Former NFL GM slams Giants in bold Hard Knocks takeaways: "There's no identity"
Former NFL general manager and three-times Super Bowl-winner Michael Lombardi gave his thoughts on the Hard Knocks series featuring the Giants. Appearing on the Pat McAfee Show, the former Cleveland Browns general manager said he was surprised by how much access the New York Giants had granted Hard Knocks.
He also contended that because of his relationship with Bill Belichick at the New England Patriots and Bill Parcells, seeing the inner workings of a historic franchise like the Giants is a bit hard to watch. Lombardi said:
"I can't believe the access that we've gotten. I think it's a tremendous show, but I can't believe the access the Giants have allowed inside their building. For me, it's a little bit of a difficult thing to watch in the sense that the Giants are one of the most historic franchises that I've learned a lot from because of my relationship with Belichick, my relationship with Bill Parcells and studying the NFL when I first started"
The former general manager added that one thing he noticed with the Giants was the lack of an identity that a franchise like that should have. He commented:
"What I find missing in terms of what I watched this show is there's no identity for the Giants. There's no systematic, 'this is who we are'
Michael Lombardi sees Giants making bad decisions on Hard Knocks
Michael Lombardi also said that the lack of an identity shows in the Giants' recruitment strategy. Because they do not have a system they want to play or a particular approach to the types of players they want to target, according to him, everybody has a different opinion on personnel.
Some people like a player whereas others don't and Michael Lombardi said that asking everyone for their thoughts leads to bad decisions. He concluded:
"And so when I watch it, everything comes down to we can get this guy okay, well, maybe we get that guy, and then everybody has a different opinion. You know, the one thing that great Charlie Munger once said, he said, 'If you want to make a bad decision, ask a lot of people.' And that's what I watched when I see that."
Given how much the Giants have struggled since Eli Manning's retirement and how their one surefire Pro-Bowler Saquon Barkley was lost this offseason to the Philadelphia Eagles, their divisional rivals in the NFC East, he might have a point.