He wants the job.
“I think everyone would want this job,’’ Kevin Abrams said.
He believes he is ready for the job.
“Yes,’’ Abrams said.
Why now?
“Why do I think I’m ready? It sounds like I’m going to be interviewing on the spot here, I’d rather not do that, just because of the appearance of a campaign and I want to play it straight,’’ Abrams said Thursday, standing inside the Giants field house while conducting an impromptu, and rare, media session during the early portion of practice.
Soon enough, Abrams, 46, will get the chance to sell himself to co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, because the Giants are in the market for a new general manager after firing Jerry Reese on Dec. 4. Abrams, the assistant general manager, was bumped up to interim GM status for the remainder of this season. Perhaps this could become a permanent appointment, if the Giants are inclined to stay in-house for the hiring of the most important football position in the organization.
Abrams and Marc Ross, the Giants vice president of player evaluation, will be interviewed for the position, starting next week. Dave Gettleman, with 15 years working in Giants personnel, is expected to also speak next week with his former team. Gettleman most recently was the general manager of the Panthers.
So, who is Kevin Abrams? He has been with the Giants for 19 years, hired as their salary cap analyst. He has been the assistant general manager the past 16 years, handling player negotiations and contracts. He has taken on increased responsibilities with the college and pro personnel departments, evaluating players for the NFL draft and free agency. Before coming to the Giants, Abrams worked for the NFL Management Council. He is a native of Toronto and, on occasion, slips in a Canadian accent.
Every step of the way, Abrams had Reese as a mentor.
“It was shock and surprise and emotional and then uncomfortable a little bit,’’ Abrams said of Reese’s dismissal. “Now it’s starting to take on more of a business as usual. The circumstances aren’t getting any less unfortunate.’’
There is only so much an interim general manager can do as the season nears an end. Still, this is all new for Abrams.
“Well, I don’t have Jerry down the hallway to make all the final decisions right now,’’ he said. “The job is support the coach, support the staff, support the players. There’s not a lot you can do the last four weeks of a season. You do what you can. But it’s support. Support all day.’’
Abrams praised the way Steve Spagnuolo hit the ground running after taking over for fired Ben McAdoo.
“He’s a tremendously intelligent – I value intelligence and have a great deal of respect for it and Kevin is one of those guys that’s really smart,’’ Spagnuolo said. “He has a really good knack of seeing the big picture. Sometimes as coaches you can get those blinders on, but he does a good job of seeing the whole thing. I’m glad he’s here. He’s been a great help.’’
For the record, Abrams said he believes Eli Manning still has good football left in him and would like to see rookie Davis Webb get some game action.
“We know what we want to accomplish, it’s just not easy to do it, necessarily,’’ he said.
Abrams does not put most of the blame on the scoring woes on the offensive line.
“I mean, every quarterback needs an offensive line but I don’t want to give the impression that I’m putting 2-11 at the feet of this offensive line,’’ he said, “I think they’ve actually played solidly. This is a collective 2-11. I know they take a lot of heat and every position group and every part of this organization could have done a better job this year. To be 2-11 it takes a lot of people to not do their best to get to this point.’’
There is no way to know if familiarity with Abrams will help or hurt him with ownership, as a case can be made to completely clean house and start anew.
“I don’t know, that really depends on what John and Steve want to hear in a candidate,’’ Abrams said. “I feel prepared to talk about our program because I’m very familiar with our program. I don’t know if that’s an advantage. That’s gonna depend on their perspective.’’