#Dave Gettleman’s precarious Giants position: ‘The fall guy’

No polling is needed to render a verdict in the court of public opinion regarding Dave Gettleman. Fans of the Giants, in droves, want the general manager gone.

Gettleman turns 70 on Feb. 21 and has no plans to leave his post. If his team continues to go south, ownership could suggest that he consider retirement. He is a cancer survivor and a longstanding member of the organization, but he is unlikely to be retained if the Giants win just two or three games this season. His record as general manager is 10-30, and combined with the losing is a series of decisions he must answer for.

He re-signed Odell Beckham Jr. then traded him — the value of the return so far (Jabrill Peppers, Dexter Lawrence and Oshane Ximines) is pending. He sent two draft picks to the Jets for Leonard Williams, and was unable to sign him to a long-term extension, overpaying ($16.1 million) for a good, but not preeminent, defensive lineman.

Gettleman believed he got it right with Pat Shurmur, lauding him as an “adult,’’ and it proved to be a poor hiring. He has — despite outward appearances — upgraded the team’s analytics department and revamped certain aspects of the scouting system.

Gettleman decided to stick with Eli Manning, and it did not turn out well. His initial goal to win while rebuilding did not happen. Although a tearing-down was needed, Gettleman’s first instinct was to refurbish.

“He’s got experience, he knows what the problems are that he’s got to shore up,’’ an NFL talent evaluator who knows Gettleman well told The Post. “I think Dave is smart enough to know, if you don’t win you’re not going to be around long. He probably feels they’ve got a lot of the right pieces in place.’’

Whether or not ownership — and to some extent, head coach Joe Judge — believes enough pieces are in place likely will be the determining factor in whether Gettleman stays or goes. Gettleman signing off on Judge looks like a winning move.

“I think he’ll probably end up being the fall guy,’’ Jason Fitzgerald, founder of OverTheCap.com, said of Gettleman. “He came into a situation that needed to rebuild, and he was probably not the guy for that. He didn’t rebuild, he tried to retool, and that rarely works.

“He kind of comes from a different generation of football. You see it with the focus on bringing in guys to stop the run, saying you are going to keep going with Eli Manning, drafting [Saquon] Barkley because you want to get this running game going.

“I think he’s probably not the right fit for where football is headed right now, and it will probably cost him his job. I don’t want to say the game has passed somebody by, he basically has lived football his whole life, it’s just it’s gone a little bit of a different direction, and I don’t think he’s really adjusted with the way the NFL has gone, and that’s cost the Giants.’’

What can save Gettleman? The Giants are 1-7, so their record this season is going to be unsightly, even if their close-call defeats evolve into a few more wins. The organization is pleased with Judge, and that helps. What will help Gettleman most of all is if Daniel Jones, the player he picked (and might have overvalued) at No. 6 in the 2019 draft shakes off his toxic turnover issues and looks like an improved quarterback in the final eight games.

“If Daniel Jones plays well, with the way that they are playing, in terms of how hard they’re playing, then I think Dave Gettleman gets another chance, because now you say, I got the quarterback, we got the thing trending in the right direction, he appears to have the right coach,’’ said Bucky Brooks, a former NFL player and front office executive, currently working as an analyst at NFL.com.

“I think the way it plays out, right now, I’m leaning to let him stay, let him continue to build it, because it appears you have a solid coach in Joe Judge who understands how football has to be played there. Now it’s about making sure Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman are on the same page to go forward. If you change it, you have to remove a lot of people in that building, and really, how comfortable are those people potentially removing themselves by bringing an outsider in?”