Anyone with a functioning brain should have seen that the NY Giants acquiring Leonard Williams in a rebuilding year at 2-6 was a horrific idea, but it now somehow keeps getting even worse.
I know it’s unbecoming to most NY Giants fans – and most fans in general – when an analyst takes a victory lap on an important correct take. So, you’ll just have to cut me some slack here as I have been attacked by the masses since last October even though I turned out to be on the money as usual.
To be honest, I don’t even consider this a strong victory lap because it was so painfully obvious that this horrific trade was doomed from the start. Have team’s given up more assets for worse players? Sure.
Have they done it while they were 2-6, going nowhere and the player they acquired would go on to join one of the team’s most talented position groups when the squad had holes everywhere? Not often, if at all.
Further, have any other teams boxed themselves into a corner to save face and franchise tag a player who is nowhere near that level (top five at their position) — $16M+ in 2020.
It didn’t take a genius (or maybe it did because so many NY Giants fans couldn’t grasp this) to figure out that the moment Dave Gettleman pulled the trigger on this deal that he was ceding all leverage to Leonard Williams and his camp.
Simply put, there were never any real positive outcomes that could have come out of this deal, as even if Williams balled out he’d have even more leverage heading into the 2021 offseason.
His agent knew he had Dave Gettleman by the balls the moment the deal was struck as if he failed to sign him to a contract extension than the deal accomplished nothing as Gettleman could have got him without parting with a top 70 pick and another fifth-round pick if he was so gung-ho on the former NY Jet.
To put this into some context, Jadeveon Clowney and DeAndre Hopkins were traded for similar assets, before the season to contending teams despite being on a whole ‘nother stratosphere of players as Williams.
For some reason, it seems like ‘DG’ feels Leonard Williams is the only defensive lineman in the league that can play; either that or he truly felt Williams could give the 2019 NY Giants a boost towards the playoffs which is as crazy as crazy gets.
Now that it’s been officially announced that Wiliams will play under the $16M franchise tag (easily 3X his worth), the team’s cap space paid the price. It wouldn’t have even mattered if Williams had a productive season, but only putting up .5 sacks and 2 TFL makes puts this trade up there with the worst of all-time in NY Giants franchise history.
Is there any chance Leonard Williams saga turns out to be a success for the NY Giants?
The only way I envisioning this trade turning out to be a success is if Williams has just a decent year instead of a fantastic one, say like his 2018 season where he piled up 5 sacks, 11 TFL, and 20 QB hits.
While that might not make much sense on the surface if he does too well during a season where we’re not projected to go for he’s going to ask for the moon and the stars. Just getting any improvement out of him would be a welcome sign, and if he has that type of middling 2018 season maybe the NY Giants could actually lock him up to a reasonable extension.
However, with the way this thing has gone from the beginning, I would expect the worst possible outcome as this truly could go down as the worst trade in team history.