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New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman, appearing on ‘Good Morning Football’ Wednesday with Peter Schrager, said the Giants have had “a really good offseason” and continued to preach patience as the organization builds the team for 2019 and beyond.
He said he laughs at the “I have no plan” chatter.
“I call this the roster building season. There’s a game season and there’s a roster building season. At the end of the day we don’t play until September. I have my beliefs in how we’re going to build a roster and that’s what we’re doing,” Gettleman said.
“We’ve got plenty of time. We’ve gotten through free agency. My theory on free agency is if you do it right it puts you in a position where you can take the best player available in the draft. You’re not in the situation where ‘I have to have a -- and then fill in the blank. You don’t want to be there, so I think we’ve done that.”
Asked once again to defend the trade of Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns, Gettleman’s belief in team over individual was apparent.
“Every decision a general manager makes is sending a message to the rest of the team and sending a message obviously to the fan base,” Gettleman said. “At the end of the day football is the ultimate team game. Last time I checked when you blow a whistle and the ball is spotted there’s 11 guys on both sides of the ball.
“Our game is the ultimate team sport, and the best team will win. It’s about volume in terms of talent. The business decision was teams had called us, we were not going to give Odell away and we didn’t.”
The general manager also again said there had been a “false narrative” about quarterback Eli Manning, insisting that the quarterback “had a heckuva year” in 2018.
“At the end of the day Eli can still make all of the NFL throws, he can still play … Eli still is a quality NFL quarterback. It wears me out.”
Gettleman, though, acknowledged what everyone knows — that the Giants have to plan for life after their 38-year-old quarterback.
“Yes, we have to address it. It’s reality,” he said. “So, when the time’s right we will.”
Here are Giants GM Dave Gettleman's full comments from his interview w/ @PSchrags on @gmfb pic.twitter.com/4ZACU98S9h
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) March 27, 2019