I arrived in Indianapolis for the combine on Tuesday convinced that despite the locker drama, there was no way the Giants would let Pro Bowl safety Landon Collins walk into free agency without applying the franchise tag. But with the deadline to apply the tag approaching at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, I now believe it’s entirely possible that the Giants will let the 25-year-old hit the market.
Here’s why my view on that changed, plus news and notes on a variety of topics based on five days at the NFL’s annual gossip convention:
• It seemed like common sense for the Giants to use the franchise tag to maintain contractual control over Collins. General manager Dave Gettleman blamed the team’s 5-11 record on a lack of defensive playmakers, so surely he couldn’t just let a three-time Pro Bowler entering his prime walk out the door.
That was the impression from agents and executives I spoke to early in the week. But my take changed after Gettleman addressed the media on Wednesday.
Gettleman showed last year when he gushed nonstop about eventual No. 2 pick Saquon Barkley that he doesn’t practice much subterfuge when he speaks to the media. So it was notable that whenever Gettleman was asked about tagging Collins, the general manager only fixated on the negative implications of the move.
The franchise tag for safeties will cost $11.15 million in 2019. The Giants currently are projected to have $27 million in cap space, according to overthecap.com. Gettleman acknowledged that number is close to accurate, but then pointed out that the team has much less cap space than it appears because he plans to set aside $8-10 million to sign veterans as injury replacements during the season.
“Now that conversation’s different isn’t it?” Gettleman said of how much money is available for Collins. “Now, it’s, ‘Man, they’ve only got $17 million.’ Nothing can be done in a vacuum. You’ve got to look at the whole picture.”
Additionally, all indications point to Collins being unhappy if he gets tagged. He could follow the same path as Earl Thomas, who are both repped by agent David Mulugheta, when the Seahawks safety reported four days before the 2018 opener due to unhappiness with his contract.
“Let’s go to the conversation of eliminating distractions,” Gettleman said. “You tag a guy, he’s mad and that’s all you guys are going to write about for six months. That’s what’s going to be (in the media). So, I have to say to myself, ‘Is it worth it?’”
There still had been no discussions about a long-term contract as of late last week. That didn’t sit well with Collins’ camp, since the tag is often used to buy time to negotiate a long-term deal. But the Giants have shown no interest in making a long-term commitment to a homegrown player who was voted a team captain last season.
Gettleman spoke for approximately 53 minutes on Wednesday. At no point did he reference the benefits of locking up a young star player when discussing Collins. Instead, Gettleman focused on shrinking cap space and potential distractions. Those comments plus the lack of any progress in negotiations had me leaving Indianapolis with a completely different view of Collins’ future.
• Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that Gettleman is willing to let Collins walk. Gettleman’s track record shows a lack of value placed on the safety position.
In five drafts as the general manager of the Panthers, Gettleman never took a safety in the first three rounds. And the biggest contract he gave to a safety was a three-year, $17 million extension to Kurt Coleman after the 2015 season.
Gettleman mostly patched the safety position together by signing veterans from the discount rack. Even with Collins on an affordable rookie contract last season, Gettleman went cheap at the position, as free safety Curtis Riley was signed to a veteran’s minimum contract.
It looks like Gettleman is going to need to replace both starting safeties this offseason. History suggests he won’t spend much to fill those holes.
• Gettleman’s desire for an $8-10 million rainy day fund struck me as high and an NFL executive agreed. The executive said his preference is to sign young players to replace injured veterans during the season so he didn’t put as much of an emphasis on setting aside money for in-season acquisitions.
The Giants went into last season with $8.9 million in cap space after signing receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to an extension, restructuring cornerback Janoris Jenkins’ contract and trading offensive lineman Brett Jones to the Vikings for a seventh-round pick in the weeks leading up to the opener. They finished with $5.9 million in cap space despite being extremely active in claiming veterans off of waivers during the season.
There are always ways to create cap space, as the Giants demonstrated with their moves in the two weeks before the start of last season. So allowing the desire to have an emergency fund limit the money available to spend in free agency seems like a questionable approach, especially for a team that is in dire need of upgrades at almost every position.
• The chatter about the Giants potentially trading Beckham just won’t die. The Athletic’s Jay Glazer doubled down on his bold prediction that Beckham would be traded, reporting on Thursday that, “In talking to sources in Indianapolis I have more confidence in my prediction if the Giants get a fair offer.”
It makes sense that the rumors about Beckham are coming from national reporters because the Giants haven’t been fueling them. They haven’t been shutting them down, either.
Gettleman repeated his line that, “We didn’t sign Odell to trade him.” Told that sounds like he didn’t intend to trade Beckham when the team gave the receiver a $90 million contract in August, Gettleman responded, “That’s good ears.”
Gettleman’s line doesn’t definitively rule out the possibility of a trade now and he seems comfortable leaving that wiggle room.
“First of all, why is it my responsibility to eliminate that speculation? Because you guys could say anything, get it cooking around the table and now I’ve got to answer that,” Gettleman said. “Am I wrong? No, I’m not wrong. So, I told you what I said. Next question.”
Gettleman’s right, but it’s not as if he’s refusing to address the Beckham speculation. He’s just doing so in a manner that keeps the door open a crack. And the rumors involving Beckham serve as a distraction, as the receiver makes it abundantly clear that he’s aware of everything said about him. If Gettleman said the Giants won’t trade Beckham under any circumstances, the talk would subside. But that’s a commitment Gettleman is resistant to making.
My sense is the Giants aren’t shopping Beckham, but they’re willing to listen to offers. As Glazer noted, if they get blown away by an offer, they’ll pull the trigger. The 49ers were the team that came up most often as a potential trade partner last week. The 49ers are among the league leaders in cap space ($67 million), need a No. 1 receiver for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and have the type of draft capital (No. 2 pick) that would entice the Giants.
As I’ve said all along, I don’t think the Giants will actually trade Beckham. But there’s too much smoke to continue to dismiss the possibility.
• The Giants publicly threw their support behind quarterback Eli Manning, who will return for his 16th season as the team’s starter.
“I’ve really been thinking about this: The narrative around Eli for the past four years, five years since I was gone was really negative,” Gettleman said. “And there’s an old saying: Tell a lie long enough, you’ll believe it. The narrative is so negative that when you take that position, most people struggle getting off that spot. Most people struggle saying, ‘I’m going to look at this with fresh eyes.’ So for example, when you evaluate pro players, every year’s a new year. When you evaluate him, it’s a new year. Yes, before, he was at this level, but that doesn’t mean when you look at him he’s automatically at this level or at this level. You’ve got to take everything for what it’s worth at that time. And I think that the narrative has been negative, and I don’t think it’s been fair.”
It was pointed out that the negativity has coincided with the Giants losing an inordinate amount of their games over that span. Gettleman conceded that was part of it, but emphasized that, “You don’t win it by yourself, you don’t lose it by yourself.”
Gettleman’s sentiment was echoed by various Giants personnel in casual conversations throughout the week. The belief in the 38-year-old isn’t just something expressed when recorders are rolling. Members of the organization truly believe that Manning has gotten too much blame and is capable of succeeding if he has proper support.
• After hearing the Giants recommit to Manning and Gettleman stating that “I’m not going there right now” when asked about lowering the quarterback’s $23.2 million cap hit, I was left to wonder what exactly Gettleman and Manning spoke about in their “no-holds barred” conversation the day after the season finale. It doesn’t seem like any particularly sticky topics have been tackled between the parties since the season ended.
• Reports surfaced last week that the Giants are trying to trade Olivier Vernon. That doesn’t come as a surprise, but it’s hard to imagine any team willing to give up much for the 28-year-old pass rusher.
The problem with moving Vernon is that he’s due $15.5 million in each of the final two seasons of the backloaded contract he signed in 2016. Expecting a team to take on that huge sum and give up a valuable draft pick is a fantasy. The best the Giants can hope for is to get a Day 3 pick for Vernon. Otherwise, cutting him is the most likely resolution. The Giants would create $11.5 million in cap savings and eat $8 million in dead money if they trade or cut Vernon before June 1.
• You always have to be on the lookout for smokescreens at this time of year, but my sense is that coach Pat Shurmur’s admiration for Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray is genuine. The 5-foot-10 Murray may not have ideal height, but Shurmur had success with 6-foot-1 Case Keenum in Minnesota in 2017. Murray is a dynamic talent and he checks the boxes of what Shurmur looks for in a quarterback: “They need to be productive, they need to make good decisions, they need to know how to throw the ball accurately, throw the ball on time, they’ve got to lead their team to victories and they’ve got to do all the things necessary to play the position.”
That sounds a lot like what Murray did at Oklahoma. But even if Murray has won over Shurmur, it would be shocking if the old-school Gettleman and the rest of a scouting apparatus that is rooted in a size-and-speed grading system falls for the Heisman Trophy winner.
• The Giants won’t tender restricted free agent Antonio Hamilton, according to Pro Football Talk. That’s not a surprising development, since the lowest tender for an RFA is around $2 million for a one-year contract (keep that figure in mind for fellow RFAs Corey Coleman and Spencer Pulley).
Hamilton emerged as an exceptional gunner in punt coverage last season, but the cornerback didn’t play a single snap on defense. The $2 million price tag is too high for a player with such a limited role. The Giants could try to sign Hamilton to a cheaper contract.
• The Giants typically play the Jets in the third game of the preseason, but that could change this year since the teams are slated to meet in the regular season. The “Snoopy Bowl” could be moved to the preseason opener and the third exhibition game, which typically most resembles an actual game, would then be against a team the Giants don’t face during the regular season.
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