The New York Giants watched a host of talent leave the building this offseason. From the Odell Beckham and Olivier Vernon trades to Landon Collins walking in free agency, it was an overhaul offseason for Big Blue.
Co-owner John Mara admitted Tuesday that his squad wasn't winning with those players, so a shakeup was necessary.
"You don't like to see all of that talent go out the door," Mara said, via Tom Rock of Newsday. "But let's face it, we've had one winning season, 2016, here and the other five or six years have not been so good since we won that last Super Bowl. So, we needed some drastic changes."
Drastic changes came in jettisoning certain players and using the No. 6 overall pick on rookie quarterback Daniel Jones. Those changes, however, don't currently stem to replacingEli Manning -- the quarterback who led New York to losing records five out of the past six years -- with Jones.
Time will tell whether the Giants made the right decisions, but Mara trusts general manager Dave Gettleman has the franchise pointed back in the right direction.
"I think the best thing for me about Dave is he makes decisions that he feels are in the best interest of the franchise," Mara said. "He doesn't give a damn what people think about it, be it media or be it fans or anybody. He has the courage of his convictions, and you have to have that. He set about to try to rebuild this team, change the culture in the locker room."
Mara admitted it could be a long rebuild, with needs remaining on both sides of the ball, but believes Gettleman and coach Pat Shurmur are the right men to lead the turnaround.
"I'm not satisfied with five wins," Mara said of the result of Gettleman and Shurmur's first season together, "but I think [they] have us headed in the right direction. We have a lot of confidence in them."
How long that confidence lasts will depend on how the season unfolds on the field after an offseason of drastic changes.
