Six-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick harshly criticized the Giants and GM Joe Schoen’s roster moves Monday on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show while analyzing their decision to let Saquon Barkley walk to the rival Philadelphia Eagles.
“The Giants thing I don’t really understand,” Belichick, 72, said of their Barkley decision. “He was their best player. For a couple million dollars more they could have kept him, I guess. Instead, they got a guard or somebody, I don’t know. The offensive line doesn’t look very good.
“I mean look, they’re playing a guy at left tackle that shouldn’t be playing left tackle,” the longtime New England Patriots head coach said. “Evan Neal was drafted in the first round, he doesn’t play. They have some UFA [unrestricted free agent] guards that are pretty suspect. It’s a tough line. And honestly, I thought that the quarterback is trying to hang in there. It’s just been tough sledding.”
Belichick, a 29-year NFL head coach with 302 career wins, is currently a free agent. His name will be connected to a lot of job openings this January. But he sounded more enamored with Howie Roseman’s Eagles than Schoen’s Giants, especially after watching HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ this summer.
“In Hard Knocks it looked like — I don’t think [Brian] Daboll wanted to get rid of Saquon, and I certainly don’t think John Mara wanted to get rid of Saquon,” Belichick said. “It just seemed like kind of a general manager thing of ‘Oh, we don’t think anybody will pay him,’ when kinda everybody in the league knew that he was gonna go to the Eagles.
“But I don’t think everybody was on the same page on that,” Belichick added. “At least it didn’t appear that way from Hard Knocks, which honestly I’m surprised they even let that air with that kind of tone being on it.”
Belichick went on to praise Roseman for stealing Barkley away from a division rival.
“I think in Philadelphia’s case it was a great move by Howie and the Eagles to not only get a great player but to take a great player from another team in your division,” Belichick said. “That’s kinda like a double hit there. It’s like winning a double header instead of just one game. You not only get a good player, but you take one from your competitor.”
On a Monday Zoom call, Daboll wouldn’t divulge what Giants co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch told him after Sunday’s pathetic 28-3 loss to Philly at MetLife Stadium.
“Yeah, again, we have conversations — I know you ask this a bunch, respect it — we have conversations after every game,” Daboll said. “I’ll keep those conversations private.”
Regardless, the pressure is rising, and the facts are the facts.
The Giants’ record against the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys under Schoen and Daboll is 1-10. They have been outscored 339-168 in those 11 games.
Daboll took over the offensive play calling full-time after last season. The Giants are now 0-3 in the division this season and 0-4 at home, scoring 14.1 points per game on the season and 7.75 points per game at home.
They have players quitting on the field. They allowed eight sacks on offense Sunday.
They have no adequate plan behind injured left tackle Andrew Thomas, who is out for the season. It’s actually possible that when they move Josh Ezeudu out of left tackle this week, they could shift Jermaine Eluemunor to the left side and play recent signing Chris Hubbard at right tackle instead of Neal.
Daboll benched the quarterback they gave a four-year, $160 million extension. And the Giants’ defense allowed 269 rushing yards Sunday, including 10.4 yards per carry and 176 rush yards and a TD to Barkley, the former face of their franchise.
The defense also is allowing 5.2 yards per carry this season, tied for second-worst in the NFL.
Daboll reiterated that Daniel Jones will remain his starting quarterback on Monday Night Football in Week 8 at the Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2), despite Sunday’s benching early in the fourth quarter.
Why?
“Well, I think he gives us the best chance, number one,” Daboll said. “I thought there were a lot of plays that he did exactly what he needed to do and then look, there were some plays where it wasn’t just on Daniel. It was a collection of things. It wasn’t just one person, protection, or a route. It was a collective deal, and we’ll sit here, we’ll watch the tape. We’ll do everything we can do to be better this week.”
What the Giants (2-5) are, though, is a bad and poorly constructed team. Belichick sees it, and on Monday, he said it.
