Dave Gettleman: We’ll see how crazy I am in three years

[Giant]

Giants General Manager Dave Gettleman’s decision to draft quarterback Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick has come in for a lot of criticism over the last few days and he’s defended his choice by saying that he knows that at least two other teams were ready to pick Jones before the Giants would be back on the board at No. 17.

That feeling has been rebuffed by others, including Peter King in Football Morning in America. King spoke to Gettleman for that column and Gettleman pushed back at critics by doing something he did ahead of the draft as well. He’s pointing to his history of being involved in successful organizations and lamenting the lack of patience others are showing for his rebuilding effort.

“The bottom line is, I have confidence in what I do and who I am,” Gettleman said. “I’ve been a part of organizations that had pretty good quarterbacks — Jim Kelly, John Elway, Kerry Collins, Eli Manning, Cam Newton. … I’ve been a part of teams that went to seven Super Bowls. I had a hand in some of them. But today, there’s no patience. And there’s no room for civil discourse in our society, which I find sad.”

Gettleman and the Giants spent the last few months telling anyone who asked that Manning is still a high level quarterback who just needed a better supporting cast in order to return the team to a winning record. The Jones pick sent a different message and didn’t provide that help to Manning, which is a reversal of course that is always going to lead to the kind of response that we’ve seen since Thursday night.

The list of quarterbacks above were not taken when Gettleman was in the top job and their selection didn’t leave him in the spotlight the way that the Jones pick will. Gettleman told King that “we’ll find out how crazy I am” in three years and we’ll see if the Giants are that patient if their 8-24 record over the last two years proves more telling of the future than Gettleman’s more distant past.