Free agency was only underway for a few hours when the New York Giants signed former Chicago Bears' linebacker Tremaine Edmunds to a three-year, $36 million deal. They chased him mainly because of his connection to Joe Schoen, but what if I told you he wasn't always the plan at LB?
According a report from ESPN's Jordan Raanan on his YouTube channel, the Giants looked long and hard at the linebacker market before settling on Edmunds. Raanan then revealed that John Harbaugh was looking to be bold and trade for a veteran linebacker, but trade talks eventually fell through since he didn't want to go to New York..
"“Giants definitely did try to trade for a linebacker, I heard,. And the story I heard was that said linebacker didn’t really want to go, and the trade kind of broke apart. It’s a guy that’s getting towards the end of his career, and it just didn’t work out.”"Jordan Raanan
This begs the question of who this player could be, because I don't know about you, but I'm pretty curious to find that out. Raanan already reported that it was not Fred Warner, so that takes one option off the board, but frankly, there really aren't too many players this could be based on what we know.
The Giants nearly traded for a veteran linebacker instead of signing Tremaine Edmunds in free agency
I'm sure if the 49ers were actually taking calls on Warner (which I do not think they were), I'm sure that the Giants would have been one of the teams calling. And I'm sure he doesn't want to leave San Francisco, since he was drafted there and has become the heart of one of the NFL's best defenses.
So if it wasn't the four-time All-Pro, who was it? Bobby Wagner and Lavonte David are still free agents, and Nakobe Dean, Devin Lloyd, and Kaden Elliss all cashed in, so that's fewer options. It could be Jamien Sherwood, but why would he make a fuss about going from one New York team to another?
What if it was someone like Minnesota's Blake Cashman? He's played for the Jets before and is used to the area, but given how Brian Flores has utilized him in the Vikings' defensive system, I'd be upset about the potential of playing for an inexperienced defensive coordinator like Dennard Wilson, too.
We can play the what-if game all we want, but after releasing Bobby Okereke, the G-Men were probably right to consider all avenues. However, in the end, I think they ended up with the best (and most viable) option of all of the linebackers the Giants had a chance to bring in this offseason.