Now that we’ve calmed down a bit from the shocking Odell Beckham Jr. trade, let’s try and figure out what the Giants are thinking. There has to be a plan, right? We know what the Browns are thinking. They’re thinking this could be the move that puts them over the top and turns them into a real contender, but we have no idea what the Giants are thinking. We have to assume they are rational actors in this situation, so let’s throw out some options of what in the world is going on in the Giants front office.
It’s simply time for a full rebuild
The Giants have been fighting a full rebuild for some time now. They seemed to think they could have a competitive team with Eli Manning at quarterback. The problem is Manning’s skills have regressed to a point where he is little better than average and sometimes much worse than that. The Giants realized that they could probably win six to nine games a year based on Beckham Jr. and Saquon Barkley’s ability, but little more than that. They would be good enough to avoid high picks in the draft, but bad enough to not be a true contender. Trading Beckham for picks and a Landon Collins replacement in Jabrill Peppers was the start of a full rebuild. They would draft a quarterback and maybe a defensive linemen in this draft and finally bite the bullet on rebuild.
Odell Beckham was a problem behind the scenes
There is no indication this was the case, but we don’t know what we don’t know. Beckham was an easy target for the New York media. He had that relationship with the kicking net that went from anger to love. He had that entire boat controversy that was a bit overblown. From all indications, he worked hard and didn’t have problems with teammates. We also don’t really know the intricacies of what’s going on inside the facilities. Still, it’s a theoretical reason a trade like this would happen. If this was an option, Odell could have turned into the next Antonio Brown. He would’ve eaten a rookie quarterback alive. This would not be good for the Giants so they moved on before Beckham became an issue.
Odell wasn’t worth the money
Odell Beckham Jr. is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. He’s worth the money. The thing is that some teams are fine with spending a large portion of their cap on a wide receiver while other teams value the position completely differently. It’s a matter of preference on how to spend cap space. The Giants could have changed their team building strategy. Beckham’s contract was a pretty large portion of the cap. Current head coach Pat Shurmur had much cheaper and less flashy wide receivers in Minnesota with Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. They still produced and were great values when it came to building an entire roster. This doesn’t matter for the Browns because Baker Mayfield is going to be on an insanely cheap deal for 4 more years.
They think Beckham’s replacement is in the draft
Maybe they will use the Browns pick at 17 to draft one of these wide receivers.
They’re trading up for a quarterback
Maybe they are loading up on draft capital to move up in the draft to make sure they get the player — quarterback — they want. This is highly unlikely because they should be fine at the sixth pick.
They actually have no plan and no idea what they are thinking
This is by far the scariest option for Giants fans. Maybe there is no plan at all. Maybe Dave Gettleman is flying by the seat of his pants and the Giants have absolutely no clue what they are doing at all. Think about it. The Giants drafted Saquon Barkley because they wanted to win now. They stayed out of the quarterback class last year because they believed Eli Manning had one more run in him. They signed Nate Solder to a then-record deal because they wanted to build their offensive line to win now. They just traded for Kevin Zeitler to further strengthen their offensive line. Gettleman just gave Beckham Jr. a huge contract because he would be the biggest weapon on a win now team. Trading Odell is fine, but this probably isn’t the right time.
Trading Beckham Jr. is the opposite move a team would make after trying to create a win-now team. Once they decided to win now by drafting Saquon, the Giants should at least try and follow through with the plan. This trade changes that. Who are the Giants going to pass the ball to next year? Sterling Shepard is good, but he’s not even close to Beckham Jr. Barkley may get 40 touches a game next year. It’s fine if a plan doesn’t work, but the Giants could have no plan and that’s extremely scary for Giants fans to think about.
