On Tuesday night, “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants” premiered on HBO and peeled back the curtain on the Joe Schoen-Brian Daboll regime a bit.
There were several notable takeaways from the 40-minute episode, as well as some under-the-radar moments. However, how the show was interpreted varies from fan to fan and from analyst to analyst.
In the mind of former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi, who is often critical of the Giants, it showed a franchise without an identity.
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During Wednesday’s edition of the Lombardi Line podcast, Lombardi began his critique by slamming Schoen and the Giants for their continued commitment to quarterback Daniel Jones.
“To me, there’s a disconnect,” Lombardi said. “There was a sense. . . that somewhere on some tape that I can’t find that Daniel Jones has played above the line. I can’t find that tape. I don’t see it.
“They act like if he’s healthy, (they’re) going to be really good. And I’m missing that. So, for me, that was a hard thing to understand and get my arms around.”
Lombardi also argued that the Giants have gotten away from what has worked for them historically, namely the process put in place by the late George Young. The further removed the organization has gotten from that, the more failure and turnover they have experienced.
“They’ve gone through so many coaches and they’ve gone through so many staffs, that the staffs are now instituting the philosophical nature of the company and that’s when companies often fail,” Lombardi said.
Things aren’t going to get any better for the Giants in Lombardi’s eyes. He doesn’t believe Schoen has the proper power structure in place and argues that there are too many opinions being shared around the table.
“When you’ve got that many people involved in decision-making, you’re going to make a bad decision. You’ve got too many opinions,” Lombardi said. “There should be a pyramid of opinions. . . They really don’t know who they are. They don’t know what a Giant player is. To me, that’s the biggest problem I took away from (the show).
“What is a Giant player? Like, who are we? What is our identity? You can’t get that from Shane Bowen. You can’t get that from Mike Kafka. You have to have an identity from who you are as a team.”
Lombardi continued, claiming the Giants are lost at sea without an identity.
“If you don’t know who you are, how the hell do you find players out there who can fix it?” he said. “To me, it was about ‘we’re picking players here. We’re just picking players here.’ There was no real conversation about what wins in the league because the Giants had that formula for years.
“If you’re wondering why they’re not being successful, I think it’s because they don’t have an overall philosophical belief in who they are as a football team.”
If what Lombardi says proves to be true, it won’t be long before the Giants are back on the market looking for a new general manager and head coach.