“You can win while you build a roster,” New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman said after he traded Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns in a stunning move. “We do have a plan, and this is a part of it.”
Apparently that’s exactly what Gettleman had in mind when he signed Golden Tate on Thursday: An attempt to win while rebuilding.
But that’s not how rebuilding in the NFL works.
Look at Beckham’s new team, the Browns, who spent years tanking and accruing draft capital and setting up to have prodigious cap room. It’s finally paid off as they shove all in and turn from team on the rise into a potential contender.
Paying a veteran receiver turning 31 later this year $23 million guaranteed seems like having one foot in and one foot out — “win while (building).” And it’s a particularly strange head-scratcher when you consider the best wide receiver left after the Beckham trade was Sterling Shephard, who plays in the slot like Tate.
This shouldn’t be the plan. It should be a full tear-it-down-and-start-from-the-bottom plan, which should have begun last year with a quarterback pick instead of taking Saquon Barkley, whose talent might be wasted as New York struggles. The Giants do have 12 picks in the 2019 draft, and that’s a start. But if they end up with a below-.500 record that isn’t good enough to get them a top-three pick in next year’s draft? That’s a failure.
I wonder if there’s a perception that New York fans won’t put up with a full-on tanking team — the Yankees resisted before they made some deals in 2016, only to find themselves competing the very next year with their newly-stocked minor league system. The Knicks were a mess until their front office got them to where they are now, when there’s a chance they get the top pick in the NBA draft and two free-agent superstars.
If that’s the case, here’s the message: Fans won’t put up with the middle ground for a while. If you’re rebuilding, rebuild the right way. If you’re trying to win, win the right way.
