Speaking to the media for the first time since his team’s disastrous season ended, Giants owner John Mara admitted he was embarrassed by how things turned out.
How embarrassing was the end of the Giants season? Mara said it was the lowest point of her time in charge of the franchise.
“I kept thinking throughout the season that we had hit rock bottom, and then each week it got worse,” Mara told reporters when asked how she felt about the team’s performance in 2021. “Honestly, I’m not proud to say this. But if I’m going to be 100 percent honest, I’d have to say the answer is yes. “
It’s hard to argue with Mara’s evaluation. The Giants ended the season 4-13 and closed the season with a six-game losing streak. His offense struggled immensely during the six-game streak. They averaged a measly 9.3 points per game and scored 10 points or less in five of those six contests. Meanwhile, his defense allowed an average of 32.6 points. In short, they were not competitive.
That was unacceptable to Mara, who referenced how the team was hopeful going into the 2021 season. Coach Joe Judge led the team to a record of just 6-10 in 2020, but the team had finished the year with a record. 5-3 in his last eight games. With Saquon Barkley coming back from a torn ACL and two new receivers joining the fold in Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney, the Giants were supposed to improve, especially if Daniel Jones could step up.
Instead, the team fell back under Judge’s supervision. Yet surprisingly, Judge survived Black Monday. However, general manager Dave Gettleman announced his retirement on Monday.
Then came Tuesday.
Mara explained Wednesday that the decision was not made on one factor alone. It was more of a combination of the team’s poor performance and Joe Judge’s weird end-of-season press conferences in which he called a former Giants coach and the Washington team ahead of their showdown last week, among others. problems inside the locker room.
“I can’t say there was a specific act that was the final straw,” Mara said. “It was just the culmination of things. We got to a point where I thought we had dug a hole so deep that I didn’t see a clear path out of it unless we fully exploited it and started over.” again with a new general manager and a new head coach. “
Still, Mara did not criticize Judge on his departure despite his decision to walk away from the 40-year-old coach.
“I still think there is a very good head coach within Joe Judge,” Mara said. “I felt that given where we are now, about to bring in a new GM, we have to give that person the flexibility to bring in whatever head coach they want. And I think that was a big part of it. the decision and make a major change. I felt like we really needed to start over from scratch. “
The latest rebuild will mark the Giants’ fourth restart in the past six seasons, and the second rotation in which both the coach and the general manager are out at the same time. Both Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur lasted just two years before Judge, but Mara is confident that this time around she will find the right place, even though she knows fans may not be as confident.
But first things first, the Giants are looking to hire a general manager. They wasted no time interviewing Buffalo Bills assistant general manager Joe Schoen for the vacant position along with Cardinals vice president of professional personnel Adrian Wilson as they seek to establish their main office with the coaching staff.
“[The GM] will lead the search for a head coach, but those decisions are always subject to final approval from the owners, “Mara said, vowing to complete a” more extensive “process than the one that led to their hiring Judge.
We’ll see if they can get it right this time.