PAUL SCHWARTZ: Jerry Reese rightfully took responsibility for the sad state of Giants affairs and the 1-6 record, saying &ldquo;I&rsquo;m responsible for everybody on the roster and I&rsquo;ll take ownership to where we are right now.&rsquo;&rsquo; It was a bit curious what came next in Reese&rsquo;s annual bye-week State of the Team address. In various ways, he said the same thing: The Giants, coming off an 11-5 season, were too full of themselves and did not play hard enough as they fell into a 0-5 hole. He said &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t walk out there and think people are going to just lay down for you because people are saying good things about you.&rsquo;&rsquo; And he said &ldquo;I think we bought into some of the hype&rsquo;&rsquo; and &ldquo;we just didn&rsquo;t go out and strain as hard as you have to strain to play in this league.&rsquo;&rsquo; And Reese said &ldquo;When you win 11 games, then you&rsquo;ve got a little bit of swagger about you, you come back and say &lsquo;Well, this is pretty easy.&rsquo;&rsquo;&rsquo; He also said &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to play with some passion out there&rsquo;&rsquo; and &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any of the hunger coming out of the gate.&rsquo;&rsquo; Whenever a team&rsquo;s effort and readiness is questioned, it almost always is an indictment of the head coach. Isn&rsquo;t it his job to get his team to ignore the hype and get his team ready to play hard and with passion? Reese was asked about this and said, no, he was not laying this all at the foot of Ben McAdoo. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not on the head coach, it&rsquo;s on all of us,&rsquo;&rsquo; Reese said. Well, what does a general manager have to do with a team&rsquo;s effort and intensity? That is all on the head coach &ndash; and the players, of course. Plenty of fans are questioning the talent Reese assembled on the roster. Reese is saying he believes in the talent but that the talent did not play with enough urgency. He can talk around this all he wants, but that is the domain of the head coach.JERRY FOLEY: Paul, I don&rsquo;t know how anyone associated the Giants, which includes the owners, the coaching staff, the players, and the fans, could possibly come away from that press conference thinking, &ldquo;Oh yeah, we have the right man at the helm to lead this franchise next year and beyond.&rdquo; Jerry Reese came off much less pompous and arrogant than he normally does because this nightmare of a season and this roster is primarily on him. Everyone knew going into the season that the critical flaw of this team was the liability known as the offensive line. Many of us chose to look past it because we felt the rest of the team would make up for the lack of talent in that group. Man were we wrong! Reese was pressed about not going after a player like left tackle Andrew Whitworth who is absolutely THRIVING for the Los Angeles Rams. Reese said he would rather go with a 23-year-old left tackle in Ereck Flowers (yet Reese isn&rsquo;t sure if Flowers is the long-term solution at the position) than a player like Whitworth who is 35 years old. With the window for Eli Manning slamming shut over the next year or two at the most, it is clear that Reese chose poorly here. And although he wouldn&rsquo;t sign a 35-year old, Pro Bowl left tackle, it did not stop him from signing a 33-year old wide receiver in Brandon Marshall who looked like he had almost nothing left before he was lost for the season. Marshall was talking retirement as soon as he became a Giant and based on his play, it appeared that he already started the process with the league office. Hell, Reese may have served himself better if he tried to coax Amani Toomer or Plaxico Burress out of retirement! While I agree that Ben McAdoo should be doing more with this team, and believe me, the play calling, personnel decisions, discipline, and culture should all be called into question at this point, the offensive line, the missed draft picks, and terrible free agent pickups all fall on the shoulders of Jerry Reese.PS: No one is pushing Eli Manning out the door, but with the Giants sitting at 1-6 at their bye-week and most likely headed for one of those 3-13 worst-case scenario seasons, it is fair to speculate regarding where Davis Webb fits in for the future. Things change when what was supposed to be a Super Bowl contender is unexpectedly going to have one of the top five &ndash; and possibly top-3 &ndash; picks in the NFL Draft. The last time the Giants were that high was back in 2004 and they parlayed that lofty draft status to get Manning in the trade with the Chargers. It is a once-in-a-decade opportunity and the Giants cannot let it get away without at least considering Sam Darnold (USC), Josh Allen (Wyoming), Josh Rosen (UCLA) or Lamar Jackson (Louisville). Before they get to that point, the Giants need to know what they have in Webb. There is no doubt they like him &ndash; they took him in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft and they had a higher grade on him than that. He is a 6-5, 230-pound pocket passer who is more athletic than Manning and, of course, at 22, 14 years younger. They would not have taken Webb if they did not project that he one day could be their starting quarterback. So, it would be nice to get some information on him down the stretch of this sorry season. It is not unfair to speculate that giving him snaps in games is the best way to do that. Manning can keep his starting streak alive but at some point Webb should receive meaningful playing time. Before they invest in a top pick for another quarterback, the Giants need to know if they have their quarterback of the future already on the roster.JF: I could not agree more, Paul. But the trick is that the Giants better be careful when they choose to play Davis Webb. The Giants&rsquo; last four games of the season are against the Cowboys, Eagles, Cardinals, and Redskins. It&rsquo;s very likely that three of those four teams will not only be playing for their playoff lives, but in the case of Philly, they&rsquo;ll be playing for playoff position. Are the Giants really going to throw Webb to the wolves without Odell Beckham Jr. and behind that dreadful offensive line? I agree that the kid needs to play because right now the Giants have no idea what they have in him. Yes, he looked good in training camp and in limited preseason action, but that&rsquo;s about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle. I agree that the Giants need to see him in live action but the front office and coaching staff (if either or both are still here) may not get a good idea as to what kind of quarterback they have in Webb with all the injuries and talent-chal&acirc;&euro;&lsaquo;&acirc;&euro;&lsaquo;lenged offensive line protecting him. Also, you could make the argument that there are so many positions of need for the Giants that everything needs to be on the table in next year&rsquo;s draft. Conceivably they need a quarterback, left tackle, right tackle, guard, cornerback, and linebacker (all three spots). And while there are a plethora of quarterbacks coming out, all of them seem to have glaring flaws in their respective games. I&rsquo;m far from an expert (as I leave that to Dave Syvertsen) but if the Giants are going to pin their hopes to any of the QB&rsquo;s you mentioned, they better make sure they get it right. A wrong selection could cripple the franchise for years to come. So yes, Webb needs to play but the circumstances that await him could prove to be daunting. It&rsquo;s also worth noting that MetLife is going to be loaded with opposing fans down the stretch, especially for the Dallas and Philly games, so his mettle will be tested as each game will feel like an away game for the kid.

Did Jerry Blame Ben?

English

Spanish(español)

Bengali(বাঙালি)

Gujarati(ગુજરાતી)

Hindi(हिन्दी)

Malayalam(മലയാളം)

Tamil(தமிழ்)

Telugu(తెలుగు)

The Giant Insider

THE HOT SEAT

WEEK 1: BRONCOS AT GIANTS

Northwest Huntsman

WEEK 2: GIANTS AT WFT

TRAINING CAMP TAKEAWAYS

The GMEN'S all-time record against their 2021 opponents

THE 12TH DIMENSION

Reviewing the best Giants' WRs of all time

Darnold mea culpa

Are we ready for September 12th?

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}}+ best-selling international titles.

Name

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below: