Does Leonard Williams have a future with the NY Giants?
The answer to this question will ultimately have a lot to do with whether or not Dave Gettleman is retained as general manager of the NY Giants past this season. With the way things are going right now – and have been going since he took over – it’s looking more and more likely like he won’t return for 2021.
Once Gettleman decided to part with that draft capital to acquire Williams from the NY Giants’ cross-town rivals, he pretty much boxed himself into a corner in terms of being able to make a rational decision on keeping Leonard Williams.
There was never a scenario where ‘DG’ was going to let Williams test free agency and the team couldn’t come to terms on a long-term deal with him this offseason which was supposed to be the whole allure of the trade.
However, having Williams in the locker room for the second-half of 2019 did nothing in terms of giving the NY Giants an advantage to signing him, or to secure a hometown discount, as Williams was always going to go after every dollar he could.
So, Gettleman did the only thing he could do at that point which was to slap the franchise tag on the sixth-year pro, paying him well above his true worth at $16M.
If Gettleman is fired after the season, I would be surpsied if Williams is brought back as the NY Giants already possess a young, talented group of defensive lineman and run out of a 3-4 base defense.
With Dexter Lawrence, B.J Hill, Dalvin Tomlinson (for now), and R.J. Mcintosh all playing on cheap rookie deals it would be hard to make an argument that spending big money on Williams with all the other holes this team has would be the prudent thing to do.
Williams would have to put together an All-Pro type season to up his chances at signing a big-time contract with a new GM that isn’t emotionally invested.
If he does keep up his pace over the next 13 games, Williams would surpass the 10-sack mark for the first time in his football career, and at that point, the new GM would be much more incline to sign him as the NY Giants currently lack true stars and difference makers at all levels of the field.
Hopefully, Williams is able to keep making plays as the NY Giants need help any way they can get it after stumbling out to an 0-3 start.