New York Giants Fire General Manager Jerry Reese

Ben McAdoo wasn’t the only recipient of a pink slip this Monday. General manager Jerry Reese was fired by the organization on Monday as well, per Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL Network.

With New York going 2-10 this season, it was only a matter of time before Reese felt the wrath of Giants ownership. It all came to a head after the botched benching of Eli Manning last week, where he, McAdoo, and owner John Mara signed off on the move. With massive public outcry, Mara expressed regret on how the transition from Manning to Geno Smith was handled.

“I just think that where we are as a franchise right now, you know, we’re 2-10,” said Mara. “We’ve kind of been spiraling out of control. I just felt like we needed a complete overhaul. I don’t think there was any one event or one final act to precipitate that.”

Reese has been on-and-off the hot seat throughout his 11-year tenure. The “Fire Reese,” movements were halted when the Giants won two Super Bowls in the span of four years. However, after missing out on the playoffs in four of the past five years and an overall record of 41-52 since, Mara felt a change had to be made.

One of the main criticisms that has been made of Reese is his poor draft record. In his 11-years, only six of the players the general manager drafted were named to the Pro Bowl. Reese did strike gold with Odell Beckham Jr back in 2014. However, he did receive flack for his selections of Ereck Flowers and Eli Apple in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the lack of attention paid to the offensive line position. After the 2016 season where the Giants made the playoffs, the team’s main weakness was the o-line. Many thought that Reese would address the position, especially with the likes of Andrew Whitworth on the market. However, the GM elected to sign wide receiver Brandon Marshall instead.

Reese defended the decision by saying he wanted to bring youth to the o-line. When looking at the decision now, Whitworth is one of the key pieces to the Los Angeles’ Rams success this season. The running game lead by Todd Gurley is rejuvenated. Looking at the Giants, the running game is non-existent.

With Reese out of the picture, Mara has promoted assistant general manager Kevin Abrams to the interim position until a new GM is hired. On top of that, the co-owner is bringing in former GM Ernie Accorsi as a consultant for their search.