EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – In the aftermath of the Odell Beckham Jr. trade, the last thing the sports world needs is another jack-monkey trying to make sense of it.
One jack-monkey reporting for duty. The Odell Trade and the Five Stages of Grief.
Denial
“Hey, they need a lot more pieces than Odell,” I tried to convince myself. But then I saw the endless highlight reels – the one handed grabs, the acceleration, the passion. In the history of the New York Giants, the list of players better than Odell is:
Lawrence Taylor
End of list.
He wasn’t a locker room cancer, according to several players who stepped forward to defend him. I’ll give you immature, pain-in-the-ass, distraction – but his teammates seemed to like him, by and large. He is no T.O. Couldn’t they have made this work or at least got more for him?
Anger
Adam Schefter said he had no idea why they traded him now. Teams were still calling and it made sense to wait until closer to the draft to see if anyone would beat Cleveland’s offer. Schefty was convinced someone would have.
I guess the Giants wanted to get it done and move on. Or perhaps they took a page from Belichick and decided they’d rather trade him to a non-conference foe like Cleveland over a team like San Francisco, another NFC team they play almost every year.
It sure didn’t look good for Gettleman to say “we didn’t sign him to trade him” and then turn around and trade him. This continues to look like a group that is not on the same page and is winging it with no defined plan. Signing a 30-year-old WR and a 35-year old safety added to the befuddlement of the fan base.
Bargaining
But I’m a glass half full kind of guy. Gettleman thinks he knocked it out of the ballpark. Maybe it will work out.
In my opinion the worst move they could make would be to move up to get Murray or Haskins if they don’t love them. They can’t give up the draft capital unless they are convinced they’re getting the guy. It’s tempting to roll the dice because no one wants to go through another year answering questions about Eli Manning and passing on Sam Darnold. But that’s how guys like Christian Ponder and Heath Shuler get drafted in the first round.
Have you taken a gander at the 2020 QB draft class? I won’t bore with the names, but there is potentially a murderers’ row led by Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Hebert. With Murray likely to be off the board and Haskins possibly gone too, the Giants should resist the urge to just pick the next QB on their board, even with their second first round pick at #17.
This is a d-heavy draft and the Giants have plenty of needs on that side of the ball. The Giants should grab one of the highly touted edge guys at 6 and stay focused on D. But if a tackle like Jonah Williams is available at 17 and/or a WR they really love lands in their laps in the second round, like N’Keal Harry, they should consider pulling the trigger.
Things would be looking up if Giants came out of the draft with an animal pass rusher, a plug and play bookend right tackle, and a outside WR with upside? You’d still have holes on D, but the offense would be in decent shape.
For 2019 you play out the year with Eli and let the team’s best QB ever finish out his career with dignity. Run the offense through Saquon, use play action and a short passing game with Tate, Engram, Shepard, Saquon and maybe a rookie WR. Try to accumulate more draft assets during the season.
Identify your QB in next year’s draft and do what you have to do to get him, as they did with Eli. Odell’s dead money and Manning’s salary come off the books next season and they are projected to have a lot of cap room. Continue to build the defense via free agency and the draft.
Depression
It’s tough because even if this all goes to plan, they likely won’t contend with a rookie QB in 2020. So the soonest they can be truly competitive would be in 2021.
Acceptance
I think most Giants’ fans would sign up for that right now. Gettleman seems lost and it’s hard to picture this all coming together quickly. Who am I kidding? Next stop, Dave Brown QB Wasteland.
Click over tomorrow for Angry Ward, who rarely gets past the second stage of grief. Follow us on Twitter at @BenWhit8, @MeetTheMatts, @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
