The Giants yesterday promoted longtime scout Jerry Reese to general manager, handing the reins of the franchise to a man with little name recognition but a solid reputation in football circles. Reese replaces Ernie Accorsi, whose longplanned retirement became effective yesterday, and immediately becomes the boss of Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who last week received a one-year contract extension.

With the Giants coming off an 8–8 season that ended with a disappointing playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Reese has his work cut out for him. Tiki Barber has retired, meaning the Giants need to replace their best player. Much of the Giants’ salary cap is tied up in players who haven’t lived up to their promise, with quarterback Eli Manning foremost among them. And although team president John Mara said when he announced Coughlin’s contract extension that the players like and respect their coach, it hasn’t looked that way from the outside.

Those issues make the job difficult, but Reese is well qualified. He first became a college scout for the Giants in December 1994, traveling the country to identify promising young players, and in 1999 the Giants promoted him to a spot in the pro personnel department. In 2002, he was named director of player personnel, a job that included managing the Giants’ scouting staff and making recommendations to Accorsi about which free agents to sign and which college players to draft.

The Giants were widely believed to consider New England Patriots executive Scott Pioli their first choice for the general manager position, but Pioli wasn’t interested. Besides Reese, the Giants’ other in-house candidates were vice president of player evaluation Chris Mara (whose family has owned the team since its founding in 1925), director of pro personnel Dave Gettleman and assistant general manager Kevin Abrams. The Giants also considered former Houston Texans and Washington Redskins general manager Charley Casserly.

Reese’s hiring makes the Giants one of only a handful of NFL teams whose football operations are led by an African American. The only other black general managers in the NFL are Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome and Houston’s Rick Smith. The league has been criticized in some quarters for the fact that a significant majority of team executives and coaches are white even though a significant majority of players are black.

If he hadn’t landed the Giants job, the 43-year-old Reese had other options. He was considered a candidate to become general manager of the Tennessee Titans, and three years ago he interviewed to become general manager of the Miami Dolphins. Other teams showed interest in Reese because of his reputation as a tireless worker who travels the country watching prospects in person in addition to spending long hours scouring game tape.

Reese played defensive back at the University of Tennessee at Martin and later coached the secondary there. As a small-school player himself, Reese has a fondness for players from colleges that aren’t football powers. With Reese playing a major role in their draft room, the Giants have drafted small-school players, including defensive end Osi Umenyiora of Troy State and running back Brandon Jacobs of Southern Illinois.

Jacobs will play a prominent part in Reese’s biggest off-season priority, determining how the team should deal with the loss of Barber. Jacobs has been an effective backup, but he has never played the role of every-down back. If Reese determines that Jacobs isn’t up to the task of single-handedly replacing the 327 carries and 58 catches Barber gave the Giants this season, he will either have to sign a free agent or draft a rookie to split time with Jacobs.

Overseeing the evaluation of players is a massive job. NFL teams typically keep scouting reports on about 2,000 players, from high-profile stars who could receive huge free agent contracts to out-of-work no-names who might be offered a spot on the practice squad. And each year scouts evaluate hundreds of college players in preparation for the draft. Reese now oversees all of that, making him the franchise’s most important employee. Last week Giants fans were disappointed by the retention of Coughlin, but today they should be encouraged by the promotion of Reese.

Mr. Smith is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com