Hanks for the Memories

This will be a bittersweet moment for me and for millions of Rangers fans. Henrik Lundqvist's number 30 is going to be raised to the rafters at Madison Square Garden. It is a fitting end to a glorious career that, sadly, had but one blemish: no rings.

It was not from lack of effort, or talent. As I wrote in a piece from last August, Lundqvist was the "greatest Ranger NOT to win a Stanley Cup in the history of the franchise." In the Mount Rushmore of the organization, there's Messier, Leetch, Gilbert and King Henrik.

What about Mike Richter, you say? Certainly the goalie who stoned Pavel Bure on a penalty shot in the Cup finals should be on that mountain. He would, except for one thing: Hank was better. Of course he was better; deep down you know he was. And that's coming from someone who was a Mike Richter fan.

Pick a metric: wins, shutouts (both regular season and playoffs), save percentage, goals against average, the game sevens, the 2012 Vezina trophy, and Lundqvist was far superior to Richter. Put aside the Cup win for a moment and be honest. If you had one game to win and one goalie to put between the pipes, who would you choose? You could make the argument that Richter benefited greatly from playing on a championship-caliber team while Lundqvist gave an otherwise good team a chance at becoming one. Among his contemporaries, only Martin Brodeur was better.

But this is not the time nor the place for comparisons. This is a time for honoring the life's work of one of the greatest athlete's the sport has ever known; a man who brought honor to the game he loved with every fiber of his being; and whose professionalism and competitive spirit knew no equal.

I've been watching "30 Days of 30" on MSG Cable, and I'm still amazed at the acrobatic saves he made against the Penguins and Canadiens in the 2014 playoffs and the Caps in both the 2012 and 2015 playoffs. To paraphrase a well-known baseball analogy, the man left it all on the ice. He did everything humanly possible to drag all three teams across the finish line, but, alas, somethings were beyond even the King's reach.

As we watch the emergence of Igor Shesterkin into an elite goalie, it's worth noting that his predecessor set the standard by which he and all future Rangers' net minders will be judged. Whether Igor ends up eclipsing Lundqvist's records remains to be seen; but one thing is certain: he will obviously have to be a lot more durable than he has thus far been.

As for me, I will forever be grateful for the thrills he gave all of us; and I will treasure the wins he willed into being, and, yes, saddened at what might've been. He has earned this moment, this honor, and this place in Rangers history.

To quote Shakespeare, "we shall not look upon his like again."

Four Great Games, Four Wild Finishes

I've been watching football since the mid-1970s and I can honestly say, without hesitation, that this past weekend's playoff games were the best I've ever seen. Period! I defy anyone to prove me wrong.

You might find one game that matched what we saw yesterday; hell, you might even find two; but you'll never find four. If you're a fan of the game, this was special; this was a treat.

Consider the following: Each game was decided on the last play and the combined margin for all four games was 15 points: three field goals and an overtime touchdown. 

Game one: Cincinnati at Tennessee

Joe "Cool" Burrow against Derrick "King" Henry. If ever there was a player with ice water in his veins it's Burrow. The Bengals quarterback was sacked nine times, yet still hung in the pocket to complete 28 of 37 pass attempts for 348 yards.

But as good as Burrow was, the reason the Bengals won this game was because for some strange reason, Titans' head coach Mike Vrabel thought his quarterback was Peyton Manning. With the best running game in the NFL, Vrabel allowed Ryan Tannehill to throw the ball 24 times, resulting in three picks; the last one led to the winning field goal. 

Look, I wasn't a big believer in Tennessee going all the way. In this game you need an elite quarterback to have a shot at a Super Bowl, but this was a winnable game for the Titans and their coach chose a particular inopportune time to have a bad day. Dumb, simply dumb.

Game two: San Francisco at Green Bay 

January at Lambeau, the frozen tundra, scene of the infamous ice bowl. Game-time temps in the single digits, wind chill below zero. The team from the Bay area taking on the team that was built for this weather. There was just one tiny problem: the team from the fair-weather city seemed to handle the elements better, or at least came better prepared, than the home-town team.

Yes, the blocked field goal and the blocked punt hurt, but that was not the reason the Packers lost. They lost because they scored only ten points; and they scored only ten points because the most celebrated quarterback in a generation played like shit when his team needed him most. The fact is in the middle of a snow squall, with 3:40 left in regulation, and the scored tied at 10, with the ball at his own 28 and needing only 11 yards for a first down, Aaron Rodgers decided to heave a 40-yard pass downfield to Davante Adams that the Niners were all over. The pass was broken up and the Packers were forced to punt.

That gave Jimmy Garoppolo three minutes to navigate his team down field and set up the game-winning field goal. Yes, as strange as it may seem, Jimmy G, God's gift to defensive coordinators, looked like the king of the two-minute drill, while his counterpart looked like Daniel Jones.

If that sounds harsh, it was meant to. There's a reason why Rodgers has only one Super Bowl ring despite a plethora of opportunities to get more. He's simply not a clutch performer when it counts. Think about it. He could've chosen to, as Hank Stram used to say, "matriculate the football down the field." But, alas, his ego got in the way. So he forced a play he had no business forcing and cost his team a win they should've had going away. Chalk this one up to sheer arrogance. 

Oh, and by the way, Aaron, Brandon sends his love.

Game three: Los Angeles at Tampa Bay

Matt Stafford versus the GOAT. The last time Sean McVay went head to head with Tom Brady, Brady beat him in the Super Bowl. This time around, he brought his own gun slinger with him. To be honest, I wasn't much of a Stafford fan, but he showed me something yesterday. Stafford was a cool customer, besting Brady in yards and completion percentage. Indeed, the only interception in the game was thrown by Brady.

The fact is, had it not been for the four turnovers the Rams committed, none of which were Stafford's fault, this game would've been a rout. Even after the Bucs mounted a successful comeback to tie the game, Stafford had enough composure to throw a strike to a wide open Cooper Kupp at the 12 yard line line to set up the winning field goal as time expired. Not bad for a guy everybody, including yours truly, thought was overrated.

Didn't think it could get any better? Well...

Game four: Buffalo at Kansas City

Now we come to the pièce de résistance. If you missed this game, you missed one helluva match. Three lead changes in the final two minutes of regulation; both quarterbacks combining for 707 yards, 7 touchdowns and no picks. 

This was not a game for the faint of heart, believe me. I must've said "Holy shit" at least a dozen times. Hey, Giants and Jets fans, this is how football was meant to be played.

It's a shame that one of these quarterbacks had to lose; that's how great both Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen were. We might never see a performance like this again. But if you're a Buffalo Bills fan, you have a right to be pissed at your coaching staff, particularly the special teams coaching staff.

After Mahomes threw a slant to Tyreek Hill that he took all the way to the end zone goal for the go-ahead touchdown with 1:02 left, Allen successfully navigated his team downfield and threw his 4th touchdown of the night with 13 seconds remaining to put the Bills ahead 36-33. All the Bills had to do was protect that lead for a lousy 13 seconds - a lousy 13 seconds!

But rather than attempt a squib kick and force the Chiefs to field the ball, thus running some time off the clock, the Bills elected to kick the ball into the end zone, which gave Mahomes the full 13 seconds to get his team in position to kick the game-tying field goal and force overtime. And that's exactly what Mahomes did. And after the Chiefs won the coin toss, Mahomes sliced and diced his way through an exhausted Buffalo defense and connected with Travis Kelce for the game-winning touchdown.

It was a heartbreaking loss for a Bills team that, two years in a row, has lost to the Chiefs in the postseason. They deserved a better fate this time around. But for the majority of us football fans who didn't have a horse in this race, this was a game for the ages.

Memo to Joe Schoen, new GM of the New York Giants: as you continue your search for the team's next head coach, Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll should be at the top of your list. Both men have done an outstanding job with their respective teams, and either would make a great choice, especially for an organization that hasn't had a functioning offense in more than a decade.

The Rangers at the Halfway Point

41 up, 41 down. Halfway through the 2021-22 season, the New York Rangers are 26-11-4, tied for first place in the Metropolitan division and fifth overall in the NHL with 56 points. If you had this team with that many points challenging for first place in late January you're a better person than me. Last night's disheartening loss to the Carolina Hurricanes notwithstanding, this season has been an unqualified success, so far.

I say so far, because while there are many things to be happy about, there are a few that continue to be a concern. Let's look at the record, shall we?

Against teams with losing records, the Rangers are 12-0-1. Against teams with winning records, their record is 14-11-3. However, against teams that are playoff contenders they're only 11-11-2, 1-5-1 against teams that are either in first place or tied for first.

What that means is that the Rangers are cleaning up against the bottom feeders in the league, as they should, but against the better teams, the results are more mixed. For instance, against teams that excel in the transition game like the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, they've been outscored 15-28, including last night's 6-3 drubbing in Raleigh. However, against the rest of the league, they've outscored their opponents 107-77.

So what we can conclude from the above statistics? For starters, despite the acquisitions Chris Drury made during the offseason, the Rangers remain a work in progress. While they have shown themselves to be far more resilient than last year's squad, they are still learning how to play a full sixty minutes. The last two games are a microcosm for how the season has gone, so far. In both games, the Rangers fell behind by two goals early. Against the Toronto Maple Leafs, they recovered and won going away; against a more disciplined and better-coached Hurricanes team, they weren't quite as fortunate.

Is this something to be concerned about? Most definitely. Assuming they make the playoffs - and at this point, with a majority of their remaining games at home, anything else would be seriously frowned upon by ownership, i.e., James Dolan - how far the Rangers go will be determined by how willing they are to play a complete game. Teams like the aforementioned Hurricanes will make quick work of them if they play like they did last night. Think '06 against the Devils. Yeah, that bad.

Part of the problem is psychological. The core of this team - Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Strome and Chris Kreider - are far more comfortable playing an east-west style of play. Head coach Gerard Gallant has tried to get them to play a more conventional, north-south style of play, with some success. The 4-0 win they had against the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning was the most compete game they've played all season. Zibanejad scored a hat trick, while Kreider picked up three assists. If Gallant could somehow bottle that performance and get his players to drink from it on a consistent basis, this team would be a legitimate Cup contender.

But, alas, he hasn't. And that's why it's incumbent upon Drury to look outside the organization to acquire the missing pieces that will give this team a fighting chance in the postseason. But which pieces should Drury be looking for?

Contrary to what I may have written before, I think it would behoove him to trade for a player with some grit, someone who can drive to the net and knows what to do with the puck when he gets there. Someone like Jesper Fast, for instance. It pains me to admit this but it was a mistake for management to let him go after the '20 season, especially when the Hurricanes are only paying him $2 million a year. Last night, the right winger scored his ninth goal of the season. To put that in perspective, that's only three less than Kaapo Kakko, Dryden Hunt, Julien Gauthier and Ryan Reaves have scored collectively.

If you're as embarrassed about that as I am, you're not alone. The entire league knows the Rangers don't have a legit top six right winger. Kakko has been ineffective on either the Strome or Zibanejad line, to put it mildly. Apart from his two-goal performance against the Coyotes in Arizona on December 15, the third-year forward has been virtually invisible the last two months. Filip Chytil, with the exception of a handful of games at right wing, has been a bust. And neither Hunt nor Gauthier are sufficiently talented enough to warrant being anything more than what they are: fourth liners. As for Barclay Goodrow, the Swiss-army knife's talents are being wasted as Gallant keeps shuffling him around the lineup, desperately looking for some spark that can jumpstart this team's anemic 5v5 play. Last night, his physicality drew a penalty that the Blueshirts converted on. The Rangers need more of that if they intend on making a deep run in the postseason.

The top five players are pulling their weight, but the drop off from there is profound. Among playoff teams, only the Boston Bruins have a similar drop off. Not even the Maple Leafs are this shallow. If this lack of depth isn't addressed, it will threaten the second half of their season. 

I'm guessing Drury already knows this, so look for him to make a move or two. The only question is cost. I don't expect him to part with any of the top prospects in the system, but the first round pick is definitely in play. Depending on how reasonable the other GMs are, help should be on the way soon. Fortunately, the Rangers will have an abundance of cap space at the trade deadline with which to accommodate salaries. That's what happens when you don't waste money on overpriced contracts just to appease the Twitter mob.

The bottom line is the Rangers, after 41 games, have exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. They are tied for first place in their division. They have some very exciting players, including Norris trophy winner Adam Fox and Vezina trophy candidate Igor Shesterkin. With the right additions they could surprise even the experts this spring. But if they do fall short of the Cup finals it will not be the end of the world.

After four long years in the wilderness, it's refreshing to have something to look forward to.

The Pros and Cons of Rangers Trading for J.T. Miller

Before I get to J.T. Miller, a word on the new Covid-19 protocols that the NHL and the NHL Players' association jointly announced. Beginning February 3, the league will no longer test fully vaccinated, asymptomatic players. Only players who develop symptoms will be tested, and if positive, will be isolated. The lone exception will be teams that travel across the border to Canada. In those instances, the protocols will be dictated by the "relevant health authorities." In other words, for teams in the lower 48, the NHL will adopt the NFL protocols; for teams in Canada, the Provinces will run the show.

It's a welcome sign that this league, which was forced to postpone dozens of games over the last six weeks, has finally admitted what the medical experts have been saying for a couple of months now: that while Covid-19 isn't going anywhere, for the vast majority of people who are fully vaccinated, the health risk is relatively small. In the end, pragmatism won out. Good for them, and good for the fans who will now be able to see their teams play at or near full capacity.

Now onto the main topic. Frank Seravalli of Daily Face-off is reporting that the Rangers are one of the teams interested in trading for the services of the Vancouver Canucks' center. 

Let's assume for the moment that Seravalli is right and Chris Drury is serious about re-acquiring the player his predecessor Jeff Gorton sent packing in 2017, along with Ryan McDonagh, in what is now considered one of the franchise's most lopsided trades. 

It would signal two things: 1. After returning home from a 3-2 road trip that saw them take over first place in the Metropolitan division with 54 points, Drury believes this team has a legitimate shot at a deep run in the postseason; and 2. Contract negotiations with Ryan Strome's agent don't appear to be going well. If I had to guess, I'd say it's mostly the latter that is driving this bus.

With Strome scheduled to become a UFA after the season, it's logical to assume he is seeking a rather long and substantial payday, say six years at around $7 million AAV. He's currently making $4.5 million. Given the cap constraints the Rangers will be under for the foreseeable future, such a contract would be too rich for Drury's blood. So unless he can talk Strome's agent down to a more mutually beneficial number, say four years at closer to $5.75M AAV, Drury's hands will be tied.

Hence the Miller speculation.

Of course, it wouldn't surprise me one bit to learn that Drury is floating the idea of a possible class reunion with Miller to force Strome's agent to come to the table. I can't be the only one who thinks it wasn't a coincidence that within 24 hours after Larry Brooks of The New York Post reported last October that the Rangers would only be interested in trading for Jack Eichel if they believed they couldn't re-sign Mika Zibanejad that the two sides miraculously came to an agreement on a contract extension. The more I see of Drury, the more impressed I become with him.

So, what are the pros and cons of J.T. Miller coming back to the organization that drafted him?

The pros:

1. Since his departure from Broadway, Miller has developed into one of the better pivotmen in the NHL, averaging just under a point a game over the last three seasons. With 38 points in 38 games, he is currently the leading scorer on the Canucks this year. As a Ranger, he would be tied with Artemi Panarin for second in team scoring, right behind Adam Fox, who has 39.

2. In addition to his offense, Miller is exceptional on draws. At 53.5 percent, he would be tops on the Rangers. For a team that has struggled winning face-offs over the last few years, this would be like manna from heaven.

3. Miller has one of the best team-friendly contracts in the league at $5.25 million AAV and is signed thru 2023. Re-acquiring him would give Drury the financial flexibility he needs to retain Kaapo Kakko, who is scheduled to become an RFA after the season. It also doesn't hamstring him if he wants to acquire a rental like Reilly Smith from the Vegas Golden Knights. Imagine a top line of Chris Kreider, Zibanaejad and Smith and a second line of Panarin, Miller and Strome, who I assume would shift to right wing. Now that would be a helluva one-two punch.

The cons:

1. Strome is gone. I've crunched the numbers over and over and there's no way the Rangers can afford to keep both Miller and Strome next season. Even if they decide to let Kakko walk - a bad idea - and they find someone to take Patrik Nemeth off their hands, they still don't have the room for both players. With the salary cap scheduled to increase by only one million to $82.5 in 2022-23 - and that's assuming the Omicron variant doesn't impact the league's bottom line further - a lot of teams are going to be faced with some tough choices next season, the Rangers no exception. Face it, this pandemic has really fucked things up royally.

2. The chemistry on the team could suffer. So far this season, the Rangers have been one of the most resilient teams in the NHL. They continue to defy the analytics gods who insist they aren't as good as their record suggests. They currently have the third-best penalty kill percentage in the league and their power play has been in the top ten for most of the season. They also boast one of the best goaltenders in Igor Shesterkin. His acrobatics in net have allowed them to win games they had no business winning. Trading for Miller could upset the apple cart, so to speak. There's no way of telling how Panarin would react knowing that Strome's days with the team are numbered. Drury would be taking a huge gamble potentially pissing off his top winger.

3. Despite Miller's team-friendly contract, Drury would only be kicking the can down the road an additional year. Come the '23 season, he'd be faced with the same dilemma he's facing now: a pending UFA he can't afford to re-sign. With no one in the system capable of stepping in - and let's face it, Morgan Barron is not the answer - Drury would have the daunting task of trying to find someone who can put up numbers comparable to either Strome or Miller, and who doesn't cost a king's ransom. Good luck with that.

So why Miller and not someone like Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks? As a UFA, Hertl would be the ideal rental and Drury could land him without sacrificing any of his valuable assets. Then there's Claude Giroux. With the Philadelphia Flyers sinking faster than the Lusitania, a second-rounder and a couple of prospects might do the trick.

A rental, of course, assumes Drury can re-sign Strome. All things being equal, he'd probably prefer to do that. But if Strome's agent plays hardball, Drury may have no other option than to pull the trigger on Miller. Getting him won't be cheap. Vancouver will demand at the very least a first round pick, a young center who can develop - Filip Chytil makes sense - and a top prospect - anyone but Braden Schneider, Will Cuylle or Brennan Othmann.

One and Done in Dallas

Normally, I wouldn't give a shit about what happens in a playoff game involving the Dallas Cowboys, especially since my team has been dreadful for most of the last ten years. But given the travesty that occurred yesterday, I thought I'd put in my two cents.

That the Cowboys lost to the San Francisco 49ers should surprise no one. Let's be honest, given the playoff seeding, the Niners were the last team the Cowboys wanted to face in the playoffs. But the manner in which they lost is revealing of a team that has multiple issues, all of which came back to haunt them when push came to shove.

Let's start with the offensive coordinator. You have a two-headed monster in Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard that at one point in the season was averaging 6 yards a pop from the line of scrimmage and you only call their number 16 times for a total of 45 yards, while at the same time calling 43 pass plays? Kellen Moore should be fired for being this inept.

Secondly, can we just admit that Dak Prescott is not an elite quarterback? Jerry Jones can pay him all the money he wants, he's not Tom Brady; nor is he Aaron Rodgers, or Patrick Mahomes, or Josh Allen, or Juston Herbert. All of the above QBs would've taken advantage of the multiple opportunities the Niners presented them and propelled their team to victory yesterday. The ugly truth is if you are depending on Dak to lead you to victory, get used to being disappointed. And that's saying something, given that my team still thinks Daniel Jones is a franchise quarterback.

Third, the officials didn't cost the Cowboys the game; poor clock management and bad play calling did. Think about it: With 14 seconds left in regulation, no timeouts and the ball at the Niners 41 yard line, instead of throwing a quick pass to the sidelines to get closer to the end zone, or attempting a couple of Hail Mary's from where they were, the Cowboys elected to call a quarterback draw up the middle for 17 yards to Niners 24 yard line. What happened next was bizarre. Apparently no one on this team knew that before they could spike the ball the umpire had to first spot it. So while the ump was doing his job, time ran out on the Cowboys season.

One and done!

How typical for a Mike McCarthy-led team. Despite all their talent and accolades, this was one of the most undisciplined and unprepared teams in the NFL this season. I'll say it again, this was a winnable game against an opponent that made its fair-share of mistakes and was minus its best defensive player Nick Bosa for most of the second half. Like I mentioned above, Brady or Rodgers would've found a way to win under similar conditions. Bottom line, the 49ers exposed the Cowboys for what they were: an overrated team that took advantage of playing in a poor division.

But rather than accept responsibility, McCarthy and his perennial underachiever Prescott deflected and blamed the officiating. Worse, Prescott, when informed that some fans had thrown things at the officials as they were headed off the field, approved of it, which in itself is a disgrace and worthy of a fine by the league. 

Never mind that McCarthy didn't know where the hell the ball was when the ill-fated play was run; he said in his press conference that it was on the 50 yard line when it was actually on the 41 yard line. Never mimd that he apparently doesn't think his quarterback has a good enough arm to successfully reach the end zone from midfield. Regardless of whoever called in that horrific play, he, as head coach, is responsible for the outcome. If he didn't know what the play was, shame on him for not knowing; and if he did know and signed off on it, shame on him for being that stupid.

Look, it's no sweat off my nose that the Dallas Cowboys were eliminated from the postseason. Truth be told, I revel in their fans' pain. But the group of players we saw on the field yesterday looked more like the Keystone Cops than a professional football team, and if I were Jerry Jones, I'd be real pissed right now. 

The Pressure is on John Mara and Steve Tisch Now More Than Ever

Now that the Ren and Stimpy Show has been canceled at MetLife Stadium, the real work begins. The New York Giants, owners of the worst win-loss record in the NFL over the last five seasons at 22-59, are in the market for a new G.M. and a new head coach at the same time. That hasn't happened since 1978 when head coach John McVay was fired and G.M. Andy Robustelli was allowed to "retire."

If you recall - and the memory has been seared into my consciousness for decades - the Giants were the laughingstock of the league that season. Come to think of it: they were the laughingstock of the league for six years running. But 1978 took the cake. That was the year of "The Fumble" - the double reverse handoff to Larry Csonka that wound up in the waiting hands of Herman Edwards of the Eagles who ran it in for the winning touchdown. 

That stunt would prove be the last straw for Wellington Mara and his nephew Tim. After the season, they commenced to find someone who could reverse the team's fortunes. The problem was the two couldn't agree on who was best qualified. After a bitter public feud, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle stepped in and appointed George Young to run the football operations. Young would subsequently hire Ray Perkins as his head coach. And so marked the beginning of what would become the most stable period in the franchise's storied existence since its glory days of the 1950s and early '60s.

Perkins in his third year got them in the playoffs before leaving to coach Alabama the following season. Defensive co-ordinator Bill Parcells was promoted to HC and guided them to two Super Bowl wins in 1986 and 1990 before resigning. Young's specialty was drafting and during his tenure, the Giants drafted the likes of Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor and Carl Banks.

Young eventually stepped down as G.M. after the 1997 season, and it was his successor, Ernie Accorsi, who, like his predecessor, assembled the makings of a championship-caliber team that included Tom Coughlin as coach and Eli Manning as quarterback. That team would go on to win two more Super Bowls in 2007 and 2011. 

When Accorsi retired in '07, Jerry Reese took over the reigns. But unlike Accorsi and Young, Reese was a lousy talent evaluator. His draft selections, with a few notable exceptions, were dreadful, and after the 2011 season, the team began to decline, making the playoffs once in ten years. Reese was eventually fired in 2017 and replaced by Dave Gettleman, who in his relatively brief four-year stint managed to make things even worse.

And this, my dear Guinevere, is where we came in. A franchise wrecked by poor management, inept coaching and bereft of talent is now in tatters. The parallels to 1978 are unmistakable. It'd be easy to say things can't get any worse, but sadly that's not true. If there's one thing we know about professional sports, it's that the pit is bottomless. If you think 4-13 is bad, try 2-15 on for size; or perhaps even, dare I say it, 0-17. Don't laugh, it can happen, because it has.

That's why these next few weeks are critical for both John Mara and Steve Tisch. The two co-owners must work together to find the right man who can rebuild this once proud franchise. The pressure couldn't be greater, especially since they aren't the only ones looking for a G.M. Both the Vikings and the Bears cleaned house after their disappointing seasons as well. Misery, it appears, does love company.

Fortunately, there is an abundance of potential candidates out there from which to choose and Mara, to his credit, is looking outside the organization. He's already reached out to several teams in an attempt to get a head start. Indeed, the Giants have already interviewed Buffalo Bills Assistant G.M. Joe Schoen, and have asked permission to speak with Kansas City Chiefs Director of Player Personnel Ryan Poles. Both men would be excellent choices, especially Poles who, if he's hired, could entice Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy to join him in New York as his head coach. Bieniemy is considered one of the best and brightest offensive minds in the league, and if there's one thing the Giants desperately need, it's someone who knows how to run an offense.

Whoever gets chosen is going to have his work cut out for him. Gettleman not only screwed the pooch, he took out a four-year mortgage on it. The Giants went crazy last year signing players who didn't pan out, and because they got creative with the cap, they're going to be in cap hell for the foreseeable future. And that means any hope the fans have of seeing Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson in a Giants uniform next season will have to remain the stuff of dreams. Like Young, the next G.M. will have to go through the draft to repair the damage.

And that's why as difficult as these last few years have been to watch, things might not get much better next season. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will the Giants. When you clean house, it takes time to put in place an infrastructure that can endure. Remember, it took Young eight years before he could deliver a Super Bowl. Expectations, both for the fanbase and ownership, will have to be managed. Incremental progress will be the catch phrase. It's worth noting that the last last three coaches this franchise hired - Ben McAdoo, Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge - all regressed in their second season. By comparison both Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin had losing records their first season, only to reach the postseason in year two, followed by a championship two years after that.

That's how this typically works. You take your lumps early, while you construct the building blocks that inevitably leads to a parade outside your stadium. Successful franchises know this, which is why they can survive the odd bad year or two. As disappointing as the Baltimore Ravens and New Orleans Saints were in 2021, both teams have the right personnel in place to rebound next season. 

And speaking of the right personnel, the Pittsburgh Steelers have them in droves. Their head coach, Mike Tomlin, has not had a single losing season in 15 years. He didn't accomplish that with smoke and mirrors, or by referring to other teams as "clown shows," or by calling consecutive quarterback sneaks on second and third and long deep in his own end. He did it because he knows how to motivate his players to win.

Look, this isn't rocket science. When you hire the right people, good things tend to happen. John Mara needs to find the right man, and that right man needs to hire a lot more right men to turn this shipwreck of a franchise around.