Giants head coach Pat Shurmur is clearly on the hot seat, and everything we have heard this year suggests that he could be fired at season’s end. And as Paul Schwartz of the New York Post writes, the sentiment for bringing Shurmur back for the 2020 season is dimming within the organization because there is simply no concrete reason to suggest that he should be retained. Previous reports indicated that Shurmur could keep his job simply for the sake of giving young QB Daniel Jones some continuity, but Schwartz says the cons of keeping Shurmur outweigh that potential pro.
Schwartz does not offer an update on Big Blue’s plans for GM Dave Gettleman, and the fact that the Giants have historically practiced patience with their GMs and knew that they were tasking Gettleman with a rebuilding job could mean that he is safe for 2020. But will the team trust him to hire another HC since the Shurmur hire has flopped, or will ownership just clean house and start afresh? All options are definitely on the table.
Let’s take a swing around the NFC East:
- Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch has not played since November 17 due to a neck injury, and while there has been some improvement, the 23-year-old is still not ready to practice, as Todd Archer of ESPN.com writes. The club is not ready to put Vander Esch on IR just yet, but it sounds like that could be a possibility.
- The Eagles may have lost WR Alshon Jeffery for the season, and as Bo Wulf and Zach Berman of The Athletic write, Nelson Agholor‘s status remains up in the air. Agholor sat out the team’s Monday night win with a knee injury, so Philly may need to make more than one WR roster move. Old friend Jordan Matthews just signed with the 49ers, so Berman believes it’s more likely that the team will promote one or two of their taxi squad wideouts than sign a free agent. Wulf, though, names a few players on other practice squads that the Eagles could poach.
- Speaking of Jeffery, Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94WIP.com says the Eagles have no choice but to release the veteran wideout if they cannot find a trade partner for him (which seems highly unlikely). Because the team guaranteed Jeffery’s 2020 salary earlier this year in order to create more cap room, cutting Jeffery will result in an enormous dead cap number of over $26MM in 2020. That seems like an impossible pill to swallow, even if the club were to designate him as a post-June 1 cut to spread out the dead cap money over two years, but Shorr-Parks believes the team will indeed cut Jeffery if he cannot be traded.
i hope they dont cut Jeffry. whoever they replace him with is not going to be worth the cost plus his cap hit.
Send Jeffery out to attempt an extra point kick. If he makes it you can trade him back to the Bears…lol.
Jeffry seems to have shut it down and quit on these guys awhile ago, then the injuries started.
If Gettleman is ‘safe’, then I have no faith in this franchise for 2020 and probably 2021. Gettleman needs to be the first to go. He’s made dozens of awful moves and seems to only value washed up rejects or busts from teams he had a hand in (Panthers or Cardinals). If you want to wait until the end of the season, fine, but as soon as the clock hits triple zeros on Week 17, pick up the phone and send him packing.
It’s time to bring Ray Handley home. It’s time.
ESP and his looney ideas…
I don’t believe you’re allowed to use post-June 1 cap hits this offseason because it’s the last year of the CBA so either way they’d be on the hook for all of that salary next year.
NY Giants ownership gets WAY to much respect as knowledge football people.
If the Giants keep Gettleman, he hires Rivera and sets the franchise back another decade.
But Rivera is a huge upgrade over Shurmur. At least they’d be competitive again and maybe restore that defense