Reese for taking a shot with him.

[CrazedDogs]

That's a good point. I've followed Kuhn in the games and he's always in on the action and isn't getting pushed around.

 

he's not great, but he does some things well. Oddly enough, he's more effective against double teams than he is when singled up on an offensive lineman. And he's easily the best defensive lineman on the team at reading blocking and sniffing out screen plays. Pretty impressive for a guy who came to the game late.

[Treehugger]

One thing I would have like to seen Reese do (besides insist on keeping James Jones) is hold onto Walter Thurmond. We got nothing out of him on his one year deal, but DRC and Mook have proven to be less durable than we would like. I don't know how Thurmond is grading out over in Philly but he'd be a big upgrade over Hosley at nickle corner, and would have been a better fill in at #2 CB while Mook is out.

[Sephiroth]

Ok seriously... at what point does accountability come into play? We went into the offseason with glaring holes at OG/OT, DE, LB & S, and some not-as-glaring holes at WR and TE. Now I know it is completely impossible to fill every hole in one offseason, but good lord... What exactly was Reese doing?

 

The OT's problems were addressed through the draft with Flowers (and later Hart even though he has yet to contribute), however... what exactly did we do about the issues at Guard? We Re-Signed John Jerry. That's it. Reese made (as far as we know) no attempts to target any of the free agent guards that were readily available. This is honestly the same thing he did prior to the 2013 season when we brought in JD Walton and Jerry along with Geoff Schwartz. Hardly anything to celebrate... and Schwartz is proving to be less than average. Now the interior of the OL consists of a converted RT, a second year player that spent last year at Guard... now at Center, and an oft injured underachiever. Bang up job.

 

The Defensive Line is an absolute travesty. Two things defined our D over the 2 Super Bowl Eras. In the 80s-90s it was stellar LB play. From 07-11 it was a relentless pass rush. We currently have neither. We saw the DL deteriorating over the last 3 seasons and we've made strides in solidifying the DT position, but it's been an absolute nightmare watching this team attempt to generate a pass rush. Now... JPP returning could help out, but we don't know what his production level will be. The LBs are a work in progress, but they looked absolutely lost in coverage today. Add to that their inability to effectively blitz and we have a unit that can't cover or get to the QB. And I'll continue to go back to the way Reese answered Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco prior to the 2013 season when he was asked why it seemed llike he didn't want to target a stud LB... "Well... I'm sure you can't name the LBs that were on our Super Bowl teams." What kind of response is that? So if I'm understanding this statement correctly... Reese doesn't feel that he needs to improve the roster... AND he's arrogant about it.

 

Safety? Do I even need to bring up this debacle?

 

Most fans, sportswriters, radio show hosts and the like will look to the coaching staff for the lack of production and poor execution on the field, but coaching is only one facet. You have to have players with some kind of talent and the last time I checked that was Jerry Reese's responsibility and rather than filling the roster with proven and polished players, he seems to be content with bargain players that fill spots, but don't fill the talent requirement and "Raw players with lots of potential". That aggravates me to no end and he is honestly just as responsible for the current state of this team as the coaching staff, if not more... and should face the same fate if they have to be replaced at the end of the season.

 

#endrant

 

There's plenty of blame to go around for sure... head scratching calls by the coaches and bone-headed plays by the players. But I think you're right; Reese deserves the most blame.

 

Take a look at the drafts from 2008-2012. I've said it in other threads... this is when you're supposed to be getting peak production out of those players. But holy hell... just look at those players.

 

But going even deeper, take a look at the free agent classes of the past three years:

 

2013:

 

 

 

WR Louis Murphy,

TE Brandon Myers, TE Michael Palmer, DT Cullen Jenkins, DT Mike Patterson, OLB Aaron Curry, ILB Dan Connor, CB Aaron Ross, K Josh Brown.

 

2014:

 

 

 

OG Geoff Schwartz -- Signed four-year, $16.8 million deal ($5.75M guaranteed) [Initial reaction]

RB Rashad Jennings -- Signed four-year, $10 million deal ($2.98M guaranteed) [Initial reaction]

C J.D. Walton -- Signed two-year, $6 million deal ($3M guaranteed) [Initial reaction]

LB Jameel McClain -- Signed two-year, $4.5 million deal [Full Story]

S/KR Quintin Demps -- Contract details unknown [Full Story]

CB Walter Thurmond -- Signed one-year, $3.5 million deal [Full Story]

CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie -- Signed five-year, $35 million deal [Complete Coverage]

PR/KR Trindon Holliday -- Signed one-year deal. Terms unknown. [Full Story]

WR Mario Manningham -- Signed one-year deal. Terms unknown [Full story]

OL John Jerry -- Signed one-year, $770,000 deal [Full Story]

CB Zack Bowman -- Agreed to one-year deal [Full Story]

OT Charles Brown -- Signed one-year, $795,000 deal with Giants [Full Story]

DE Robert Ayers -- Agreed to two-year, $3.75 million deal [Full Story]

TE Kellen Davis -- Signed one-year, $795,000 deal [Full Story]

 

 

2015? Vereen and Harris are pretty nice players, but the rest of those guys are all JAGs. Marshall Newhouse? J.T. Thomas? You don't win by taking bad teams' backups and making them starters.

 

Coughlin will take the fall this year, but honestly, I don't care if you're Vince Lombardi... NOBODY could win with this roster Reese has put together. He's the guy who really needs to go.

[Bigblue25]

 

Granted Walton, Baas & Schwartz have not worked out as we hoped but you have to remember the circumstances when those guys were signed. We were desperate for OL talent and depth and, especially Baas & Schwartz, those guys were considered the top FA OLs at the time. Give Reese credit for landing the players he targeted and cut him some slack if he had to overpay a little, because he didn't have much choice. If he hadn't gone after them and we had lesser FA's or rookies, drafted and/or undrafted, you'd be screaming about why didn't we go get Schwartz...or whoever. With Beason, we all knew the injury risk but we all thought it was worth a roll of the dice. Hasn't worked out but again, I can't fault Reese for taking a shot with him.

I don't think Baas and Schwartz were the best Olineman in that free agent. People questioned those moves when they happened. Schwartz was always injured ). KC brought him in has a backup where he played well for 6 games in place of Jon Asamoah. The Giants thought those 6 games were enough to give him big starter money

[Tempest]

I don't think Baas and Schwartz were the best Olineman in that free agent. People questioned those moves when they happened. Schwartz was always injured ). KC brought him in has a backup where he played well for 6 games in place of Jon Asamoah. The Giants thought those 6 games were enough to give him big starter money

 

There are always going to be questions when players are picked up and lost in free agency. I recall a couple of board members complaining about the price of Dwayne Harris and Shane Vereen.

 

Everyone wants the best player that fits your football team in free agency, just have to meet his price and that still gives you a 50/50 chance at the desired result.

[Tempest]

 

There's plenty of blame to go around for sure... head scratching calls by the coaches and bone-headed plays by the players. But I think you're right; Reese deserves the most blame.

 

Take a look at the drafts from 2008-2012. I've said it in other threads... this is when you're supposed to be getting peak production out of those players. But holy hell... just look at those players.

 

But going even deeper, take a look at the free agent classes of the past three years:

 

2013:

 

 

2014:

 

 

 

2015? Vereen and Harris are pretty nice players, but the rest of those guys are all JAGs. Marshall Newhouse? J.T. Thomas? You don't win by taking bad teams' backups and making them starters.

 

Coughlin will take the fall this year, but honestly, I don't care if you're Vince Lombardi... NOBODY could win with this roster Reese has put together. He's the guy who really needs to go.

 

Same was said back in 2007

[Dragon]

Same was said back in 2007

And therein lies the problem with Reese.

[NightFire]

That he's living on 8 years of goodwill?

[Dragon]

That he's managed to catch lightning in a bottle on more than one occasion and thinks that's the way to build a championship team.

 

I'll give credit where it's due. I like the direction we're going in at least TRYING to address the holes that were created over the last few years, however my beef with him is that he could've done more and he could've done way better. Just this last offseason we saw multiple free agent interior offensive linemen that moved to new teams, but we opted to re-sign John Jerry, move our starting RT to LG and sign a journeyman backup to cover the hole left after Beatty's injury moved our rookie OT from RT to LT.

 

Before we get into "We didn't have the cap room to make any moves"... how much cap room did Eli's new deal free up? Enough to make moves that could've helped improve our roster had he and Reese not been waiting around for God knows what.

 

Now we're in a catch 22 situation where if we make the playoffs we'll be in a worse draft position to continue building on the moves Reese has recently made, but if we don't the entire coaching staff is probably going to get fired which is going to set us back for at least 3 years and pretty much waste the rest of Eli's career.

[NightFire]

I agree. This is unfortunately a do or die season for the Giants organisation as a whole. Will be interesting to see what happens when the Giants go 7-9 or 8-8.