Jaxson Dart is Making a Compelling Case to Be the Giants Starting QB

In 2004, everyone on Planet Earth knew that Eli Manning was the New York Giants quarterback of the future. Then GM Ernie Accorsi traded an '04 third round pick and a first and fifth rounder in '05, along with Philip Rivers, to the San Diego Chargers to get Peyton's younger brother. 

The plan was to let Eli sit and learn behind former Super Bowl winner Kurt Warner. And based on what we saw in the preseason, that plan certainly looked feasible. Eli put up respectable numbers - 24/49, 327, 0 over four games - but was hardly a show stopper. Indeed, head coach Tom Coughlin waited until week 10 before finally turning the reigns over to him.

Fast forward 21 years to the 2025 NFL Draft. Present GM Joe Schoen traded three picks to move back into the first round to select Jaxson Dart at number 25. The Giants believe strongly that Dart is their quarterback of the future. Like in '04, the plan is to let Dart sit and learn behind another former Super Bowl winner, Russell Wilson. 

Warner to Eli, Part Deux, right? There's just one not-so-small problem. Dart has thrown a monkey wrench into those plans. Through two preseason games, Dart is a combined 26/35 for 291 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs. His 117.7 passer rating is the best on the team, a full 45 points better than Wilson.

Dart has become THE football story of the preseason. Initially he was viewed as a mid second rounder that needed a lot of work to smooth out the rough edges. NFL.com gave him a 6.17 grade in their eval, listing him as a "good backup with the potential to develop into a starter."

That was no backup we saw Saturday night. Seven quarterbacks took the field at MetLife Stadium; four for the Giants and three for the Jets. Dart was better than all of them, and it wasn't even close. Head coach Brian Daboll has a real dilemma on his hands. On the one hand, it makes perfect sense to start the season with Wilson at the helm. Clearly someone at NFL headquarters has a sick sense of humor, because the Giants, coming off a 3-14 campaign in 2024, wound up with the toughest schedule of any team in the league this season. Throwing a promising young talent like Dart into that gauntlet could have disastrous consequences for the Giants. And if there's one thing this franchise can ill afford to do is fuck up another young quarterback. John Mara will skin both Daboll and Schoen alive if that happens.

On the other hand, while Wilson has been good, he's been on a downward trajectory since the 2020 season. At this point in his career, he is nothing more than a bridge to a successor. At least when the Giants signed Warner in '04, he was three years removed from his second Super Bowl appearance and led the league in passing yards with 4830 that season. Daboll, after two very disappointing years in which the fanbase was calling for his head, could hardly be blamed for wanting to roll the dice with the player he moved heaven and earth to land.

What to do? That is the question. If I were a betting man - and I'm not - I'd put my money on Wilson being the stater week one, with Dart as the backup. That means that Jameis Winston, whom Schoen signed to a two-year, $8 million guaranteed contract during the offseason, will likely be traded for a draft pick. No sense having an $8m asset on your books when you already have a bonafide starter waiting in the wings. And besides, the way Tommy DeVito has played this preseason, if he gets cut, he'll be picked up by another team quicker than you can say, "you want mashed potatoes with those cutlets?"

As for when Daboll makes the switch to Dart, I'm thinking week 10. That's because the first nine weeks of the schedule will be particularly daunting. Just take a gander at who the Giants play:

@ the Washington Commanders

@ the Dallas Cowboys

vs the Kansas City Chiefs

vs the L.A. Chargers

@ the New Orleans Saints

vs the Philadelphia Eagles

@ the Denver Broncos

@ the Philadelphia Eagles

vs the San Francisco 49ers

If they go 3-6 during that stretch, they'll be lucky. I've been a fan of the Giants since the dark days of Joe Pisarcik and John McVay. I've seen the football gods smile and frown on them. Trust me, they took a dump on the 50 yard line with this schedule. As much as I want to see Dart be the starting quarterback, I'd rather he not do it from inside a rubber room.

No, the sensible thing to do is let Wilson take his lumps as the starter in the first half. Then after week nine, thank him for his service, send him to the nearest triage unit, and have Dart close out the season.

If the Giants don't screw this up, they'll be in good shape for 2026 and beyond.

Of course when it comes to the Giants, "if" is a four-letter word. 

Brian Daboll's Balls of Steel

File this under "Pinch me, I must be dreaming." The New York Giants went into Nashville yesterday to play the Tennessee Titans as five and a half point underdogs, and not only covered, but won.

In what had to be the most improbable ending to a Giants' game in years, Daniel Jones, with his team trailing 20-13 late in the fourth quarter, not only led his offense downfield, but when he connected with Chris Myarick for a touchdown with 1:06 left in regulation, his coach Brian Daboll, rather than kick the extra point for the tie, elected to go for two for the lead. And when Jones shoveled a pass to Saquon Barkley, who sidestepped a tackle to take it into the end zone, the Jints went ahead 21-20, and yours truly damn near pissed his pants, along with, dare I say, several million other stunned fans.

I'll be honest with you, I did not have this game as a win on the schedule. In fact, truth be told, I didn't have the Giants winning a single game this season against an opponent with a winning record. So much for my future as a prognosticator. I keep telling people to take what I say with a grain of salt. Who knew there'd be this much salt?

After a brutal first half in which Jones got sacked four times and, in customary fashion, fumbled the ball, the Titans led 13-0 going into the third quarter. That was when Barkley provided a blast from the past. He took a handoff from Jones at the Giants 10 yard line and after one deke, scampered down the sidelines to the Titan 22. Three plays later, Barkley ran it into the end zone from the four yard line. The extra point failed. 13-6 Tennessee.

After the Titans were forced to punt on their next possession, Jones, on second and 11 from his own 35, found Sterling Shepard all alone down field and threw a strike. The extra point was good and the score was tied at 13.

Even when Tennessee went ahead 20-13, the Giants would not give up. They recovered a muffed punt and had the ball deep in Titans territory. This was when history began to rear its ugly head. Jones badly misread the coverage on Barkley and his pass was picked off in the end zone.

End of story, end of game. Same old Giants; another valiant effort down the drain. Oh, well, maybe they'll regroup and beat the Panthers at MetLife next week. What ya gonna do, right?

Except Daboll wasn't having any of it. Visibly upset, he went over to his quarterback on the bench and gave him a piece of his mind. From what viewers could make out it was pretty much a one-way conversation. Daboll did the talking, Jones did the listening.

And it seemed to work. On the Titans next possession they were forced to punt when, for some strange reason on third and one from their 41, head coach Mike Vrabel elected not to go with Derrick Henry for what certainly would've been a first down, but instead went with tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo on a sweep around left tackle that resulted in a four-yard loss.

This time Jones did not look the gift horse in the mouth. This time he came through. With Barkley doing most of the heavy lifting, the Giants snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Daboll, when given a choice between settling for a potential tie or a potential win, chose the latter. 

It was the ballsiest move I've seen from a Giants head coach since the heyday of the Tom Coughlin era. But even with all that, it still came down to a missed 47 yard field goal attempt by Randy Bullock with four seconds left to preserve the win.

I'm not being pollyanna here when I say this might be the most important win this franchise has had in a very long time. In fact, this is the first time since 2016 - six years! - they've opened the season with a win. That year, the Giants started 2-0 on their way to an 11-5 record and a playoff berth.

We shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves here. That team had the number two rated defense in the NFL and two-time Super Bowl winner Eli Manning; this team was forced to make cuts to the defense just to get under the salary cap and, let's face it, the jury's still out on Danny Dimes. Based on how efficient Ryan Tannehill was throwing against this secondary (20-33, 266 yards and 2 TD), and how mistake prone Jones still is, I wouldn't go pre-ordering those postseason tickets just yet.

But the lift these players got from their head coach will do wonders for their confidence. After four years of Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge collectively shitting the bed, Daboll's gutsy move was the perfect tonic for what ailed this team.

And for a fanbase that's been desperately searching for something, anything it can hang its cap on, it was a signal that perhaps those dark days of the past might soon be over.

An Open Letter to John Mara

Dear Mr. Mara,

How are those trash cans doing? I heard you threw a couple of them around your suite at Met Life Stadium after the game against the Falcons. Hopefully they didn't get too badly damaged. Good trash cans are so hard to come by these days.

Seriously, though, have you had enough? How long are you going to let this nightmare go on before you wake up and do what has to be done? This franchise is a fucking joke, and frankly it's been that way for a very long time.

Since your last Super Bowl win in 2011, the Giants have had exactly two winning seasons (2012 and 2016) and one lousy playoff appearance (2016). The overall record during that span is an abysmal 57-80, including three losses this season. During the reign of Dave Gettleman, the man you hired to replace Jerry Reese, the record is 15-36.

You fired Tom Coughlin because you felt the game had passed him by. OK, fine, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. It's a business, I get it. But here's the thing: at least he had a resume. Ben McAdoo was an offensive coordinator under Coughlin and a quarterback coach at Green Bay, Pat Schurmer was a failed head coach at Cleveland and an offensive coordinator at Minnesota, and Joe Judge was a special team's assistant under Bill Belichick at New England. 

While you were drooling over landing Judge, several quality candidates slipped through your fingers. One of them, Matt Rhule, after going 5-11 with the Carolina Panthers last year is currently 3-0 and in first place in the same division as Tom Brady's Buccaneers, with a starting quarterback New York's other moribund football team discarded during the offseason. 

Transforming losing programs is Rhule's specialty. He successfully turned around both Baylor and Temple before jumping to the NFL. As of right now, he has the inside track to be coach of the year. Your guy? So far, he's no better than his last two predecessors. The Giants still commit way too many costly mistakes at critical moments and seem incapable of making key stops on defense when they need to. Last Sunday, Atlanta marched down the field and kicked a game winning field goal as time expired. The week before that, Washington did the same thing. Yes, Dexter Lawrence jumped offsides, but the bottom line is the defense still couldn't protect a lead.

The offensive line remains a problem; the receivers drop way too many balls; and the team hasn't had a legit edge rusher in over a decade. Gettleman has had four years to fix what's wrong and he's thoroughly failed. His decision to take Daniel Jones with the 6th overall pick in 2019 instead of Josh Allen should've earned him a pink slip. Instead, you gave him two more years to inflict yet more damage. And true to form, he didn't disappoint. Last year, he took offensive tackle Andrew Thomas with the 4th overall pick, bypassing more skilled tackles like Tristian Wirfs and Jedrick Wills, Jr, the latter played at Alabama for Nick Saban, Judge's old boss. Thomas has been underwhelming, to say the least, while the other two have excelled.

It's time to wipe the slate clean. Gettleman's gotta go. I realize you may have to keep some of the coaching staff until the end of the season, but I've seen nothing from Judge that leads me to believe he is capable of turning this ship around. If anything, he's a slightly improved version of McAdoo, but without the play calling ability.

What this organization needs is a complete makeover. The game has changed considerably since the days of George Young. The best franchises today aren't run from the front office; they're run from the sidelines. You want to know who the best GM's are, Mr. Mara? Simple, take a look at who's wearing the headsets. Besides Belichick and Rhule, Pete Carrol, Sean Payton, Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, John Harbaugh and Andy Reid all run the show from top to bottom. And with the exception of Rhule, all have been to the Super Bowl at least once.

You need to get one of these guys, and now. Someone who knows how to evaluate talent and can bring out the best in it. You have two first round draft picks next year. Maybe you could dangle both to pry Sean Payton away from New Orleans. He once worked for your father as an assistant under Jim Fassel, so it'll be a sort of homecoming for him. Payton checks all the boxes and has one of the best minds in the game. If anybody can figure out Daniel Jones, it's Payton. And he'll finally fix this offensive line so you don't have to worry about stupid-assed holding penalties in the red zone that kill scoring drives.

It's time the New York Giants entered the 21st century. This is one of the premiere franchises in the NFL. As principle owner, you have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure it doesn't become a laughingstock. To allow the stars quo to continue is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of fans who each Sunday shell out their hard-earned money to watch this team in person, and the millions more who watch it alone at home. 

It's all on you, Mr. Mara. What are you waiting for?

"Trader Dave" Silences the Haters

I have two questions for the man posing as Giants general manager. Who are you and what have you done with Dave Gettleman?

Seriously, in the past eight NFL drafts, five of which were with the Carolina Panthers, Gettleman hadn't once traded back. And with six picks in this year's draft, including the 11th pick in the first round, it was looking very much like number nine wasn't going to be any different.

And then...

The Philadelphia Eagles, who had the 12th pick in the first round, decided to leap frog ahead of the Giants, and took DeVonta Smith, considered by some as the best receiver in the draft, with the 10th pick. There's no doubt Gettleman had Smith on his board and would've taken him had he been there, so you can just imagine what the scene was like at MetLife Stadium after the Eagle selection.

With Smith gone, Gettleman examined his options. He still wanted a receiver but pondered possibly taking Micah Parsons, the linebacker from Penn State, who everyone and their grandmother had rated the best defensive prospect in the draft. That's when the Chicago Bears entered the picture. The Bears had the 20th pick and they were looking for a quarterback, having struck out trying to pry Russel Wilson away from Seattle.

Since the 49ers threw a monkey wrench into everything and chose Trey Lance instead of Mac Jones with the 3rd overall pick, the conventional wisdom was that Bill Belichick would grab Jones with the 15th pick. That left Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields available. But would Fields still be there at 20? That was the sixty-four thousand dollar question. No one knows who initiated contact, but when all was said and done, the Bears and Giants swapped first round picks and the Giants wound up getting the Bear's fifth round pick this year and the Bear's first and fourth round picks in 2022. 

Given it was Gettleman's first trade down, it was a nice haul. Not only did he get a quality receiver in Kadarius Toney with the 20th pick, he accumulated valuable draft capital for next year's draft, which almost everybody agrees will be deeper and richer than this one.

Gettleman wasn't remotely done trading, though. He swapped second round picks with the Dolphins and netted their 2022 third rounder. And with the 50th pick, landed outside linebacker Azeez Ojularo, one of the best pass rushers in the draft. Then in round three, he traded up and snagged cornerback Aaron Robinson, who many analysts thought was a mid- second rounder.

As a result of Gettleman's wheeling and dealing, the Giants had one of the best and most productive drafts that they've had in years. They filled two needs - receiver and edge rusher - and fortified a strength - the secondary. The Giants now have one of the deepest secondaries in the league and have the pass rusher they've been looking for since the glory days of the Tom Coughlin era.

Two years ago, Dave Gettleman panicked and used the 6th overall pick on Daniel Jones when he could've gotten him with the 17th pick. In so doing he let a valuable defensive player in Josh Allen slip away and he was justly ripped for that blunder.

This time around, Gettleman didn't panic. He used his leverage to not just improve the present roster, but the future one as well. With two number one picks in next year's draft, the Giants are well positioned to either improve on what they already have or combine both picks and trade up to draft a new quarterback if they decide Jones isn't the second coming of Eli Manning after all.

It's a position the organization hasn't been in in a very long time. And it's long overdue. Bravo, sir.

Memo to John Mara: Forget About Jason Garrett!

Look, I know I've been critical of your organization over the last six years, and with good reason. As principal owner, you've allowed a once proud franchise to deteriorate to the point where, were it not for the hapless Cincinnati Bengals, you'd be in line to get the first overall pick in next year's draft. Even with the Bengals in the mix, you're still the odds-on favorites to get the second pick. That would make two out of the last three years in which your team had a pick that high in the draft, and the other year you went sixth. Not since the '70s, when your father Wellington ran the show, has this franchise been this inept. Shame on you for letting that happen.

But as bad as things are now, they could get worse. I know that's hard to believe given the fact that you could finish the season with a record of 2-14, but yes, it could get worse. And that's because there's a rumor floating around out there that beleaguered Cowboys coach Jason Garrett would like the chance to coach the Giants should Jerry Jones decide to fire him at the end of the season.

Let me just be as direct as I can here. Jason Garrett deserves to be the head coach of this team the same way I deserve to be the starting center for the New York Knicks. Have you watched the Cowboys this season? They look like a herd of deer caught in some motorist headlights. Never have I seen a team this talented be this completely overmatched on the playing field. Despite outgaining their opponent on Thanksgiving day, the Buffalo Bills embarrassed the Cowboys on national TV by forcing three turnovers and converting on key down after key down. Josh Allen in his first full season at quarterback looked like a ten year veteran, while Dak Prescott played like a rookie making his first start.

Of course, the problem for Prescott is that this is his fourth season in the NFL, and not only hasn't he improved from his rookie year, he shows every indication that he's going backwards. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that Prescott isn't a good QB; it's just that given the level of talent around him, he's nowhere near where he should be. Compare and contrast Prescott's stats with those of Russell Wilson. While Prescott has averaged more yards per game than Wilson - 315 to 267 - he's thrown eight more picks. And his passer rating is 13 points lower than Wilson's, and five points lower than what it was in his rookie season. Put succinctly, Prescott has not improved as a quarterback over the course of his career, and that is a direct result of having a head coach who doesn't know how to get the best out of his players.

Think about it: a team that has Ezekiel Elliott in its backfield, the best offensive line in the game and a front seven that can instill fear in opposing quarterbacks and running backs alike, and they're 6-6 with four games to play? And that's after they got off to a 3 and 0 start by beating the likes of the Giants, Redskins and Dolphins. There's no excuse for what's going on with this team. The mystery here isn't how Garrett has somehow managed to last this long as Cowboys' head coach, but why any team in its right mind would want to hire him for anything more important than, say, ball boy.

He's a terrible clock manager who has virtually no abilities as a play caller. Just last week in a game against the Patriots in Foxborough, Bill Belichick badly outcoached him. And it's crystal clear from all the available evidence that Garrett doesn't command the respect of his players, either. No less a Cowboys' legend than Jason Witten, when given the chance to back his coach, instead threw him and his assistants under the bus. As every sports fan knows all too well, when you lose the locker room as a coach or manager, you're toast.

What the Giants need is a teacher; someone who can develop young players like Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. But they also need a no-nonsense coach who will bring discipline to the sidelines. This team hasn't just been bad this year, they've been sloppy. The amount of mistakes that are committed on both sides of the ball are indicative of a team that not only doesn't know how to make critical plays at critical moments in the game, but is not held accountable when it fails to do so.

The play calling has been equally abysmal, both offensively and defensively. While it's true you can't overcome a dearth in talent - not in this league anyway - you can mitigate it if you know how to utilize the talent you do have. A good coach can give even the least talented team a fighting chance on Sunday. But instead, Pat Shurmur and his assistants look like a pack of absentee landlords in a slum.

If the Giants do in fact fire Shurnur and his assistants at the end of the season - as they should - and if Jerry Jones does the same with Garrett and Co. in Dallas, both franchises should do themselves an enormous favor and hire replacements that can bring out the best in their respective teams. For the Giants, that means looking outside the box and going with someone who, for lack of a better expression, kills both birds with one stone.

And after considerable consideration, there's only one name that comes to mind: Jim Harbaugh. Yes, I know he's currently coaching at Michigan and, yes, I'm fully aware that he hasn't exactly done a bang up job there. But that shouldn't disqualify him from being the next head coach of this team. It certainly didn't disqualify Pete Carroll when the Seattle Seahawks were looking for a head coach and I'm fairly confident that nobody would argue that his hiring hasn't transformed that franchise, and indeed the entire city. Were it not for a bad call late in Super Bowl 49 against the Pats, the Seahawks would've won back to back titles.

But getting back to Harbaugh. When he took over as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, that franchise hadn't made the postseason in almost a decade and he managed to get it to three consecutive NFC championship games and a Super Bowl appearance in four seasons. And let's be honest, Giants fans, if Kyle Williams doesn't fumble that punt in overtime, it might've been two Super Bowl appearances. That's how good the 49ers were under Harbaugh.

Prior to Harbaugh's arrival in the Bay area, Alex Smith was at best an average quarterback. But in Harbaugh's first year at the helm, Smith not only became a solid signal caller, he led the team to a 13-3 record and an appearance in the conference title game, which as I mentioned above, might well have been a Super Bowl appearance had it not been for some shoddy ball handling.

Then the following season, Harbaugh took the biggest gamble of his coaching career by benching Smith for second-string quarterback Colin Kaepernick. At the time, the 49ers had a record of 6-2-1. With Kaepernick under center, the team went 5-2 down the stretch and made it all the way to the Super Bowl before losing to the Baltimore Ravens, who were coached by Harbaugh's brother, John.

The bottom line is that Jim Harbaugh knows how to win in the NFL. He reversed the fortunes of a moribund franchise that was going nowhere fast. He also turned two mediocre quarterbacks into championship caliber quarterbacks; just imagine what he could do with Daniel Jones. Think about this for a moment. If Harbaugh had had a running back as talented as Barkley in his backfield, he might've won that Super Bowl against his brother. Hell, he might've won two of 'em. Here's another morsel to chew on. Had 49ers' CEO Jed York not fired Harbaugh after the 2014 season, as his GM Trent Baalke wanted, he might've been spared the ensuing four years of losing records. There's a lesson to be learned here: great coaches, unlike their general managers, do not grow on trees.

Now before we all get carried away, a reality check is in order. No matter who the Giants hire to replace Shurmur, it will not be an easy task putting this franchise back on the winning path. A lot of bad decision making went into creating this catastrophe masquerading as a football team. But while hiring the right football coach may not be the silver bullet Giants fans have been dreaming of ever since Tom Coughlin was shown the door, hiring the wrong one again could set things back a decade or more.

Consider this. Barry Sanders, the legendary running back Barkley is most compared to, had exactly one postseason win to show for his ten seasons with the Detroit Lions. As tragic as that fact may be, the Giants are in jeopardy of one upping it.

Food for thought this holiday season, Mr, Mara.

End of an Era.

Before I proceed to slice and dice the New York Giants for the brutal way in which they handled this whole, ugly affair, I wanted to say a few things about Eli Manning first.

With the exception of Lawrence Taylor, who was the best defensive player I ever saw play the game, no one had a bigger or more profound impact on this franchise than number 10. Eli was a class act and a true professional. He's the only quarterback in NFL history who can boast with pride that he beat Tom Brady twice in the Super Bowl. And I'm also pretty sure he's the only quarterback who went into Lambeau Field twice and beat Brett Favre and Aaron Rogers in a playoff game; the former in sub-freezing conditions, the latter against a 15-1 team. Had Jerry Reese done a better job of drafting offensive linemen during his tenure, Manning might well have won a third title, that's how good he was.

Many "critics" have opined about how Manning's skills have deteriorated over the last few years. You try getting your ass pile driven into the turf six, seven, eight times a game and let's see how your skills hold up. The fact that he hasn't missed a game due to injury in his entire 16 year career is nothing short of miraculous, given how little protection he's had the last six seasons. Were it not for Ben McAdoo's decision to bench him for, of all players, Gino Smith in 2017, he would've entered week three of this season having started 233 consecutive games, second only behind Favre. Not bad for a guy the so-called experts said was overrated.

For all the talk about how great the David Tyree and Mario Manningham catches were in Super Bowls 42 and 46 respectively - and they were great - the fact is that it was Manning who delivered both throws. The Manningham ball, in particular, was perfectly placed. Had it been thrown slightly to the left, Manningham would not have been able to catch it; had it been just to the right, it would've been batted away. Without those plays, the Patriots and not the Giants would've won both games. That's why Manning, and not Brady, was the MVP in those contests. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, New England fans.

On behalf of every Giants fan out there, I wanted to say thank you, Eli, for all the great memories. I still have your jersey and I will wear it proudly this Sunday when your team goes up against Tampa. Daniel Jones has some mighty big shoes to fill.

And now onto the main course.

Once more, this franchise botched what should've been a graceful transition. Dave Gettleman's refusal to admit that the Giants were in rebuilding mode when he took control over a year ago, meant that the team was compelled to retain Manning and his $23 million salary going into this season. It's now painfully obvious that he was going to select a quarterback in this year's draft, having passed on one last year. Fine, I have no problem with that. I'll say it again: Saquon Barkley was the best player in the 2018 draft. You don't pass on a generational player like that.

But if Gettleman was determined to choose a quarterback in 2019, he should've jettisoned Manning before the season began and put that money to work where it was sorely needed: the secondary. It was inevitable, given how well Jones performed during the preseason, that he was going to eventually be named the starter. Gettleman could've chosen to do what the Jets did a year earlier: let his number one draft pick learn how to be a successful quarterback under center rather than on the sidelines. I'm not saying the Giants' record would've been any better with Jones as the starter, but at least the expectations would've been set a whole lot lower.

So now this team, with arguably the worst secondary in the league and a front seven that at best is below average, has a $23 million quarterback riding the bench and a rookie quarterback at the helm. And for that, owner John Mara must take full responsibility. It was undoubtedly his call to keep Manning this season, rather than release him and allow him to sign with another NFL team that could've used his services. Imagine Eli taking over the reigns in Pittsburgh, where Ben Roethlisberger is done for the season. Or perhaps landing in Jacksonville to take over for Nick Foles, who is also out for the remainder of the year. How sweet would it have been to see Eli reunited with Tom Coughlin? Now he's forced to sit while Jones starts in his place. If you don't think that's humiliating, you've never watched a football game in your life. There are bench players in this league that are treated better.

Face it: the Giants are the laughing stock of the NFL. Their ownership and G.M. have managed to take a bad football team and somehow make it worse. Going into this season I thought they might go 7-9. As things stand now, they'll be lucky if they match last year's record of 5-11. But one thing's for certain, the man who proudly wore number 10 for 16 seasons had nothing to do with this train wreck. In fact, had his team performed with the same level of professionalism he exhibited game in and game out, I dare say the Giants would be one of the league's premier teams; right up there with the Patriots.

Reese's Pieces

So now that Tom Coughlin has "resigned" as Giants' head coach, the sixty-four thousand question that begs to be answered is why didn't Jerry Reese "resign" as well. Because if it's fair game to hold Coughlin accountable for how the wheels came off this season, it's only reasonable to hold Reese accountable for providing the wheels in the first place.

Look, Coughlin did a poor job this year. That's fairly obvious, but he didn't exactly have the '72 Dolphins to work with. It is the G.M.'s job to give his coach the tools to win and Reese has done a lousy job. The offense, save for Eli Manning and Odell Beckham, Jr, is paper thin, and the once vaunted defense is the worst in the NFL. That wasn't Coughlin's fault. Indeed, the two-time Superbowl-winning coach had almost no support from his front office. Jerry Reese took the reigns from Ernie Accorsi who had carefully built two championship teams.

In addition to drafting Manning, the list of players Accorsi either drafted or signed includes Justin Tuck, Osi Umenyiora, Antonio Pierce, Chris Snee, Plaxico Burress, Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs. He also hired Coughlin. By comparison, Reese brought in Victor Cruz, Jason Pierre Paul and Beckham and little more. While all three were considerable additions, they weren't nearly enough to propel the team by themselves. As Accorsi's players either retired or departed for other teams, Reese's replacements couldn't cut it.

Whoever the Giants pick to coach the team in 2016, this much is certain: if Reese doesn't do a considerably better job at bringing in talent, the results will be the same. Another disappointing season and another year in which Eli Manning will not have a shot at winning a Superbowl. The Mara family has a long history of being patient, sometimes to a fault, with their employees. They certainly showed that patience with Coughlin. Virtually any other coach would've been fired a year or two ago. Just look at what happened to Chip Kelly after just one losing season in Philadelphia. But their reluctance to fire Reese might well come back to haunt them. While Reese may be only the third general manager since 1979, he is by far the least effective.

And now he is tasked with rebuilding a team he had a huge role in dismembering.

Nightmare at Dallas

I was going to title this posting Return of the Fumble, but the above title will suffice. Besides, there was only one true culprit that November day at the Meadowlands and at least Bob Gibson, the offensive coordinator who called that ridiculous play, got his just deserts. Last Sunday's loss had a litany of villains.

Let's start with the head coach. It pains me to say this, but Tom Coughlin needs to go. He simply isn't up to handling a team the way a head coach needs to. There is simply no excuse for him not making sure his assistant coach and quarterback were on the same page. With just under 2 minutes left in the game, up by three and the ball at the 2 yard line, with no timeouts left for Dallas, how in the world do you allow a pass play to be called by your offensive coordinator? The correct call is a run up the middle. If you get in, the game is over; if you don't, you run another 40 seconds off the clock and you kick a field goal. The Cowboys would have about 58 seconds left in which to march the length of the field instead of a minute 38 seconds. Tom blew it big time.

But even allowing for the Coughlin meltdown, Eli Manning should've known that the Cowboys had no timeouts left - and if he didn't, shame on him. If he didn't have a man open in the end zone, the correct play was to fall down on the ball and take the sack. Again, the Giants would've kicked a field goal and Dallas would've gotten the ball back with under a minute to play. Manning should know better. No excuse.

But now we come down to the defensive coordinator: Steve Spagnuolo. For most of the game, his players made life hell for the Cowboys. They relentlessly pursued Dallas and forced three turnovers, two of which lead to scores for the Giants. But on the last two Cowboy possessions, they were nowhere to be found. Saying they were soft would do a disservice to the word soft. Dallas marched down the field twice virtually uncontested. The winning drive took all of 90 seconds. Tony Romo could've had a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee in the pocket, that's how pathetic the Giants' defense looked. This was the epitome of a prevent defense.

All three of these geniuses have a lot of explaining to do. They didn't just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, like that infamous 1978 Giants team did that November Sunday; they let a team that had outplayed them but made several bad plays steal a game they had no right to win.

That's right, this was a game the Giants by all accounts should not have won, but were less than 2 minutes away from taking. The Cowboys had the ball most of the game and controlled the line of scrimmage. Had they not turned the ball over three times, the Giants would never have been in a position to win at all.

And that's what makes this loss so brutal. For most of the game, the Giants teased their fans and had them thinking, maybe we're not so bad after all. And then the roof fell in and reality came back to bite them in the ass. They've had moments like this in the Coughlin era - way too many for my taste. But this one stung more than all the others combined.

The Giants will try to spin this by saying, "it's one game, we'll learn from this and not let it happen again." Sure they will. And I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you for a wooden nickel.

The football Giants have been making way too many excuses for way too long. It has been four years since the team last had a winning record and that just happened to be the year they last won the Super Bowl.

The sad truth is that if the Giants ever expect Eli Manning to deliver another title they are going to have to get him a coaching staff and yes a G.M. (you didn't think I had forgotten about you, Jerry Reese?). Both the offensive and defensive lines are a mess and both the secondary and linebackers are thin. John Beason's absence proved fatal on that last Cowboy drive.

It is the job of the general manager to get the best players for his coaching staff, and it is the coaching staff's job to make sure they get the best out of those players come game time. Both have been utter failures these last few years and it's high time that Steve Tisch and John Mara realized this and pulled the plug on this current group.

Enough with the lame excuses. Enough with coming up short and allowing games to get away. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over. For the Giants, that has become a mantra.