It’s not that the 9-23 record of the last two years and the failed reign of Pat Shurmur don’t go on Gettleman’s record. It all absolutely does. But this year’s team is really what Gettleman has been building towards since the day he was hired. It may not be even close to the finished product yet, but for the first time it really is his team, his creation.

And possibly for the first time since he took over, he really seems to like what he sees.

“I just feel like the roster is going to be competitive. It’s going to have the ability to win games,” the Giants GM said via Zoom on Wednesday. “I’m not putting a number on it. You put a team out there and they’ll be The Fighting Joe Judges, I have no doubt.

“It’s going to go well.”

Yes, he has faith in the 38-year-old rookie head coach he helped hire eight months ago, but Gettleman knows that even the best coaches can’t win without players. And for the first time in his three years of running this show, Gettleman seems to believe he has the players. There are holes, to be sure – particularly in a secondary that has been thinned by the arrest of cornerback DeAndre Baker, the opt out of corner Sam Beal, and the foot injury to rookie safety Xavier McKinney – but position by position, based on talent and potential, this is Gettleman’s best team.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a playoff contender. Even in a year with expanded playoffs that might still be a bar too high to clear. But Gettleman is so convinced he finally has the Giants pointed in the right direction, that he doesn’t sound like he thinks a playoff berth is out of reach.

“We’ve got a young, developmental team,” Gettleman said. “I think Joe and his staff are going to develop those players. So that’s what gives me confidence. It gives me confidence that we have a quarterback. We’ve got a heck of a running back. We’ve got some nice pieces on defense. The o-line has got pieces.

“We’re getting there. And I believe we’re going to be competitive.”

Gettleman is right about all of that. His hand-picked franchise quarterback, Daniel Jones, earned rave reviews for his rookie season. Saquon Barkley has become a star. He has completely rebuilt the offensive line over the last three years, and he believes this is “the closest we’ve ever been” to fixing that unit. And there’s a lot of promise on defense in young players like defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, linebacker Lorenzo Carter and safety Jabrill Peppers, with a nice mix of young-ish veterans like linebacker Blake Martinez, cornerback James Bradberry and even defensive end Leonard Williams.

Yes, he needs those young players to live up to their potential and he needs those veterans to be as good as he expects. But at least these are the players he wanted in these positions, not just the ones he was stuck with.

If it all falls apart, if the young players are busts, if Leonard Williams is what he was with the Jets, if the line is a disaster again and no one can rush the passer, there’ll be no defending Gettleman anymore. GMs deserve time, but the era of five-year rebuilding projects is far in the past. Three years is enough to see legitimate progress. Three years is more than enough to start seeing wins.

Whether he needs wins or a playoff berth to keep his job is almost irrelevant. At Gettleman’s age he likely doesn’t have too many more years left in his career. His goal has always been to set the Giants up for their future, to point them towards their next Super Bowl Era, the way former GM Ernie Accorsi did before he retired at the end of 2006.

Gettleman believes he’s done that, but this season is when everyone finds out for sure. Either all his young players and pieces start to show their potential, or they don’t. Either the Giants start to look like a team just a few years and a couple of pieces away from making a run at a title, or someone else is going to be brought in to rebuild it all again.

The last two years were frustrating. The football was bad. The losing was painful. But those were teams in transition. This one is not. This is the team that will truly begin to define Gettleman’s legacy. The story of his time with the Giants will be written starting now.

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