Panthers Hire David Gettleman as New General Manager

Panthers Hire David Gettleman as New General Manager: The Carolina Panthers have hired Giants’ Senior Pro Personnel Analyst David Gettleman as their new general manager. Both Gettleman and Giants’ Director of College Scouting Marc Ross were interviewed for the position.

Gettleman had been with the Giants for 15 years, primarily responsible for scouting free agents.

“Dave is extremely qualified to be the general manager of the Panthers and will do a terrific job,” said General Manager Jerry Reese. “The Panthers interviewed two of the top personnel executives in the NFL in Dave and Marc Ross, and couldn’t go wrong either way, in my humble opinion.”

“Dave knows what a football player is,” said Head Coach Tom Coughlin. “He knows how to evaluate talent. He has done a great job of assessing our talent and the talent around the league and helping to identify those players who fill our needs. He is more than qualified to be Carolina’s general manager. He is gifted and talented and has worked for years behind the scenes to make sure we are the best we can be.”

“I have mixed emotions about this,” said Giants’ President and CEO John Mara. “Dave certainly deserves to be a general manager, but I am very sorry to lose him. He has been instrumental to the success we have had and we are certainly going to miss him. He will do a great job for the Carolina Panthers.”

Ken Sternfeld, Gettleman’s long-time assistant, was promoted to Director of Pro Personnel last year.

As for Ross, he’s also interviewed with the Jaguars, Chargers, and Jets regarding their respective general manager vacancies. However, only the position with the Jets remains open.

Notes: In 2012, the Giants finished 14th in total offense with 355.4 yards per game. However, the Giants did score 429 points, the second-highest total in franchise history (the 1963 Giants scored 448 points). The Giants scored precisely the same number of touchdowns in 2011 and 2012 – 47. But in 2012 they kicked 33 field goals, compared to 19 in 2011.

Five times the Giants have scored more than 400 points in a single season. Four of these seasons have come under Head Coach Tom Coughlin (2005, 2008, 2009, and 2012).

The Giants were the only NFL team with three different players with a 100-yard rushing game this season.

In 2012, the Giants finished 31st in total defense. The defense allowed 6,134 yards, or 383.4 yards a game, both the highest figures in franchise history. The defense gave up 6,022 yards in the 2011, the only two seasons in which the Giants allowed 6,000 yards in their history.

The Giants allowed 60 passes of 20 or more yards (the NFL’s fourth-highest total), 29 passes of at least 30 yards (led the NFL), and 13 passes of 40 or more yards (second in the league).

The defense finished 12th in points allowed with 344. The Giants allowed only 23 touchdowns on 50 opposing possessions in the red zone, a 46.0 percentage that was sixth in the NFL.

The Giants were fourth in the NFL in both takeaways (35) and turnover differential (plus 14).

The Giants punted 58 times in 2012, their lowest total ever in a 16-game season and their lowest total in a non-strike season since they had 47 punts in a 14-game season in 1972 (they had 49 punts in the strike-shortened, nine-game season in 1982).

HB/KR David Wilson’s 1,925 all-purpose yards were the most ever by a Giants rookie and the most for any Giant since Tiki Barber had 2,127 in 2006.

S Stevie Brown, whose eight interceptions were the most by a Giant in 44 years, had five returns of more than 40 yards, the highest total by an NFL player since Baltimore’s Ed Reed had five in 2004.

P Steve Weatherford’s gross punting average of 47.5 yards placed him eighth in the NFL and was the highest single-season average by a Giants punter with at least 35 kicks.