Former executive rips Giants GM after blowout loss to Vikings

The New York Giants suffered a humbling 28-6 season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings this past Sunday that left some fans and analysts convinced it's a matter of when, not if, general manager Joe Schoen will have head coach Brian Daboll bench quarterback Daniel Jones so the club can release Jones next offseason.

On the latest edition of "The GM Shuffle" program, former NFL executive and current analyst Michael Lombardi sugge sted that Schoen deserves plenty of blame for assembling a roster that wasn't able to hang with the Vikings for four quarters of action.

"I don’t think the Giants players buy into that they think they’re gonna win," Lombardi explained, as shared by Gabriel Trevino of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "I don’t think that’s Daboll’s fault. I think it’s the team construction’s fault. There’s not strength on the team that they’re going to be a hard out."

Specifically, Lombardi called New York's secondary "one of the worst in football" after it allowed Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold to complete 13 of his first 14 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown at MetLife Stadium. Lombardi also indicated he's among those who believe Daboll can't save Jones' Giants tenure.

Jones completed 22-of-42 passes for 186 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions versus Minnesota. He later received criticism for looking "skittish" and being "flustered in the face of clean pockets" on Sunday afternoon.

"I hate this rhetoric Brian Daboll can make Daniel Jones better," Lombardi said. "You can’t. You can’t make a bad player play better. You can manage it better...You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken s — ."

Jones played poorly last season before he suffered a second worrisome neck injury in three years and before he went down with a torn ACL in early November. The Giants went from 2-8 to 6-11 without Jones, and Lombardi thinks this year's squad may be worse than the team that took the field this past January.

"They’re horrible," Lombardi said about the current Giants. "They’re going to keep being horrible. There’s no way that’s a playoff team. Who are you going to be picking in the [top five spots of next year's draft?]."

As of Tuesday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Giants as 1.5-point underdogs for this coming Sunday's matchup at the 0-1 Washington Commanders.

Jones is on track to start that contest, but expect television cameras to look for backup signal-callers Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito if the Big Blue offense fails to produce a touchdown by the midway point of the second quarter.