Former NFL GM rips the NY Giants after the Hard Knocks debut

Brian Daboll and the NY Giants are seeking a bounce-back year after a dismal 2023 campaign. NY supporters have been given a sneak peek of what things look like heading into the upcoming season. Some people like what they see thus far, while others think they'll be the same old Giants.

Despite an eventful offseason, the front office faced significant criticism following their appearance on the new offseason edition of HBO Max's "Hard Knocks." A critique came from former NFL general manager Michael Lombardi on his "Lombardi Line" podcast, in which he identified various controversial decisions made by the team's leadership during the television show's premiere.

"If you don’t know who you are, how the hell do you find players out there that can fix it?... When you’ve got that many people involved in decision-making, you’re going to make a bad decision. You’ve got too many opinions. There should be a pyramid of opinions... But when you have that many people coming in with different opinions... They really don’t know who they are. They don’t know what a Giant player is. To me, that’s the biggest problem I took away from it. What is a Giant player? Like, who are we? What is our identity?"

- Michael Lombardi

There were several instances during the first episode where the decision-making process was scattered across multiple faces in the organization, whether it be Brian Daboll settling on his new defensive coordinator, the scout team having different ideas on which kinds of players the team should target, or John Mara advocating to re-sign Saquon Barkley while Joe Schoen refuted the idea. Ultimately, Lombardi called the Giants a team without an identity, something that could certainly be an issue down the road.

Lombardi was also unhappy with how the organization views quarterback Daniel Jones. The signal-caller is entering the second season of his highly criticized four-year, $160 million contract extension. While the Giants are giving him another chance to prove himself as the starter, Lombardi believes he has underperformed and that even a healthy Jones won't be enough to push the needle in East Rutherford.

From 2013-2014, Lombardi served as the general manager for the Cleveland Browns. He has held numerous positions in the NFL across more than 30 years and was one of Bill Belichick's top coaching staff assistants during the mid-2010s. Given his experience, his words shouldn't be taken lightly.

Lombardi's first impressions of the 2024 G-Men might be correct, but fans are holding out hope that this year will be different. Only time will tell if NY can develop a true identity under Coach Dabes and Schoen or not.