The latest comments from Giants GM Joe Schoen should infuriate fans and highlight exactly why he needs to be fired

New York Giants GM Joe Schoen’s latest comments should confirm ownership must move on from him.

Joe DeLeone — NFL News Writer
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Joe Schoen

New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen met with the media today at the top of the bye week, and it was… something.

The event started with Schoen, ironically, showing up late to his presser, less than a day after rookie pass rusher Abdul Carter was crucified for being benched for being late to team activities.

The rest of the interaction felt like Schoen was desperately trying to defend himself by taking the blame to appease fans. He was talking out of both sides of his mouth, saying he’s made mistakes, but then taking subtle shots to prove he’s not the problem.

The most important note that Schoen dropped, potentially unintentionally, was that his job might not be safe. That should be a relief for Giants fans who are beyond fed up with the team’s current state.

“Ownership will evaluate the entire football operation at the end of the season,” Schoen stated.

Joe Schoen addressed the state of the Giants

Schoen was directly asked if he takes ownership of what has gone wrong. From the lack of depth at key positions to misses on draft picks, Schoen said he’s not safe of blame for how the team has turned out.

“Have I screwed up? Have I made mistakes? Absolutely,” Schoen told reporters, “But I’m not going to make the same mistake twice, and we’re going to continue to get better.”

The more I reread his comments from the presser, the more I find instances of him trying to make himself out to be the right general manager to fix the franchise. He delivered a long quote on how he’s not perfect.

“The chances of me batting 1.000 are gone, because I’ve made mistakes. Everybody is going to make mistakes. We’re going to get some things right. As long as you’re learning from those mistakes, and you reflect on the process in place, and where you went wrong,” Schoen told the media, “That’s what’s most important. I’m better today than I was four years ago when I got this job. A year from now, god willing I’m standing here, I’m going to be better than I am today. That’s all I can do.”

Then came two instances in which he tried to frame the situation as him doing his best to set up the team for success. The first was a comment that comes across as him saying he put together a quality defense, but the coaching staff didn’t capitalize on it.

“I didn’t anticipate we would still be 30th in the league in defense at this point with the addition of those players,” Schoen said, “But we are, and we’re got to do a better job.”

A growing narrative over the course of the season was that rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart was a Brian Daboll draft pick, and he was the one who was adamant about drafting him. A clip from the Giants’ draft room has circulated repeatedly, appearing to show he’s doing everything possible to blame Daboll if the pick flops.

Then today, Schoen was extremely deliberate about pointing out that he knew about Dart before Daboll did and tried to take credit for the selection.

“There’s hundreds of conversations leading up to that conversation in the draft room, starting with when we met with Jaxson at the Senior Bowl,” Schoen declared, “Jaxson [Dart] was a guy that was on our radar very early in the scouting process before [Daboll] was even aware of him because he was coaching then. Anytime you make a decision on a first round quarterback, that’s going to be an organizational decision.”

Giants fans should be legitimately frustrated and annoyed by the way Schoen responded to the hard questions he was asked today. It’s clear he’s not the man who can turn this franchise around, given his many failures and limited successes. Hopefully, ownership realizes it would be a mistake to keep him.

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