New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen is handling his new job with dignity and class thus far. Handed an almost impossible salary cap and roster situation by his predecessor, Dave Gettleman, Schoen has pragmatically navigated his first offseason with surprising adeptness.
In fact, Schoen has actually set the Giants up for future success in just a few months. Sure, it may take another year or two to realize the results, but the climb out of the nearly decade-long chasm is finally underway.
That doesn’t mean he’s letting Gettleman off the hook. In interviews the past few months, Schoen has seemingly taken some shots at the previous regime for their wanton financial ways, widespread ineptitude and lack of foresight.
“Could we have done better? Yeah, if we had $40 million in cap space, yeah,” Schoen told the New York Post recently. “With what we had, I think we executed a plan. We were able to upgrade the roster with the resources we had.”
Was that a subtle shot at Gettleman? WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti certainly think so.
“Yeah, he’s taking like five different shots at Dave Gettleman, without question,” Boomer said. “He’s also trying to keep expectations to a minimum. He’s saying, ‘Look, we got here, we had a cap situation. . . and of course I got a better coach.'”
“‘Listen, we were left with a terrible team in cap hell,'” Gio imitated. “He did a good job of not going straight at Gettleman. . . but this has got to be like a three-year plan. They have so much work to do.”
We agree. Schoen inherited a team that was way over the salary cap and laden with inexplicably egregious contracts to underperforming veterans. The team’s draft failures compounded the issues, leaving the Giants destined to fail year after year.
Those days are gone. Some of the hard decisions have been made and there will be more to come. The new regime has a different approach. They are builders. The box of band aids has been put back on the shelf.
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