EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Giants thought last season was a debacle. Well, this season might be worse. They’re on pace for a franchise-record 14 losses and doing it with Odell Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley on the roster. It almost seems inconceivable -- until you start rehashing an offseason of misevaluation and questionable moves.

The fingerprints on the Giants' 1-7 start can be traced to the beginning of the season, when it was a clean slate for players, coaches and the front office. With a new regime in place, the mistakes of the past were forgiven, even if they were impossible (see: the roster) to completely forget.

The offensive line

Gettleman arrived and preached about his desire to fix the offensive line. “The O-line and the D-line, I believe in the hog mollies,” he said. “We’ve had some great groups here, had great groups everywhere I’ve been, and we’re going to get back to that.”

Gettleman went about that this offseason by using substantial financial resources to sign left tackle Nate Solder and right guard Patrick Omameh. Solder has struggled in his first season with the Giants. Omameh has already been benched. Gettleman also went into the season with Ereck Flowers as his right tackle, with second-year undrafted free agent Chad Wheeler as his contingency plan. Flowers has since been cut, and Wheeler probably shouldn't be an NFL starter. The lone move that has shown promise is second-round pick Will Hernandez. But that hasn’t been nearly enough. “We’re going to go as far as that line will block for us,” coach Pat Shurmur said before the season. In retrospect, how prophetic.

Part 1 of the offensive line rebuild has dramatically flopped. Quarterback Eli Manning has already been sacked 31 times. His career high for a season is 39.

Pat Shurmur and the Giants appear to be in a tough place because they stuck with Eli Manning. Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports

Which leads us to...

The quarterback

Manning has eight touchdown passes in eight games. He’s going to be 38 years old before this season’s Super Bowl, and he hasn’t played well consistently since the 2015 season. Gettleman and the Giants quadrupled down on the two-time Super Bowl winner this offseason, bypassing what was a historic quarterback draft in the first round. Little did Gettleman realize he was already in the place he was trying to avoid. Except the Giants are even worse.

“There are teams that are in what I call quarterback hell,” he said this past offseason. “They've got quality defense, they've got a good special teams, and they're going 7-9, 8-8, 9-7. And now if there is a legitimate guy, they've got to trade up and give away the farm to get the guy."

The Giants’ defense is ranked 18th in the NFL. Their special teams are 13th, according to Football Outsiders. They’re on pace for 2-14. The only saving grace is that if the Giants keep losing, Gettleman might luck into a top pick that will prevent them from giving up the farm for their next quarterback.

Either way, this is an organization stuck in no-man’s land until it finds its next franchise quarterback. Anybody think that is Kyle Lauletta right now?

The offseason appraisal

The disastrous moves:

Manning: Clearly this was not a win-now team made to operate with an immobile, aging quarterback. The results speak for themselves. Everything was set up for the Giants to move on (new coach, new GM, No. 2 overall pick, 37-year-old QB who was benched last year). They didn’t, and it could set them back years.

Omameh: A misevaluation of talent. The Giants signed him to a three-year, $15 million deal this offseason. Omameh was benched after six games.

Flowers: They tried to make this work with the 2015 first-round pick and somehow didn’t have a strong contingency plan. Flowers was benched after two games and eventually cut.

No returner specialists: Four players have returned punts. Five players have returned kickoffs. The Giants went into the summer with Hunter Sharp and Kalif Raymond as their return options. They cut them both before the start of the season, and it has been a revolving door ever since.

Not looking good:

The told-you-so move:

RB Jonathan Stewart: Everybody seemed to know that he was done except Gettleman. Stewart was 31 years old, and his yards per carry had dipped in each of the previous three seasons. He was, at best, a minimum-salary signing for his locker-room presence. The Giants gave him $2.95 million guaranteed and got six carries for 17 yards in extremely limited playing time before he landed on injured reserve.

Best moves: