After spending the past five years as arguably the most popular athlete in NYC, the New York Giants have officially closed the door on the Odell Beckham era. The Giants agreed to trade Beckham to Cleveland in exchange for a first-round pick (No. 17 overall) the second of the Browns‘ third-round picks (No. 95) and safety Jabrill Peppers, per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday.
The past five years of Beckham’s career has been a roller coaster ride to say the least. Beckham bursted onto the scene; immediately demonstrating his rare talent which most notably includes the famous one-hand catch on SNF against the Cowboys. It all seemed to come spiraling down following the infamous yacht picture…
The most recent memories of Beckham in a Giants uniform are filled with headaches and disappointment. Beckham missed the majority of the 2017 season with a fractures left ankle. This past offseason there were numerous things that had Giants fans scratching their heads.
Although the Giants just handed Beckham a massive contract last offseason, it did solve anything. Beckham has caused controversy and stirred the pot many times throughout the past five years in New York which has been him an easy target in the media; but this move was a total impulse decision by G.M. Gettleman that should cause outrage.
If Gettleman had any intentions on dealing Beckham; he did that by trying to play hard to get. All it took was the Browns to give them their 17th overall pick in this year’s first round, a third round pick (the pick was acquired by Patriots so it’s last pick of the round), and safety Jabril Peppers.
There’s a real noticeable trend going on here in the Giants organization; and it’s not rebuilding… it’s David Gettleman trying to re-create an entire organization based off character traits. Obviously having somebody with high character is a tremendous positive for any sort of organization, but there’s an ongoing trend that anybody who in any shape or form speaks-out and stirs-up any controversy towards the media seems to be right out the door.
There’s a difference between somebody who is a great football player and person, and somebody who is a great football player and teammate. The ultimate goal is obviously to win. All these players the Giants are letting go of have a lot of personalities, but they are outspoken with their emotions because they HATE losing. Beckham, Damon “Snacks” Harrison, Landon Collins, and even Eli Apple they all are terrific football players that the Giants are questionably risking it all to replace… The question is: What are they trying to accomplish.
It’s no secret that Odell Beckham was beloved in the Giants locker room. I’ve gone to the Giants training camp and the buzz around the facility last preseason for Odell was unbelievable. Odell is a superstar receiver that came onto the scene at 21 year-old, and he is just another example of David Gettleman’s trust issues.
On exactly 5 years ago; March, 13, 2014 David Gettleman released arguably the greatest player in Carolina Panthers history in former 5x Pro Bowl WR Steve Smith. He released all-pro CB Josh Norman in the prime of his career. He left the team without a CB and they haven’t had anybody remotely close to Norman’s level since. Getting rid of a legend like Steve Smith pissed off Carolina fans, and then Gettleman replaces him with Kelvin Benjamin who the new G.M. realized is not that good and he traded him to Buffalo as soon as Gettleman left.
If the Giants are seriously trying to re-build and save money they are not even doing that. They already have over $33M in dead cap they have to pay now including half of it towards Beckham. It’s not like they are saving money short-term by cutting Beckham, there is no WR on the market in the same conversation as Beckham.
Their only real threat at WR on their current roster is Sterling Shepard who will be a free agent after next season. Gettleman’s trend of getting rid of players in their prime started in Carolina, and it’s continuing in New York which should make free agents turned-off to sign there.
Gettleman, on the other hand, had an opportunity to pair Beckham with a young quarterback prospect such as the Jets‘ Sam Darnold in last year’s draft. Instead, he will now begin the lengthy roster reconstruction process of his own, watching all their former star players on new teams.
Now Beckham joins Cleveland’s offensive nucleus of Baker Mayfield, Jarvis Landry, power backs Nick Chubb, and Kareem Hunt, tight end David Njoku and a solid unit up front is now one of the Super Bowl contenders in the AFC. He reunites with his best friend and former teammate at LSU with Landry, which takes over the Steelers’ spot of AB & JuJu now as the best WR duo in the NFL.
After adding defensive linemen Olivier Vernon and Sheldon Richardson, to what they already had, this team’s potential is scary.In just over a year, Dorsey has stockpiled a previous barren roster, perhaps even transforming a laughingstock into a Super Bowl hopeful.
On the other side, Giants have nobody notable on defense with Eli Manning back at the helm on offense. They appear to switching roles to where Cleveland was. So now after two full seasons of New York Giants fan screaming to replace Eli Manning…
David Gettleman replaced pretty much everybody who has ever been vocal leader or fan favorite on the team. Now we will see what he can turn this into as the Giants’ rebuilding process has officially begun.
Off The Gridiron 