Do the New York Giants actually have a plan?

Dave Gettleman was fired by the Panthers after allowing several of the team’s most talented stars to get away. It could be his undoing in New York too.

The New York Giants had until Tuesday to give Landon Collins the franchise or transition tag to make sure he’s on the roster for another year. They opted against it, and now the path is clear for the three-time Pro Bowl safety to hit the free agency market. He’s already said his goodbyes.

When Collins inevitably signs elsewhere, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will be the only player drafted by the Giants between 2008 and 2015 who is still on the team’s roster.

That dearth of good drafting left the roster in serious need of a boost.

In December 2017, the Giants hired Dave Gettleman as general manager to get the franchise back on track. But a little over a year into his rebuild, it’s hard to see what exactly his plan is for the team.

The Giants need to invest in their young talent

Collins went to his third consecutive Pro Bowl in January. Beckham is the only other player currently on the Giants who can boast that accomplishment after making it to the Pro Bowl in his first three seasons.

The last Giants players before those two with three straight Pro Bowls were offensive linemen Chris Snee and Shaun O’Hara— each made it in 2008, 2009, 2010, and each are now long retired.

Logically, the Giants should want to keep their two young stars. Collins and Beckham probably have more Pro Bowls in their future, and the Giants should try to be the team that benefits from their play.

Signing Beckham to a five-year, $95 million contract extension seemingly locked down one of those players. But just a couple months later, the Giants were reportedly “livid” with the receiver and fined him after he was a little too honest about his thoughts on the team in an interview. Now — less than a year after his extension — trade rumors involving Beckham continue to pop up.

The other player, Collins, is as good as gone now that he wasn’t tagged. It would’ve cost the Giants $11.15 million to apply the franchise tag to the safety — a number they thought was too high for a player they reportedly don’t believe can cover the pass well.

That’s not the most unfair criticism of Collins after he struggled in coverage in 2018. During his breakout 2016 season — when he finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting — Collins had five interceptions and held passers to a 68.0 passer rating when they threw his direction. He had zero interceptions in 2018 and allowed a 127.8 rating in 2018.

That’s not good, but:

1. It’s also reflection of bad luck, with fewer interceptions falling into Collins’ lap.
2. The Giants had fewer leads and, thus, forced fewer passes and opportunities for interceptions.
3. Collins is a strong safety who’s a force in run support and can rush the passer.

“This is a hard move to understand, if indeed it is what happens,” wrote Ed Valentine of SB Nation’s Giants blog, Big Blue View. “It doesn’t seem like good on-field business for the Giants, a team that needs help on all levels of what was a leaky defense in 2018, to risk losing a 25-year-old who might be their best defensive player.”

Now, the Giants have to try to replace Collins.

It’s time to get with the times, Giants

Saquon Barkley was everything the Giants could’ve dreamed he’d be when they picked him No. 2 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft. He had 15 touchdowns and led the NFL with 2,028 yards from scrimmage.

The Giants were still awful.

Even with Barkley putting together an incredible rookie campaign, New York finished with an average offense and a 5-11 record.

There are many reasons why the Giants’ offense struggled— including subpar pass protection and some inefficient running by Barkley. But it seems clear that 38-year-old quarterback Eli Manning is much more of a drawback than an asset at this point in his career.

Clear to everyone except the Giants’ brass, that is.

“I think Eli can help us win games,” Giants’ head coach Pat Shurmur said at the NFL Combine last week. “I want Eli back. He’s back.”

Gettleman took it a step further and said anyone who believes Manning is the problem is caught up in a false narrative.

So Manning will be back in 2019 as a starter, and he’ll carry a $23.3 million salary cap hit. Had the Giants decided to move on from their longtime starter, the team could’ve recouped $17 million — more than enough to keep Collins.

Evidently the Giants see more value in retaining a 38-year-old quarterback who hasn’t finished top 20 in passer rating in the last three seasons over a 25-year-old safety with three consecutive Pro Bowls.

It’d make more sense if the spring ends with the Giants drafting Dwayne Haskins with their top 10 pick. But it’s hard to see how the roster gets better by subtracting Collins.

Gettleman got fired by the Panthers for similar issues

It was surprising when the Panthers abruptly fired Gettleman in summer 2017. Carolina went to the Super Bowl less than 18 months prior to his termination, and went to the postseason in the season immediately after his firing.

The problem appeared to be the way Gettleman handled the biggest stars on the roster.

“Gettleman has never been known for his bedside manner,” Geoff Schwartz wrote shortly after the firing. “He left Steve Smith, DeAngelo Williams, and Josh Norman fuming with the way he handled their contract situations.”

Smith finished his career with the Ravens after 13 seasons with the Panthers. Williams played his final two years with the Steelers after nine seasons in Carolina. And Norman was hit with the franchise tag, then allowed to walk and join Washington after the tag was rescinded. He even offered to play on a cheaper one-year deal to stay with the Panthers.

Gettleman repeatedly shied away from locking up players long-term and was fired shortly after linebacker Thomas Davis and tight end Greg Olsenstarted anglingfor new deals.

It didn’t help either that Gettleman was handed a roster that already had Cam Newton, Ryan Kalil, Jonathan Stewart, and Luke Kuechly. He added Kawann Short, Christian McCaffrey, and Trai Turner to the roster, but over five drafts, he had more misses — Kelvin Benjamin, Vernon Butler, Kony Ealy, and Devin Funchess, to name a few — than hits.

Ultimately, Gettleman drove stakes between the franchise and talented players too often, and he didn’t draft well enough to restock the roster.

Gettleman says he wants to leave a legacy like his mentor Ernie Accorsi did by landing Manning in 2004. There’s still time for him to do that, but for now, it’s hard to figure out his plan.

The Giants letting Collins walk in free agency should sound alarms that he’s repeating his Carolina history in New York.