New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen has made several curious personnel decisions in recent years, failing to trade players such as running back Saquon Barkley, safety Xavier McKinney, and linebacker Azeez Ojulari at the deadline.
All three are now gone -- Barkley and Ojulari to the Philadelphia Eagles, McKinney to the Green Bay Packers -- and the Giants received nothing in return outside of help in the compensatory pick formula.
In addition, Schoen has been forced to backfill those positions in subsequent free agency periods. This offseason, that included the addition of veteran safety Jevon Holland.
Those decisions were recently panned by an anonymous NFL executive, who told The Athletic that Schoen was being "reactive" in nature.
"If you don’t let Xavier McKinney go to market last year, you don’t need Holland this year," the exec said. "You are being reactive. (Paulson) Adebo is decent when healthy but coming off injury. Holland had a downtick last year with Miami, but he is still young, and if you are going to sign someone, sign someone young."
Other NFL executives also offered critical takes on co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, accusing them of meddling.
"They went to Cam Ward’s pro day, came back from that and signed Russell Wilson," one exec said. "To me, that says that the owner said, 'You cannot trade up for a quarterback. If one falls to you, great, draft him, but you are not trading up for one.'"
That's a fair assessment if true, but multiple reports suggest it's not steeped in any sort of reality. The Giants have contacted the Titans about the No. 1 overall pick and reportedly continue to do so as of this writing.
Still, executives take issue with Mara's offseason mandate. After retaining the regime of Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll, he suggested marked improvement would have to be made in 2025 or it could be lights out for the duo in 2026.
"If you have the most stable ownership, you come out and say, ‘I believe in these guys, it’s been a weird set of circumstances, but they are the right people,'" another exec said. "There is no way you can run a franchise going from three wins to playoffs as a mandate."
Stability is not something the Giants have had over the past decade. Whether it's Mara and Tisch or their chosen regimes, every decision made seems reactive, and the results have borne that out.
Unfortunately for Giants fans, that instability and reactive decision-making will continue next year, barring a miraculous turnaround here in 2025.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: NFL executives question Giants ownership, personnel moves
