Sometimes getting all the way down to the goal line is the easy part. Finishing the job is where things get tricky. Just ask the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Contract talks can work the same way. Everything looks like it’s about to cross the finish line, and then one last-second hiccup blows the whole thing up.
Unfortunately for the New York Giants, that’s exactly what just happened on Monday night as they tried to bring Alijah Vera-Tucker’s deal across the goal line.
Related: Giants Free-Agency Tracker 2026: Signings, departures, cap space analysis, and more
According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the New England Patriots have agreed to a three-year, $42 million deal with the former New York Jets left guard after talks with the G-Men stalled. SNY’s Connor Hughes provided further details on Big Blue tripping over itself while trying to bring the 26-year-old in to upgrade the interior offensive line, and it’s going to infuriate Giants fans to no end.
Giants got all the way to the goal line with Alijah Vera-Tucker and still couldn’t finish the job
Supposedly, the Giants and Alijah Vera-Tucker hit a wall over the length of the contract. That hiccup proved too much to work through, even though there was internal optimism inside the building as late as 10:30 p.m. that the deal could still get done. Not even an hour later, AVT is on his way to Foxborough. It’s a classic Big Blue nightmare.
For Giants fans already reaching for Twitter to call out general manager Joe Schoen for the screw-up, the blame game might need to look somewhere else this time. A three-year deal feels like a strange thing for the 46-year-old to get hung up on, especially for a player with as much upside as Vera-Tucker.
However, this does scream new senior vice president of football operations & strategy Dawn Aponte, who oversees New York’s salary cap management and contract negotiations.
Aponte isn’t in the business of putting the Giants in financial harm’s way, and committing a multi-year deal to a player who hasn’t finished a full season -- including missing the entire 2025 season -- in five years might not come off as the smartest business decision, especially with other guards still on the market. She reports directly to head coach John Harbaugh, so throw some of the blame his way, too.
But seriously, it’s not like the Pats signed the guy to a 50-year deal. It’s three years. That leads me to believe the impasse came from Harby pushing for two years or nothing. He played with fire... and got burned. Like, how is he not a Giant right now? It’s stuff like this that will have the fanbase rolling their eyes. If you get to the goal line, Big Blue Nation expects you to score.
It’s now on the team to bring in another option. And fast. Otherwise, what are we even doing here? There’s still a hole on the right side next to Jermaine Eluemunor. Free agent Wyatt Teller could make some sense there, but regardless, they’ll need to fix this quickly.