John Mara: Giants needed “wholesale changes”

With the New York Giants at 2-10 and in a state of dysfunction unlike anything the franchise had seen in recent times, ownership took the extraordinary step on Monday of firing both head coach Ben McAdoo and GM Jerry Reese.

‘We (Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch) agreed that wholesale changes needed to be made to this organization,” Mara said on Monday afternoon. “We also agreed that it was pointless to wait any longer to make these changes.”

Mara said that interim head coach Steve Spagnuolo and interim general manager Kevin Abrams, both vetern members of the Giants’ organization, will be considered candidates for the permanent positions.

Mara also indicated that former Giants’ general manager Ernie Accorsi will be a consultant for the team as it searches for a new GM.

Mara indicated the Giants “have names in mind” for the GM job and that “in all likelihood” the team will hire a general manager before it hires a new head coach.

Mara said last week’s Eli Manning debacle was not the deciding factor in the change. In fact, he said that had “no effect” on the moves.

“Two and 10 is two and 10,” Mara said. “I just felt like we needed a complete overhaul.”

Despite reports that Manning will return to the starting lineup this week against the Dallas Cowboys, Mara would not commit to that. He said Spagnuolo will make that decision.

Mara was asked why the Giants went back on their commitment to keep McAdoo until the end of the season.

“We changed our minds given all of the events that have occurred,” he said. “It became more and more apparent we were going to have to do something at the end of the season.”

Mara did say he was “embarrassed” about the team being 2-10.

“We’ve had an embarrassing season,” Mara said. “I know our fans are suffering, but I’m suffering more right now. We’ve gotten to the point where we feel like we had to make wholesale changes, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Mara added that he didn’t see this type of season coming.

“I was very confident about this roster … I thought it was as talented a roster as we’ve had here in a long time. We were supposed to be better,” Mara said. “It’s really been the perfect storm. Everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong this season.”

Now McAdoo and Reese, the architects of the storm, have been tossed overboard.