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Pundits and fans are debating over the main causes of how the New York Giants went from a league power to a laughing stock over the past decade.
One of the mainstays of the Giants’ most recent Super Bowl championship teams, offensive lineman David Diehl, gave his take on what he’s seen transpire since the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI in February of 2012.
“Nobody’s been talking about the root of the problem,” Diehl said recently on SiriusXM Radio.
Diehl also serves as a TV and radio analyst for the Giants
“Everybody’s just continued to say, ‘It’s bad drafting. Bad coaching. It’s injuries. It’s this. It’s that.’ This, for me, goes all the way back to the end of the 2015 season, where they only fired Tom Coughlin and they didn’t fire Jerry Reese with him,” Diehl said.
“Since that point, nothing has been in alignment with one another. Because then after you fire coach Coughlin, you bring in Ben McAdoo. Ben McAdoo and Jerry Reese are together. That doesn’t work out. Now you go to Pat Shurmur and Dave Gettleman. Pat Shurmur doesn’t work out. But then you keep Dave Gettleman again.
“Then you bring in another head coach. That does not work in the NFL. The head coach and the GM have to be on the same page, they have to come in together, or they have to have that community-building and that accountability to one another that when the ship goes down, I’m not going to be pointing at you because I have another year left on my contract. Or you’re not going to be pointing at me as the coach, saying ‘Well, I don’t have enough players.'”
Diehl is spot on. The ownership group has been chasing their own tail for the past eight years by not ‘blowing up’ the model, which means hiring a general manager/VP of football ops first and then having him hire the remainder of the staff — head, coach, scouting director, pro personnel director, etc.
The Giants have long held in the belief that they can compete and rebuild at the same time. That works for certain organizations that have strong front offices (Pittsburgh, Green Bay, New England, Kansas City) but when you continue to mix-and-match those cornerstone elements, especially ones that don’t have the same vision, you’re going to end up on NFLs’ skid row — like the Giants.
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