NY Giants: The 3 best and worst free agent signings by Dave Gettleman

No. 3 worst: Golden Tate, 2019

Gettleman shocked the football world when he did the unthinkable – traded Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns. After months of exclaiming the team wasn’t interested in trading their star receiver, they did just that.

The trade opened up an immediate need at wide receiver for the Giants – one they filled with former Seattle Seahawk, Detroit Lion and Philadelphia Eagle, Golden Tate. The signing confused fans and experts alike – after signaling a full-fledged rebuild with the Beckham trade, they gave big money to a receiver on the wrong side of 30.

His stint with the Giants was disappointing – to put it nicely. Tate was brought in to be a weapon for then quarterback, Eli Manning, to help set an example for the locker room, and do enough to win games for the team.

He failed at all three tasks.

By the time Tate’s suspension was up for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, Manning was benched in favor of rookie, Daniel Jones.

Unfortunately, his four game suspension in 2019 wouldn’t be the only time he would miss games due to non-injury related reasons. After going against the wishes of coach Joe Judge and yelling “Throw me the ball!” into the camera during a Monday Night Football game, Tate was benched for next week’s game.

Finally, his tenure as a Giant didn’t feature much winning – the team was 6-18 in games he was active for. He had 1,064 yards and 8 touchdowns in two years – cut earlier this week.

He only made it through two years of his four-year, $37.5 million deal ($23 million guaranteed) – money that would’ve been best spent elsewhere.