Wait, how can it possibly get worse? Well, another 1st round pick not panning out can do that. As we know, the NY Giants shipped off oft “injured” Rapper and sometimes Wide Receiver Kadarius Toney to the KC Chiefs for a small draft pick haul that is beneath his talent level. Unfortunately, the Giants were given no choice given the fact he either cannot or (likely) will not contribute to the team. His name will now be added to the long list of failures from the Gettleman era. See below, as the list is very significant:
Panning Out: Dexter Lawrence, Andrew Thomas and Xavier Mckinney.
Not Panning/Did Not Pan Out: Kadarius Toney, Aaron Robinson, Elerson Smith, Rodarius Williams, Matt Peart, Shane Lemieux, Cam Brown, Carter Coughlin, TJ Brunson, Chris Williamson, Deandre Baker, Ryan Connelly, Corey Balentine, George Asafo-Adjei, Chris Slayton, Will Hernandez, Lorenzo Carter, BJ Hill, Kyle Lauletta, and RJ McIntosh.
Kind Of Panning Out/TBD: Saquon Barkley (injuries), Julian Love, Oshane Ximines (injuries), Daniel Jones (finally), Tae Crowder, Darnay Holmes, Azeez Ojulari (injuries), Gary Brightwell, and Darius Slayton.
When you look at the lists, you can see the bad side is larger than the good and “kind of/TBD” side combined. This is not ideal when you rate Gettleman’s legacy. In fairness, many of the “kind of/TBD” sections are producing now, however most of them are doing well due to the new regime’s coaching staff maximizing their strengths (exception being Barkley, Ximines, and Ojulari already being productive, but with frequent injuries). The previous staffs under Gettleman’s watch were not much help to the rest.
When looking at the ones that DID pan out completely, 2 of 3 players were 1st round picks (Thomas and Lawrence) and the other being a 2nd round pick that had a 1st round grade (McKinney). These types of picks are the ones a good GM SHOULD hit. Its hard to give a GM glowing praise when he fully hit on only 2 of 6 of his 1st round picks during his tenure in NY.
Now, a GREAT GM hits on the mid to late picks at a decent clip and Gettleman has little to no claim here. One can make the argument that Julian Love and Darnay Holmes might become those guys but will not salvage the overall body of work here.
When you see the results of 4 years of drafts happening the way Gettleman’s did, it is no wonder the Giants had to use so much cap space to augment the roster and try to be relevant (unfortunately, that failed too).
We could go over the free agent acquisitions that failed as well, but that is a subject for another time. The results of Gettleman’s drafts alone have stamped a big enough “L” on his legacy in NY that his free agent shortcomings are not needed to justify it further. The trade of the unwilling Kadarius Toney was just the icing on the cake. Good Riddance. As Toney put it himself: “Thank God!”