Giants GM Dave Gettleman Retires. What's Next For Joe Judge?

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — The last few weeks of Giants football were bizarre in some ways, but perhaps not unexpected for a fan base that, in the last decade, has seen their beloved franchise fall from a pillar of consistency to a picture of dysfunction.

The season ended on Sunday with a 22-7 loss to the Washington Football Team, which also marked the end of General Manager Dave Gettleman's career. Gettleman and the Giants announced his retirement as senior vice president and general manager on Monday.

"It was a privilege to serve as the general manager of the New York Giants the last four years and to have spent so many years of my career with this franchise," said Gettleman. "We obviously have not had the on-the-field success I expected, and that is disappointing. However, I have many fond memories here, including two Super Bowl victories, and I wish the team and organization only the best moving forward."

While the split between Gettleman and the organization was clean, the future of Joe Judge is still cloudy.

Reports on Monday indicated that Judge met with ownership and conducted team meetings like he would be retained, but NFL.com's Grant Gordon reported that there is "no conclusive indication Joe Judge will return as Giants HC in 2022."

The former Patriots special teams coordinator has had a rocky tenure as head coach in New York. He ended this year by delivering a bizarre press conference in which he implied that the 2018 Patriots staff feared they would lose their jobs, and sneak dissed the Washington Football Team, who the Giants would lose to in Week 18.

"This ain’t a team that’s having fistfights on the sidelines. This ain’t some clown show organization or something else, OK?" he said.

During that loss to Washington, Judge came under fire for calling a quarterback sneak on third down while the Giants were on their own 4-yard line. Yahoo's Charles Robinson deemed the formation, which resembled a kneel down, the "surrender formation."

Yet, it doesn't yet appear as if the Giants have made a decision about Judge. That brings up questions about the future of the GM hire, the NFL draft and offseason acquisitions. If the Giants bring Judge back, the next general manager will, probably, need to be in favor of the direction Judge has the team moving.

With a 10-23 record as head coach, it appears the locker room is divided on Judge. Reports say that a number of players want to see the franchise move on from Judge, while 10 others went to bat for their head coach.

There are 53 players on an NFL roster. Will the support of 10 be enough to keep Judge off the job market?