In military school, students are taught not to fight the last battle. In trading, it works that way as well. When stocks fall, everyone thinks it will look like the last big selloff, i.e. 2020 or 2008. It rarely repeats that way, and instead will follow a new pattern. The bear of 2022 proved that out again.
The only constant is change. Things work in cycles. I grew up watching bad 1970’s Giants football. It was a good thing that I loved the sport so much. It was just as fortunate for the Giants that they had their hooks in me. The Giants and Jets were an oligopoly of misery. They wouldn’t let you out of your allegiance because the other team took turns being worse! Plus, all sports coverage was local. If you wanted a glimpse of what actually happened to the rest of the league, you had to wait until Monday Night Football halftime for out of town highlights.
15 years of bad football brought in an outsider. Used to bad decisions, Giants fans continued to fight the last battle when they booed the Simms pick. But Young turned it around. He beat off the skepticism. And so did Parcells. It’s tough to fight the perception of continued failure. You’re guilty until proven innocent when the last battle was lost.
The Young/Accorsi competitive days created a generation of fans used to competency. “In Reese We Trust.” 2007 was mostly Accorsi’s doing, and 2011 was Accorsi fumes + too many 9-7 miracles to count. An era of plenty yielded to famine.
Mara got so tired of those January public beatings that he went outside, just like in 1979. A new regime arrived in the name of Joe Schoen.
Giants fans who grew up this past decade are used to wrong GM moves. Reese. Gettleman. Their last battle is failure. So they publicly challenge Schoen’s moves without objectivity. Guilty until proven innocent. Just like Young and Parcells. Giants fans who lack greater context are fighting the last battle and assuming failure. These are the new nattering nabobs of negativity.
Let’s be fair and objective here. We are still critical of some of the things Schoen has done. We said to not pay Running Back. Schoen bid $12.5M per year! Mistake! Thank goodness the RB market was what we thought it was. Shocked! Not. Now Schoen has rightly backed off. If $12.5M/$250M = 5%, we can be 5% nattering nabob and 95% plain positivity.
Back to the new nattering nabobs, it’s fashionable to challenge what the GM is doing after 10 years of bad GM decisions. It is even easier to do so when it doesn’t fit with your narrative.
One criticism of Schoen was “overpaying” for Daniel Jones. “How can you give Jones Patrick Mahomes money?!” Yet we saw this telegraphed pushback months before it happened, which was less about our accuracy than just confronting the brutal facts of how scarce a good QB is. If you were paying attention to how well Jones played in 2022 combined with the exploding cap, you understood why. But not the new nattering nabobs of negativity. This week, Big Blue View cited an analysis of all QBs ADJUSTED FOR THE PLAYERS AROUND THEM. Jones ranked 5th in the entire NFL. Great piece, highly recommended. Jones got paid by Schoen because he and Daboll were on the inside and they knew it was real. Of course there is always risk, but it’s not risk from a bad management decision.
The second (and biggest) narrative of the new nattering nabobs is Wide Receiver. This cohort wants Mahomes throwing to Devante Adams and Justin Jefferson. Oh , and if we can get Cooper Kupp in the slot, yah that’ll work too.
The new nabobs pine for Wide Receiver. Every day. All day. 24/7/365. Rain or shine. It absolutely killed these guys that Schoen said **** you to them at the trade deadline. Incredulous, they asked how Schoen was not doing enough to help Jones and the team. Schoen s***s, they said. The combination of 10 years of GM failure + “overpaying for Jones” + weak Wide Receiver is killing these guys. They are easy to spot. They’re the ones who were apoplectic when OBJ was shipped out, who were happy that Tate and Golladay were brought in, who wanted Smith at 1.11, and who asked no questions about Toney at 1.20. These nabobs never met a high priced Wide Receiver they didn’t like. Why? Because even if you overpay, you’ve still got a good WR. Never mind the cap drain. Never mind Eli or Daniel running for their lives behind the line of scrimmage. Never mind overpaying. No worries! Our great WRs will save the day by getting open!! Pfffft.
What’s the easiest way to spot these guys today? They are the ones salivating for WR salvation at 1.25. Their draft board is WR1 WR2 WR3 WR4 WR5. Maybe the next Hall of Famer is there. My reply? Who cares. They’ll somehow wind up some place else.
The second easiest way to spot these new nattering nabobs of negativity is to watch their reaction to Parris Campbell and Jamison Crowder. Hurt! Too old! What are we doing?! In fact, they could be correct, but they miss the point about roster building and cap allocation. Campbell is young, and got paid $3M, with $3M in incentives. 1 year. Crowder got paid $1.3M. 1 year. In football dollars, that’s slightly above John Mara’s bathroom attendant. These are guys who, if either stays healthy, will make huge contributions and COMPLIMENT the rest of the roster, which has to pay the brand names. They are dirt cheap call options on 2023. Either they expire worthless and your cap barely notices, or either can stay healthy and win lotto.
The new nabobs were the first ones to herald Golladay. Two years and one bust later, Schoen picked up Gettleman’s tab of $18M per, which is the equivalent of 4 Campbells AND 4 Crowders. Plus some spare change for the bathroom attendant.
This blog has been very clear how much disdain it has for the Wide Receiver position. Hasn’t Isaiah Hodgins taught us anything? Now this a Wide Receiver I like. Tough. Plays hurt. Thankful to have a job. If Schoen paid him 2x or 3x what he’s gotten paid for 2023, it would still be a good deal. Care to guess what he’s getting paid? Try 870K. In football terms, that’s like the graveyard custodian. I want more term on him.
Maybe all of this disdain for Wide Receiver is because I grew up on Lionel Manuel, Stacy Robinson, Earnest Gray, Stephen Baker and underachieving Mark Ingram (whose greatest play was XXV 3rd & 12, plus the spike catch from Marino). Giants WRs were no-name cogs in a much bigger Super Bowl machine driven by the line of scrimmage and coaching. Of course it was a different era where passing didn’t rule the day. But this franchise still won 2 more titles with an Offensive and Defensive Line (2007) and an undrafted Free Agent WR (2011).
Until you can prove to me that I won’t be able to pick up a good WR when I need one, I’m not going to go looking for one. I still can’t get over how superstars like Devante Adams, DeAndre Hopkins, Tyreek Hill, and AJ Brown all got moved. Has that happened at any other position? What does it say when elite All Pros aren’t a cornerstone of your franchise?
Oh, and let’s not forget another elite WR who was shipped in his prime… OBJ.
If Schoen somehow does not take a WR on Day 1, the new nattering nabobs will go apoplectic. Just like this old nabob did when the Offensive Line atrophied last decade.
In Schoen I trust. He is not perfect. He admitted to learning more this year about the type of player who Wink wants for his defense. A good GM admits he is learning, trying to get better. Perfectly imperfect. Contrast that with bluster and false bravado of Gettleman.
Schoen is certainly more humble than this know-it-all blogger. He deserves our support. He has been making too many good decisions thus far. He made a Divisional playoff team out of scraps. He remained disciplined and reset the cap. He did not waste resources at the trade deadline. He hired the Coach of the Year. He got the coup of the year in Isaiah Hodgins. We loved Evan Neal as much as Schoen, but we need more there. Thib looks really good and I can’t wait to see him in his second year when he is thinking less and playing more. Bellinger was a great one at 4.112. Schoen had 11 bites out of the draft apple in 2022, and he has 10 more (one was moved for Waller) this year. Reese went threadbare because after the XLVI miracle, he had 7,7,7,6,6 and 6 draft picks the following 6 years. So Schoen is already on the draft path. In the last few posts we subjectively gave Schoen high grades for his free agent/trade moves. Positivity.