What's Behind the New York Giants' Recent Implosion?

If you had $116 million burning a hole in your pocket, how would you spend it? 

Think about that for a moment, because whatever you would end up doing with that money, it would probably yield a better return on investment than what the New York Giants—who, according to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, spent $116 million in free agency to upgrade their team in the offseason—have seen this season.

Here is a look at the 17 new players signed by the Giants before the regular season, their respective contract values and the ROI (return on investment) each has yielded so far. 

Player	Total Contract	Current Status
OL Geoff Schwartz	4 yrs., $16.8 million	Spent 10 games on IR; injured in Week 13. Starter
RB Rashad Jennings	4 yrs., $10 million	Active, but suffered ankle injury in Week 13. Starter.
C J.D. Walton	2 yrs., $5 million	Active; hasn’t missed a game. Starter
S Quintin Demps	1 yr., $1 million	Active; hasn’t missed a game
CB Walter Thurmond	1 yr., $1 million	IR (slot cornerback)
CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie	5 yrs., $35 million	Active; hasn’t missed a game but has been on injury report. Starter.
WR Trindon Holliday	1 yr.,$700,000	Not with team
WR Mario Manningham	1 yr., $700,000	Not with team
OL John Jerry	1 yr., $770,000	Active; hasn’t missed a game. Starter.
CB Zack Bowman	1 yr., $730,000	Active; hasn’t missed a game. Depth, now a starter.
OT Charles Brown	1 yr., $730,000	Not with team
DE Robert Ayers	2 yrs., $3.75 million	Active; hasn’t missed a game. Depth, now a starter.
TE Kellen Davis	1 yr., $730,000	Not with team
QB Josh Freeman	1 yr., $730,000	Not with team
QB Rusty Smith	1 yr., $730,000	Not with team
LB Jameel McClain	2 yrs., $4.1 million	Active; hasn’t missed a game. Starter.
OL Adam Snyder	1 yr., $855,000	Reserve; has been inactive several games.

What have the Giants gotten as far as a return on their investment is concerned?

How about seven straight losses, a guarantee for a top-10 draft pick in April and their second straight year finishing with a sub-.500?

In a word, “Yuck!”

There are many reasons for the Giants' latest implosion. While this space is limitless as far as the amount of content that can be filled in an article, who has the time or the stomach to sit and read every single failure that has contributed to the Giants' extremely disappointing season?

Instead, let’s narrow the causes down to the key areas that seem to be reoccurring from year to year. 

Injuries 

When head coach Tom Coughlin was hired in 2004, he shared an opinion on injuries that, in retrospect, he probably should have found another way to articulate his thoughts.

Per Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News, Coughlin said, “I'm aware of the injury factor, the number of IRs, which is a cancer, let's face it. It's something that has to be corrected. It's a mental thing, I believe, as much as anything else.”

Talk about karma!

Yes, every NFL team deals with injuries. Football is a violent sport that puts the body through a type of punishment that it’s not meant to endure.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

However, when a team leads the league in injuries two years in a row, something isn’t right.

Last year, Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News compiled a list of each team’s starters' games lost to injuries.

As you might have correctly guessed, the Giants led the NFL with 91.

This year? According to the Fox network broadcast of the Giants-Jacksonville Jaguars game, New York leads the NFL with 14 players on injured reserve. (Note: Giants.com lists 13 players on injured reserve, so it’s unclear if the Fox statistic included offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, who had been on the temporary injured reserve list.)

To put that number into perspective, that averages out to 1.16 player lost per game over the first 12 games.

Or, as Coughlin probably thinks, 1.16 players too many.  

Player	Injury	No. RS Games Played
CB Prince Amukamara	Tricep	8
LB Jon Beason	Toe	4
RB Michael Cox	Leg	2
WR Victor Cruz	Knee	6
WR Marcus Harris	Hip	0
RB Peyton Hillis	Concussion	9
CB Travis Howard	Knee	0
WR Jerrel Jernigan	Foot	2
OL Troy Kropog	Foot	0
CB Trumaine McBride	Hand	6
S Cooper Taylor	Foot	0
CB Walter Thurmond III	Pectoral	2
RB David Wilson	Neck	0

The scary thing is that in its 25-24 loss to the Jaguars, New York had five more players suffer injuries, including Schwartz (left ankle)—whom Coughlin said in his postgame press conference suffered tendon damage—defensive end Robert Ayers (pectoral), linebacker Terrell Manning (ankle), offensive lineman James Brewer (concussion) and running back Rashad Jennings (ankle).

In addition to the players on injured reserve, here is a list of key players who have missed one or more games with an injury (an asterisk denotes a starter):

Player	Injury	No. RS Games Missed
WR Odell Beckham Jr.*	Hamstring	4
DT Cullen Jenkins*	Calf	4
RB Rashad Jennings*	Knee	4
LB Devon Kennard	Hamstring	3
DE Mathias Kiwanuka	Knee	1
RT Justin Pugh	Quadricep	2
OL Geoff Schwartz*	Toe	10
OL Adam Snyder	Knee	1
LB Jacquian Williams*	Concussion	3

The above list doesn’t take into consideration guys like punter Steve Weatherford (ankle/back) or cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (back/hamstring) who have been gutting out the season despite their injuries.

Over the years, there have been questions about how the Giants train. That information has never really been disclosed as far as the specific regimens that the team puts the players through.

This summer, Coughlin did change things up a bit, occasionally ending a training camp practice early in order to allow for a 20-30 minute post-practice recovery period instead of just their usual post-practice stretch session with resistance bands.

Per George Guerin of NJ.com, the Giants also hired a sports nutritionist who made over the team’s cafeteria offerings, ridding it of such popular staples like potato chips, gummy bears, mayonnaise and fried foods, just to name a few.

Still, in retrospect, whatever it is the Giants have been doing under Coughlin hasn’t worked, certainly not in the last two years. 

That leads us to the second and perhaps most glaring contributing factor in the Giants’ implosion.

A Lack of Depth (or Poor Drafting)

Want to know why some teams are able to overcome the loss of injured players while others, like the Giants, are not?

Many of those other teams have quality depth waiting in the wings, depth that usually consists of drafted players developed by said teams.

That hasn’t been the case with the Giants. As I noted earlier this month, the team’s poor drafts have gutted New York so much that that it’s unbelievable.

In the article, of the team’s draft classes between 2009 and 2013—the 2014 class wasn’t factored in since it’s in its first season—of the 38 draft picks exercised by the Giants 39.4 percent out of 38 draft picks were on the team’s 2014 opening-day roster and only 21 percent of those picks were starters.

Uncredited/Associated Press

To take things a step further, only one member of the last five draft classes—left tackle Will Beatty (2009)—has been re-signed to a second contract, and only one member, defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (class of 2010), has been voted to the Pro Bowl.

It gets worse. On the current roster, draft picks such as offensive lineman James Brewer (2011), tight end Adrien Robinson (2012), offensive lineman Brandon Mosley (2012) and quarterback Ryan Nassib (2013) cannot get on the field unless injuries wipe out the depth in front of them.

Ditto for offensive lineman Eric Herman (R7, 2013), who has spent most of his time in the NFL on the practice squad.

In addition, higher draft picks such as receiver Rueben Randle (R2, 2012) and cornerback Jayron Hosley (R2, 2012) haven’t exactly yielded the desired results, while busts such as offensive lineman Matt McCants (R6, 2012) and defensive tackle Marvin Austin (R2, 2011) had to go elsewhere to find a modicum of success at the NFL level.

Those results lead to a couple of conclusions. One, the front office hasn’t done a good enough job with its draft, something that team co-owner John Mara admitted in his 2013 season-ending press conference with reporters.

“We have missed on some, no question about it,” Mara said. “There are a few cases where we took a chance, knowing we were taking a chance, knowing if we hit on this guy maybe we would knock it out of the park and if we missed, we missed. And we missed entirely.

“That’s going to happen. There’s no question over the past few years we’ve missed on some of them for whatever reason.”

The second conclusion is that the coaching and development of some of these players probably could have been better. Though to be fair in that regard, if a player doesn’t put in the time and effort to improve at his craft, all the coaching in the world isn’t going to make a difference.

Picking Up the Pieces: What’s Next for the Giants?

The Giants are headed for a major housecleaning this offseason. There is certainly enough evidence to point to both the coaching staff and the front office for two straight years of sub-.500 football, as at this point, the players have changed, yet the results are the same.

As for how many layers Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch plan to scrub, that remains to be seen. The Giants have always preferred to have stability in the organization, which means they are not as quick to fire both a head coach and the general manager.

While it’s likely that Reese will get a pass this time around—he probably shouldn’t given that he is just as much to blame for the fiasco this franchise has become—it’s certainly going to be a very interesting offseason for this once-mighty New York Giants franchise.

Patricia Traina covers the Giants for Inside Football and The SportsXchange. All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced. Follow me on Twitter @Patricia_Traina.