New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman took to the podium on Feb. 27 to address the media during the NFL combine.
Someone asked about the rumors swirling around star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., whom the Giants signed to a five-year, $90 million extension in August 2018. “We didn’t sign Odell to trade him,” Gettleman said. “That’s all I need to say about that.”
Thirteen days later, the Giants traded Beckham to the Cleveland Browns for first- and third-round picks and safety Jabrill Peppers. To my knowledge, nothing changed in those 13 days. Beckham appears to have all of his extremities intact. The NFL did not ban the forward pass. The Giants traded Olivier Vernon for Kevin Zeitler and let Landon Collins leave in free agency, but they didn’t suddenly build a time machine and bring 1987 Jerry Rice through a portal and into Giants colors.
Something dramatic and inexplicable needs to have happened in those 13 days to make this trade make sense because it otherwise reads as if the Giants were hacked. Months after paying him a $20 million signing bonus, they traded one of the league’s best young players at any position to the Browns for the sort of offer the computer would reject in a video game.
This has the potential to be a franchise-resetting trade, the sort of deal that gets everyone fired and leaves fans muttering for decades about what could have been. The Giants have never had a player like OBJ before. Now, they don’t have him — or much of anything — at all
It’s fair to say that Gettleman didn’t inherit much when he took over as Giants GM in December 2017. Jerry Reese left the team after a string of horrific drafts, and while the Giants were able to paper over those holes by spending big in free agency to make the 2016 playoffs, regression then took hold, and they fell to 3-13.
Even given the fact that Reese left Gettleman with precious little in the cupboard, what Gettleman has done since is scarcely believable:
- His 2018 free-agent haul was a disaster. Nate Solder, whom Gettleman made the highest-paid tackle in football, had the worst year of his career. Patrick Omameh, signed to a three-year, $15 million deal to play guard, was cut halfway into the season. Running back Jonathan Stewart, signed to a one-year, $3.5 million deal, touched the ball six times in three games before going on injured reserve.
- The Giants used the second overall pick on running back Saquon Barkley, ignoring the simple concept of positional scarcity and passing on impactful players at more important positions such as Sam Darnold, Denzel Ward and Bradley Chubb. Barkley looked brilliant with the ball in his hands and made highlight-reel runs, but he was inefficient and racked up yards in garbage time. The Giants were 18th in rushing DVOA with their new star back but were left with holes or subpar players at most of the critical positions in their lineup.
- In October, Gettleman traded former first-round pick Eli Apple to the Saints for fourth- and seventh-round picks. Apple almost immediately stepped into the starting lineup for New Orleans and helped turn around a struggling defense, which improved dramatically in the second half of the season. New York finished the season with veterans minimum corner B.W. Webb starting in Apple’s place.
- Earlier this month, Gettleman declined to put the franchise tag for safeties on Collins, which would have held the three-time Pro Bowler’s rights for one more season at $11.2 million. Collins promptly signed a six-year, $84 million deal with Washington, which more realistically amounts to a three-year, $45 million pact with options. The $15 million annual figure and the rest of the safety market in free agency suggest that Collins would have held meaningful trade value if the Giants had held his rights.
The most bizarre path of all, though, is the one Gettleman has walked with his star wide receiver. After rumors that they were considering a Beckham trade last offseason, Gettleman signed OBJ to a massive extension in August. Beckham got a five-year, $90 million deal to stay in New York, with a $20 million signing bonus and $41 million guaranteed at signing. The $18 million annual average salary was the largest for a wideout in league history.
