New York Giants: Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese need to go

For the fifth time this year, the New York Giants squandered a lead in the fourth quarter. Despite their past successes, it’s time for Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese to go, barring another Super Bowl run

The New York Giants sit at 5-7, and the playoffs couldn’t be any more of a dream at this point. In fact, the playoffs have been a dream for the majority of the past seven years.

Since the 2009 season, New York has only made one appearance in the postseason, that obviously being the 2011 Super Bowl run.

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New York isn’t in a position to make another run this year, though. As the Giants, while technically still in a position to win the horrid NFC East, look like anything but a playoff team. So how much of the team’s struggles falls on Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese?

Unfortunately, it’s a lot of the blame.

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“Clearly he’s won in the past, but it’s not erroneous to say the culture he brought to the Giants and the culture he’s won with is now obsolete.”

I’ll start with Reese, and I’ll start by discussing his drafts and his talent evaluation. It’s commonly known that Reese’s 2007 draft helped propel the Giants to a Super Bowl, but the core of that team was put together by former GM Ernie Accorsi. Furthermore, it’s worth remembering that Reese selected a long snapper in the fourth round of that draft.

Moving forward, Reese’s drafts have been immensely hit-or-miss, though he’s had a lot more failures than successes. It seems like for every Odell Beckham Jr., Reese has picked five Clint Sintims.

Just how bad have the drafts been? Well, here is a list of players whom I would consider ‘busts,’ although I know you can’t always draft a superstar: (2008) Bryan Kehl, Jonathan Goff, Andre Woodson, Robert Henderson, (2009) Clint Sintim, Ramses Barden, Travis Beckum, Andre Brown, Rhett Bomar, DeAndre Wright, Stoney Woodson, (2010) Chad Jones, Phillip Dillard, Mitch Petrus, Adrian Tracey, Matt Dodge, (2011) Marvin Austin, Jerrel Jernigan, James Brewer, Greg Jones, Tyler Sash (rest in peace), Jacquian Williams, Da’Rel Scott, (2012) Jayron Hosley, Adrien Robinson, Brandon Mosley, Matthew McCants, Markus Kuhn, (2013) Cooper Taylor, Eric Herman and Michael Cox.

Dec 28, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants defensive tackle Markus Kuhn (78) reacts after a sack against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium. The Eagles defeated the Giants 34-26. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

To put that in perspective, Sintim, Barden, Beckum, Brown, Bomar, Wright and Woodson make up eight of the 10 picks from 2009, while Austin, Jernigan, Brewer, Jones, Sash and Scott make up six out of eight of 2011’s class. Add in the fact that Rueben Randle is the only decent starter from the 2012 class, and you have a whole lot of mediocrity.

I think it’s also worth noting that Bomar, Wright, Woodson, Woodson and Henderson never played a single down in a regular-season game. I’m excluding David Wilson because Reese would’ve had no way to predict his injuries, but the same can’t be said about Chad Jones, who was a long shot to every play in the NFL.

So 31/43 of Reese’s picks from 2008-2013 have been busts. The hits have been Justin Pugh, Johnathan Hankins, Prince Amukamara, Jason Pierre-Paul, Linval Joseph, Hakeem Nicks, Will Beatty, Kenny Phillips, Terrell Thomas and Mario Manningham. The average players include Randle and Damontre Moore.

Those terrible drafts directly led to the Giants having to spend so much in free agency, and they’re a main reason why the offensive line remains in shambles. Reese has failed to consistently hit on mid-to-late round picks, which is why I was all for seeing the Giants try to make a trade for a big-name player prior to this year’s deadline.

Reese has taken risks that didn’t pan out. Robinson never became the “JPP of tight ends”, and Williams never became the prototypical outside linebacker he was supposed to be.

When you draft poorly, you have to build your team elsewhere, which usually means spending money on free agents and losing some in-house options.

This is the general manager who was comfortable entering the 2013 season with an inexperienced and undersized David Wilson as the lead back, and zero depth behind him.

As far as Coughlin goes, it’s less cut-and-dry. Clearly he’s won in the past, but it’s not erroneous to say the culture he brought to the Giants and the culture he’s won with is now obsolete.

This year, Coughlin’s late-game miscues have been well-documented, and it’s hard to understand the logic behind some of them. His most recent gaffe came against the Jets, as Coughlin elected to go for the touchdown instead of kicking the field goal, which would have put the Giants up 13 points with a little less than nine minutes left.

The bone-headed calls are just a microcosm of Coughlin’s failures. It’s the blind loyalty to players who shouldn’t be on an NFL field like Markus Kuhn. It’s the late-season collapses and the unpreparedness. There comes a time when the Giants organization has to stop using Coughlin’s past successes to justify present struggles.

This isn’t the first season the Giants have been bad under Coughlin either. Excluding the 2011 Super Bowl year, after 2008, which was the most dominant Giants team in recent memories, the Giants went 8-8, 10-6 (missed playoffs because of the Miracle at MetLife), 9-7 in 2012, 7-9 in 2013 and 6-10 last year.

Next: New York Giants: How they can still win the NFC East

At this point, I don’t even think a playoff berth alone will save this team. If the Giants squeak into the playoffs and lose in the first round, co-owner John Mara should understand the berth is more because of the putrid NFC East, and less because the team is good.

After a humiliating loss last year to Jacksonville, Mara said he wanted to ‘fire everybody,’ according to Nick Powell of NJ Advance Media. Mara is the type of guy who is not content with losing. Unless Coughlin has one last, miraculous playoff-rabbit in his hat, expect to see a new coach for the Giants in 2016.