Big Blue View
At least Joe Schoen, general manager of a New York Giants team that has gone 5-25 since the beginning of the 2024 season, did not say on Tuesday that the team was “not far off” from being a good team.
That is what the GM said last year when he held his bye week press conference with the Giants sporting a 2-8 record and getting ready to part ways with then-quarterback Daniel Jones.
Asked how close the Giants, 2-11 for a second straight year, are to actually competing Schoen at least showed some semblance of recognizing reality.
“We’re [at] two wins,” Schoen said on Tuesday. “We’re not there. We’ve got to do better. That is what it is. We’re two wins.”
Here are more of the takeaways from Schoen on Tuesday during his annual bye week press conference.
Schoen said “I understand the question” five times during a roughly 22-minute press conference. That is usually coach-speak or GM-speak for “I know what you want me to say, but I am not going to.” Each time, and several other times when he said he understood something or other, Schoen deflected to a non-answer kind of answer.
Just one word of advice for Schoen. If you think the New York media was out for blood, don’t read the comments section of the livestream from the Giants YouTube channel. Those folks were more aggressive than Patriots defenders trying to separate Gunner Olszewski’s head from his body on Monday night.
Head coach Brian Daboll, the coach Schoen picked in 2022, has been fired. The defensive coordinator Daboll picked after a falling out with Wink Martindale, Shane Bowen, has been fired.
Going back to 2023, the Giants are 11-36 (.234 winning percentage) since making the playoffs in 2022. Why does the GM who picked the players that “accomplished” that feat still be employed by the Giants, AND get to lead the search for another head coach?
This was, of course, one of the questions Schoen said he understood.
“My focus right now is on supporting [Mike] Kafka as we go forward, and we’ll evaluate all aspects of the football operation as we go forward,” Schoen said.
And has it been perfect? No.
“But I’m very confident in my staff, myself, and our ability to get this franchise back where it needs to go.”
Why does he have such confidence when the year over year results appear to be getting worse rather than better?
“It starts with me. I take responsibility for that,” Schoen said. “But we do have a good young quarterback that’s on a rookie contract for the next four years, and that’s when it gets fun. When you’re building around a young quarterback, you have a good nucleus, you have a good left tackle, you have a wide receiver that had a historic rookie season. You’ve got a good running back room, you’ve got pass rushers.
“There’s pieces...
