Dave Gettleman: Offensive Play Makers a Giant Off-season Priority

If the Giants brass as led by COO John Mara and general manager Dave Gettleman have learned nothing else about the 2020 team's biggest deficiency, it's offensive playmakers.

Seventeen point five points per game.

That’s the average points per game scored by the Giants in 2020 and a big reason why they finished 6-10.

How bad was it? Kicker Graham Gano led the team with 114 points scored—no surprise really, as kickers usually finish first on their respective teams in scoring.

But the next closest player to Gano’s total was running back Wayne Gallman, who had 36 points scored. He was followed by receiver Sterling Shepard, who scored 26 points while Darius Slayton, Golden Tate, and Evan Engram finished with 18, 12, and 12 points scored, respectively.

Woof!

Those numbers are a big reason why general manager Dave Gettleman, who spent most of the last three years focusing on improving his hog mollies on both sides of the ball, is going to shift focus and take care of a long-overdue problem on offense.

“This is an important roster building off-season for us,” Gettleman said. “We've got some solid pieces. We've built up the lines. We have to continue to get good play, good players. And part of it is getting play makers. So that's a goal of ours, obviously, for the off season.”

Early indications show that there will be plenty of playmakers to be had in free agency (assuming nothing changes with those players and their respective clubs between now and the start of free agency).

Some potential answers at receiver available via free agency include Allen Robinson of the Bears and Detroit’s Kenny Golladay.

And in the draft, names that come to mind as potential playmakers include LSU’s WR Ja’Marr Chase, Alabama WR Jaylen Waddle, and WR Devonta Smith.

The addition of veterans and draft picks to a group that’s expected to carry over Shepard, Slayton, and Engram plus a (hopefully) health Saquon Barkley in 2021 is hoped to give the Giants a little more firepower.

“You can never have too many good players, bottom line,” Gettleman said. “That's a stock answer is every general manager is going to tell you. But at the end of the day, we need to find playmakers. That’s all there is to it.

“I'm not sugar coating it. If you talk about philosophically doing roster building, the big men allow you to compete, then on offense, it's playmakers and let’s go. So we're very conscious of it, and we're going to, we're going to find the right guys to help (quarterback) Daniel (Jones).”