E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of only three sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls. Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

LANDSTROM ON GM JERRY REESE: IT'S NOT PRETTY,
IT MIGHT BE FAIR AND OPINIONS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME

By Scott Landstrom
(Scott Landstrom, E-GIANTS' resident curmudgeon, here waxes not quite poetic but with a slashing pen on the performance of general manager Jerry Reese, who has been "in office" since 2007 as the replacement for Ernie Accorsi, who retired. You may not agree with all of Scott's thoughts, but we firmly support his right to say them - and much of what he says is absolutely on the money.)

My home is in the mountains between Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz. As such, the classic storms that gather fury on the 3,100 mile trek from Hawaii (the last land mass they have to contend with) and have to rise up over our 1,600 foot high mountain range have to "unload" on our location to make it over the range. Like a wounded bomber jettisoning fuel to gain altitude, these massive storms just unleash deluges on our location, resulting in pretty severe precipitation levels at times.

Well, two weeks ago we had such a storm, and it was a severe one. With a total of seven inches of rain at the summit, and wind gusts over 50 MPH, this storm was actually so strong that one friend had an aluminum canopy strut buckled by the force of the sound wave from one of the booming thunder claps. Well, some 60 feet away from our house, a 100-year-old oak tree absorbed water into its limbs and bark, and we would later learn, probably gained 15 percent of its normal weight in water absorbed.

Simultaneously, the soil that its root systems rely on for support became 20 percent more aerated, due to the moisture. When you add the severe wind gust buffeting this 130 foot tree into the equation, it was simply more than the tree could withstand, and with a noise sounding like a howitzer shell exploding right outside our bedroom window, the 28 inch trunk snapped at ground level, and the massive tree fell like the Sword of Damocles onto our home.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the tree did not penetrate further than into the attic, but it was a frightening experience, to be sure, as this tree finally could not stand the battering any further, after more than a century of somehow successfully doing so.

What in the Wide World of Sports does this have to do with Giants football, you legitimately inquire? Glad you asked ... after lightly criticizing the effectiveness and decision making of Giants' GM Jerry Reese for the last few years, the mind-numbing stupidity with which the Justin Tuck affair was handled was simply my "breaking point." Like the massive oak snapping at its base, I launched into an excoriation of Reese for what has undeniably become a nit-witted front office, and somewhat of a laughing stock, if the truth be told.

I mean, for those of you who have been on a desert island, not only was Tuck (who was the REAL MVP of Super Bowl 46, our defensive team captain, and just recently tied the NFL record for most QB sacks in the final six games of the season) allowed to "walk", but Reese's offer to him was HALF what he ended up signing for with. You read that correctly - HALF! Tuck went on record as saying he would have taken less to finish his career as a Giant, with him suggesting that a two-year, $8 M contract would have done the trick, far less than the $11 M deal he signed with Oakland. Yet Reese did not budge from something in the $5-$6M range for two years. Not even a whisker.

At the same time, Captain Clueless was offering a two year, $8 M contract (the identical package that would have retained our defensive captain, Super Bowl hero, and franchise legend) to somebody named O'Brien Schofield, a back-up linebacker from Seattle who (get this) managed a grand total of 6.0 unassisted tackles in 171 snaps played last season, with one QB sack, zero interceptions, and zero forced fumbles.

Moreover, this is not some player who is just blossoming in his first or second year, but a fifth-year player who saw his snaps reduced from an average of 45 per game before he was injured in Week 10 of the previous season, to just 11 snaps per game despite being healthy the entire season in 2013. Oh, and his total tackles, solo and assisted, dropped from 34 to eight. So THAT is the player rocket scientist Reese chose to give the $8.M it would have taken to retain Tuck. The fact that he later failed his physical and the deal was rescinded is beside the point. Reese TRIED to sign this guy for that much, and I am apoplectic and the stupidity of it all.

Think I am being too severe? Guess again - and let me review the facts as I see them for your examination. The job of general manager in an NFL franchise requires considerable skill in the following areas: salary cap management, roster construction, negotiating player contracts, free agent talent appraisal, and scouting and selections for the NFL draft. Let's review my assessment of Reese's performance in each of these categories, and then decide if my scathing criticisms are on target:

Salary Cap Management: Well, let's just see. Reese allowed what might be an NFL record 28 players to simultaneously reach free agent status in the same off-season, while our biggest NFC East rivals had corresponding numbers of nine free agents (Eagles), and 10 free agents (Cowboys). This is an extremely unwise onslaught to try to manage all at once, as you can only be sitting in front of one player-agent pair at one time, so the "opportunity cost" of having such an avalanche of your existing roster to try to resign is that you cannot dedicate a competitive amount of time to trying to lure the most desired free agents to your team. Grade: F.

Roster Construction: Let's see ... we have allowed, under Reese's decision making, both offensive line (an unmitigated disaster in 2013 with the lone exception of Justin Pugh) and linebacker units to fall into woeful disrepair. His absolute refusal to draft a linebacker high in the draft has been something I have complained about for the past four years, as players like Patrick Willis, Clay Matthews, NaVorro Bowman, Luke Kuechly and Sean Lee were gobbled up by other teams instead.

Last season, he added to the defensive tackle position by adding free agents Mike Patterson and Cullen Jenkins to a roster that already had Linval Joseph, Markus Kuhn and Marvin Austin on it. Then, with both Aaron Klein and I begging him to take available running back Eddie Lacy (who was not exactly "hiding out" as he had just run wild in the National Championship Game for Alabama),

Reese instead took another defensive tackle, Jonathan Hankins of Ohio State! Hankins, while showing some "flashes" in run support, only got on the field for less than 200 snaps all season, while Lacy made the Pro Bowl with over 1,178 yards rushing, and 1,435 yards total offense. Oh ... and he just signed TWO fullbacks (John "The Terminator" Conner, Henry "The Hynocerus" Hynoski) to contracts. What rationally thinking team can even afford to keep two fullbacks? Grade: D-

Negotiating Player Contracts: While we don't have a ton of visibility here, we do know that Reese chose to give Eli Manning the richest contract in NFL history ($106.9 M over seven years) in 2009, making him the first NFL player to break the $15 M-per-season barrier, after a 2008 season in which Manning not only didn't even make the Pro Bowl as an alternate, but in fact, he finished 17th in passing yards per game, 18th in QB rating, and 22nd in average yards per pass attempt.

The previous year, Reese somehow thought it a good idea to sign turnstile offensive tackle David Diehl to a five-year, $31 M contract following a season in which Pro Football Focus had Diehl rated the 67th best tackle in the NFL, with a significantly negative rating in both pass and run blocking, and a season in which he merely LED THE ENTIRE LEAGUE in "QB hurries" allowed. Grade: F

Evaluating Free Agent Talent: Pul-lease ... do I really even have to go here? Reese has signed so many "ho hum" free agents I won't even bother to list them. In fact, one might make a case that the last actual star free agent Reese signed was Antonio Pierce, and that is going back nine years. He let Ryan Grant get away to the Packers, and Grant had two 1,000-yard seasons. He signed Martellus Bennett, and then let him walk the very next year. Ditto with last year's signing of Brandon Myers. One year later, Reese lets him walk. Signed Keith Rivers, never panned out, now he is gone. Signed Ryan Mundy, now he's gone. Let stud tackle Barry Cofield get away to two Pro Bowls in Washington, now we just lost up and coming star tackle Linval Joseph.

Antrel Rolle has admittedly been a key contributor, but even then I think the contract Reese gave him overpaid (he will count $9.25 M against the 2014 salary cap)for what we got ... a very good player, but it took an injury to get him to the Pro Bowl last season, and that was his best year in New York. He let Mario Manningham walk to San Francisco, and he had 59 catches in just three-quarters of a season before he was injured. (Ed. Note: The Giants re-signed Manningham Tuesday.) We let Ryan Clark leave to become a star strong safety in Pittsburgh, arguably in the top five in the league. Grade: D-

Scouting and Executing the NFL College Draft: OK, let's give credit where credit is due. Pugh was a great selection at No. 1 this past draft. Plain and simple. Can you imagine the size the mushroom cloud around last year's offensive line (which was already sizeable) would have been if we didn't have the kid at least giving us ONE offensive lineman who could be relied upon to hold his own in both phases of the game?

That said, when was the last time prior to Pugh that Reese brought in someone who both a) excelled and b) stayed healthy and c) stayed with the team? Other teams, like the 49ers, for instance, seem to get productivity out of their first and second round selections just about every year, but not Reese and his roulette-wheel spinning merry band of talent scouts. Just in the past six drafts, we chose (in the first round) Aaron Ross in 2007 (gone), Kenny Phillips in 2008 (gone) and Hakeem Nicks in 2009 (gone) - that would be HALF or our top selections over the past six years all gone.

Then in the second round, Reese pulled in the following miscalculations into the franchise: Steve Smith in 2007 (gone - out of the league), Terrell Thomas in 2008 (FA), Clint Sintim in 2009 (gone - out of the league), Linval Joseph in 2010 (gone - FA to Vikings) and Marvin Austin in 2011 (cut - out of the league).

So let's summarize the performance Reese has managed with those exceptionally valuable second round picks, all of them supposed to be top 64 talents in the entire draft: there is only Will Beatty and Rueben Randle left on the roster out of eight second-round picks the last eight drafts, and of the measly two that are still around from Reese's efforts, Beatty just came off a season in which he would have won a vote for "most overpaid player" on the team after leading the NFL in sacks allowed, at 13, while making megabucks on the new five-year, $38.75 M contract Reese signed him to in the off-season.

I mean, you could make an argument just on this factor alone that Jerry needs to be fired ... six of his last eight second round selections gone, and half of them not even good enough to still be employed anywhere in the league? Grade: F-

So there you have it. Can you say "TIMBER?", because that tree is coming knifing out of the sky with evil intent. Reese MUST GO, it says here, and the sooner the better! Giving O'Brien Schofield and his sum total of six unassisted tackles the money it would have taken to keep the franchise legend and team defensive captain in the locker room that Tuck represented was the last "wind gust" required. He must go, and go now.

There, I feel better now. Somebody call me when Reese has moved out of his office, please.

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