Dave Gettleman began to “kick a--” immediately on Saturday, exactly as the new Giants GM said he would.
On his first full day on the job, Gettleman fired VP of player evaluation Marc Ross, who had been with the team since 2007 and oversaw recent drafts in which the Giants whiffed on several key picks. The Giants will have the No. 2 or 3 pick in April’s draft and Gettleman is ensuring he makes the franchise-altering draft choice his way.
Ross, Jerry Reese’s former right-hand man, also was part of a front office that had begun a transition away from Eli Manning, a sentiment team president John Mara has thrown in reverse despite signing off on the Week 13 shift in Oakland. Gettleman even said Friday he intends at the moment to go into 2018 with Manning as the Giants’ starting quarterback for next season.
Mara said Friday that “there might be another change or two or three happening in the future” in the front office, clearly alluding at least in part to Ross’ pending dismissal. Ross was one of four men to interview for the GM position last week, too, so his interview couldn’t have gone well if he’s being pushed out the door this quickly.
“I worked with Marc when I was with the organization before,” Gettleman said Saturday in a team release. “I have great respect for him and high regard for his work. Clearly, we’re going in a different direction, but that doesn’t make these kinds of decisions any easier.”
On Saturday, Gettleman also released right tackle Bobby Hart, ridding the locker room of a bad influence on both the team’s performance and culture off the field.
Dave Gettleman gets right to work Saturday and fires a key Giants executive.
(Adam Hunger/AP)Hart, 23, in fact, “came into the facility this week and told the staff he wasn’t playing this week” in the Giants’ Sunday Week 17 finale against Washington, ex-Giants lineman Geoff Schwartz reported on Twitter. Hart confirmed it, too, tweeting back at Schwartz: “Schwartz you quit on the team my rookie year after you secured your guaranteed money bro. Maybe i learned shutting down from you lol.”
Left tackle Ereck Flowers made the same demand not to play this week, per ESPN, and so Gettleman also benched Flowers and rookie tackle Chad Wheeler will start at left tackle, his natural position, on Sunday, per NJ.com.
The Giants also promoted offensive linemen Adam Bisnowaty and Nick Becton and tight end Ryan O’Malley off the practice squad to the active roster, and Bisnowaty will start at right tackle in place of Hart, per NJ.com. Wide receiver Tavarres King (concussion) goes on injured reserve. Eli Apple’s suspension opened the third roster spot.
Gettleman made clear by immediately releasing Hart that he will waste no time clearing the locker room of guys who just don’t get it.
Hart famously said in September that he was the best right tackle in the league. He proceeded to buoy Cowboys end DeMarcus Lawrence’s Pro Bowl resume in Week 1, got hurt and never recovered to play well. Hart also was one of the chuckleheads yucking it up while Manning cried at his locker after being benched on Nov. 28.
Bobby Hart
(Ron Schwane/AP)Then Hart ran around the MetLife Stadium field in Week 15 with the Giants already 2-11 on the season, flapping his wings to mock the Eagles after a Giants touchdown, in an eventual loss. And when a Pro Football Focus writer tweeted a video mocking Hart’s inane celebration, Hart incredibly replied: “Can you send me this?”
You can’t make the Giants’ 2017 season up.
Ross was completing his fifth season as the Giants’ VP of player evaluation after serving the previous six years as the team’s director of college scouting. Ross had been in charge of the Giants’ college scouting department and the team’s draft. He joined the organization on May 18, 2007 and ran his first organizational draft the next year.
Ross was influential in drafting important contributors such as Odell Beckham, Jr., Sterling Shepard, Landon Collins, Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Pugh, Hakeem Nicks and Weston Richburg. But the Giants’ terrible 2017 season cost Ross his job.
Of course, he’s far from the only casualty.