When Ernie Accorsi retired as the Giants‘ GM after the 2006 season, he pushed hardest for Jerry Reese to become his successor despite Dave Gettleman‘s success within the organization, Paul Schwartz of the New York Post writes.
Reese, who coordinated the draft for Big Blue at the time, and salary cap expert Kevin Abrams joined Gettleman as the top in-house candidates to succeed Accorsi. Reese is now entering his 10th season as the Giants’ GM.
“And I felt sorry for Dave on the thing, I don’t think it was an easy decision for John Mara or the Tischs,’’ Accorsi told media, including Schwartz. “When Jerry got it, I could tell Dave was down. I said to him ‘Look, I have no idea if I’m ever going to be able to deliver on this, but if I possibly can take care of you, I will.”
Accorsi helped the now-64-year-old Gettleman ascend to the Panthers’ GM position as a consultant. Gettleman, per Schwartz, helped the Giants in free agency when they signed Super Bowl XLII bastions Plaxico Burress, Antonio Pierce and others. Gettleman laid the groundwork for Pierce, an outside linebacker mostly in Washington, to move to the middle full-time in New York.
The Browns passed over Gettleman twice, in 2009 and 2010, when they hired George Kokinis and Mike Holmgren, respectively, over Accorsi’s recommendation, while the Chiefs hired Scott Pioli over Gettleman in 2009 as well.
Following these shortcomings, Gettleman, then the Giants’ director of pro player personnel, informed Mara he sought to retreat into a part-time role before getting the Panthers’ job in 2013.
Here is the latest coming out of NFC East cities.
- Alex Spiro, the attorney for Jay Bromley, doesn’t expect the Giants defensive tackle to be charged (Twitter links via Jordan Raanan of NJ.com) after a woman said he attempted to rape her. The 23-year-old Bromley has not been arrested in connection with Saturday morning’s alleged incident.
- Doug Pederson‘s proactive approach regarding keeping the Eagles‘ talented young players comes in contrast to Chip Kelly‘s more volatile method on display last season, Reuben Frank of CSNPhilly.com writes. Frank notes Pederson’s straight-forward style has helped stabilize the organization thus far after Kelly’s final days put staffers on edge, given the seismic moves he’d made. The new 49ers coach’s reluctance to compromise and employing an overmatched staff helped key his dismissal from Philadelphia, Frank writes.
- The 49ers offered Pederson an assistant-coaching position in 2005, but the current Eagles coach turned it down to continue being a high school head coach in Louisiana, Zach Berman of Philly.com writes. Pederson continued to coach at a Shreveport, La., high school for four seasons and told the school’s athletic director he’d only leave if Andy Reid offered him a job in Philadelphia. He extended an offer to Pederson for an offensive quality control job before the 2009 season, leading to seven years of the pair working in tandem in Philadelphia and Kansas City.
- Kirk Cousins‘ likely extension with Washington should be a four-year pact, John Keim of ESPN.com writes. He cites the majority of quarterback contracts agreed to in the past two offseasons being four-year deals — like those given to Eli Manning, Russell Wilson, or Philip Rivers — along with Cousins proving to be an effective, but not yet a game-changing quarterback, as the reasoning behind the estimation. Keim writes that Robert Griffin III can still be traded if he agrees to redo his fifth-year option ($16.15MM for 2016) but expects him to be released to help make room for Cousins’ deal.
- Alfred Morris coming back to Washington after the running back put together his career-worst year in 2015 wouldn’t make sense, Keim writes. He also expects the team to bring in a back to compete with the thus-far-inconsistent Matt Jones for No. 1 runner responsibilities.