Less than one month after firing general manager Jerry Reese, the Giants have already found his replacement.
The team announced on Thursday that Dave Gettleman has been tabbed to serve as the team's next general manager. The 66-year-old has a long history with the Giants and worked in the team's front office between 1998 and 2012 when New York won two Super Bowls.
Giants president John Mara and chairman Steve Tisch said that Gettleman's prior experience with the organization was a big reason why they liked him for the job.
"Given where we are as a team, we thought it was important to bring in someone with experience as a general manager and a proven track record," Mara and Tisch said in a statement. "Dave's experience is unparalleled. He did an outstanding job as general manager in Carolina, and he was vital to our success during his tenure here. Dave is going to bring his own approach to our organization in how we draft and acquire players through free agency."
Gettleman was only available to he hired because he was surprisingly fired by the Panthers back in July after four years with the team. Despite the fact that the Panthers went to the playoffs three times in four seasons under Gettleman's watch, he still lost favor with owner Jerry Richardson over the way he treated veterans like Steve Smith, DeAngelo Williams and Josh Norman.
Despite the apparent disconnect, Gettleman's tenure in Carolina was still wildly successful on the field. Not only did the Panthers go to the playoffs three times, but they also went to Super Bowl 50 after a 15-1 season in 2015.
As soon as the Giants' GM job became open after the firing of Reese on Dec. 4, Gettleman immediately became a frontrunner for the job. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported as early as Dec. 10 that Gettleman would likely be hired. However, before hiring Gettleman, the Giants interviewed three other candidates, including interim general manager Kevin Abrams, Giants vice president of player evaluation Marc Ross and former NFL personnel executive and current ESPN analyst Louis Riddick.
It's a good thing the Giants hired Gettleman now because it's going to take some serious work to clean up the mess that Reese and Ben McAdoo left him. At 2-13, the Giants are currently staring at possibly getting the No. 2 overall pick in the draft, which is good news for a team that has several holes to fill and doesn't seem to have any plans in place to replace an aging Eli Manning.
Gettleman started his career with the Giants in 1998 when he was hired as an assistant to the pro personnel director. He was then promoted to pro personnel director in 1999 and remained there until 2011. Gettleman also served one season in 2012 as the team's senior pro personnel analyst.
The Giants' new GM has been in the NFL since 1986, when he was hired to serve as an intern in the Bills scouting department.
