NY Giants’ GM Dave Gettleman’s recent comments hint at trade down

While speaking to reporters this week, NY Giants’ GM Dave Gettleman strongly hinted at the team trading down.

Man, even though things GM’s say at this juncture should be taken slightly due to smokescreens, just hearing trading down coming out of Dave Gettleman’s mouth in any capacity is truly refreshing. The longtime executive has famously never traded down a single time in any draft during any round and this year looks like a strong opportunity for him and the NY Giants to do so.

While many Giants fans are still bitter about Gettleman not trading down in 2018 and trading a runningback, it’s clear at this point that he is at least considering changing his ways. A big part of that is likely due to the fact that Big Blue doesn’t hold a draft pick during the ‘sweet spot’ of the draft that occurs between picks #40-#90.

Solid starters are commonly found in this range, particularly at the center position which is a huge need for the NY Giants at this point, even with Nick Gates reportedly giving it a go this offseason.

According to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan, the third-year GM is strongly considering it.

Via Twitter:

If you take the GM’s words at face value, this is all very encouraging. For starters, the NY Giants seem to be out of range for the only slam dunk pick that would cause them to run to the podium without considering other options in Chase Young, explaining why he says the team hasn’t settled on one player just yet.

Next, I like that he wants to have the parameters of a deal done before the team is on the clock. I’d like this strategy in any draft year as it causes less panic and allows the front office to make a more rational, controlled decision.

That only strengthens this year due to the fact that team’s will be doing this draft remotely and communication could be an issue.

I wouldn’t draw too much from the ‘offensive tackle class is thick’ comments, as that could be the only real smokescreen here. In essence, he could be trying to get his colleagues to think he may pass one up in the first round in favor of attacking the position late in the draft, which would be a mistake.

As I’ve said from day one, the best possible scenario for the NY Giants is to work a small trade down that keeps them firmly inside the top-ten while acquiring a meaningful day two draft selection.

The Los Angeles Chargers stand out as the team’s main option in this scenario due to them needing a quarterback, while Big Blue would only slide down two spots and likely still get the player they were targeting, anyway.

Dave Gettleman did not use his massive leverage in 2018 to extract major draft capital to help start a major rebuild; hopefully, he uses the little he has in 2020 to afford this team some much-needed premium draft capital.