The New York Giants have fired head coach Pat Shurmur and are now embarking on yet another search to find a leading man — their fifth such search since 2015 if you were to include Steve Spagnuolo.
But they will not be in the market for a new general manager.
“Dave Gettleman is our general manager in 2020 and hopefully for many years after that,” co-owner John Mara said. “We believe he is the right person to lead us going forward. Dave has a long record of success. We think he’s capable of putting a great team together and he’s going to get that opportunity. To the extent we need to make changes in personnel or the way we do things, we’re going to discuss that.”
“Although our record didn’t reflect it this season, we believe Dave has assembled a strong nucleus of young players that will help us compete for championships in the future,” Steve Tisch said.
There had been some speculation that Gettleman, who recently engaged in a serious battle with cancer, could step down as the result of health-related issues during his scheduled Tuesday press conference, but that now appears to be off the table.
Even as definitive as it may have seemed regarding Dave Gettleman's future as GM, heard rumblings late last night well past midnight that DG could wind up retiring or wind up in an advisory role.
We'll see if that happens, or if Gettleman wins out. His presence affects HC search https://t.co/4TYJYBOiOH
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) December 30, 2019
Compounding reports and rumors, ESPN’s Adam Schefter suggests that the team’s next head coach could play a deciding role in Gettleman’s long-term fate, but that, too, now appears to be off the table.
The Giants and Browns, who have fired their head coaches within the past 24 hours, still could be making more changes, per league sources. The new head coach in each city is expected to have input on whether the general managers there stay or go. Front office situations fluid.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 30, 2019
With Gettleman remaining, the Giants’ list of potential head coaching candidates will narrow significantly. Anyone who desired personnel control will be out, and anyone who doesn’t want to work with Gettleman will also be out.
The Giants have painted themselves into a corner with these decisions, and it should have been all or nothing. Doing things only halfway will likely doom this franchise for the foreseeable future and in about a year and a half, we’ll likely be right back here again.
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