What transpired Sunday with the Giants, Davis Webb and several other players is a lesson on what happens when a new regime takes over. That regime wants its own players and is loyal to its own players.
General manager Dave Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur inherited Webb, a third-round pick in 2017 of Jerry Reese and Ben McAdoo. During the spring and summer, Shurmur managed to say a few nice things about Webb, who was presumed to be the backup quarterback to Eli Manning. Shurmur, though, never endorsed that as fact, even as he gave Webb the second-team reps in training camp.
The new regime stated what they think about Webb by the action they took. On Saturday, Webb made the initial 53-man roster, but the Giants kept four quarterbacks, a sign something was brewing. Clearly, the Giants tried to see if they could find a trade partner and when they could not, they cut Webb, leaving rookie Kyle Lauletta and 30-year-old Alex Tanney as the quarterbacks behind Eli Manning.
Webb’s departure was part of a wild day of dealing by the Giants, who claimed and were awarded six players off waivers. That is stunning player movement, and an indication how lacking the new decision-makers viewed the talent on the roster. The Giants are coming off a 3-13 season and are purging nearly all remnants of that disaster. The new Giants, moving immediately to the 53-man roster, are receiver and kick returner Kaelin Clay, defensive end Mario Edwards, defensive backs Antonio Hamilton, Michael Jordan and Kamrin Moore and offensive lineman Spencer Pulley. The Giants will have to make six corresponding moves to fit the new players onto the roster. One of the cuts will be veteran guard John Jerry, according to reports.
Webb was never quite the heir apparent to Manning, but Reese and especially McAdoo thought enough of the tall, strong-armed prospect to make him the 87th-overall player taken in last year’s draft. The thought was Webb could develop into the next starter when Manning, 37, was finished. Gettleman and Shurmur watched Webb, liked his work ethic and his attention to detail but never saw great potential in him. It was a sign when Lauletta was taken in the fourth round of the draft that the brain trust wanted another young quarterback to develop.
Webb, Shurmur said, was too “amped up” in his preseason debut, while Shurmur praised Lauletta’s calm demeanor. There was no way Lauletta would be sent packing. Keeping Tanney qualifies as an upset. He is a product of Monmouth College in Illinois, a Division III school, and kicked around NFL camps and practice squads for six years. He has appeared in one NFL game, with the Titans in 2015.
The thinking that the Giants bypassed taking a quarterback with the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft — they went with running back Saquon Barkley — had anything to do with Webb’s presence on the roster was faulty logic at the time and now proven to be completely misguided. The Giants loved Barkley more than they loved any of the quarterback prospects. It had nothing to do with Webb. Selecting Lauletta, out of Richmond, in the fourth round, as it turns out, had everything to do with what the Giants thought of Webb.
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