Well unless you have been living on the dark side of the moon you will have read the scathing comments regarding the Giant’s decision to trade arguably one of the best wide receivers of recent times to the Cleveland Browns for – well on the face of it, not a lot. However is the trade really the equivalent of folding a royal flush as a consensus seems to be or can the Giants actually come out of this looking less foolish?
Given the blockbuster trade also involved sending Olivier Vernon in the interests of fairness we will be considering the packages a whole rather than Odell Beckham Jr in isolation.
Who got what?
Cleveland Received
OBJ & Olivier Vernon
The Giants Received
Kevin Zeitler & Jabril Peppers and 1st Round Pick 17 & 3rd Round Pick No. 95
So let’s start with the players. In OBJ Cleveland have got a potential game-changing wide receiver, who doesn’t come without issues. If his potential antics don’t affect the team and he remains injury free, (he has only played 16 games in the last two seasons and only managed one 16 game season in his career) Then it is arguable that he is worth more than the Giants receive in total. However, this is still a question mark.
In Olivier Vernon, they have gained a talented pass rushing linebacker, but again one who has missed games over the last two seasons. He did look back to his best at times last year, with seven sacks in 11 games, so providing he stays fit he is a useful addition to an already talented Browns defence.
The Giants offensive line was pretty awful last year, and although Eli didn’t make any headlines, he still managed to throw for 4299 yards while being sacked 47 times. Obviously at 38 years old, he’s not the long-term answer, however, he could still act as a mentor for a young QB over the next season or so and win games in the meantime if the OL can keep him off his back. Step forward Kevin Zeitler who was ranked the sixth-best guard in the NFL last season by Pro Football Focus and more importantly for Eli, he was the top-rated pass-blocking guard in the league. He only allowed three sacks in his two seasons with Cleveland and he will make a difference right away. He is also pretty durable having never missed a start in his four-year career. It is also worth bearing in mind that Eli’s passing yards were not confined to OBJ and they still have Shepard, Engram, and Barkley who among the best at their respective offensive positions. Kevin Zeitler was a first-round pick back in 2012 & when the Browns signed him they made him the highest-paid guard in NFL history. He was also the top-ranked Guard in Free Agency.
The second joint acquisition Jabril Peppers was a first-round pick in 2017 and last season finished with a 77.6 grade from Pro Football Focus, higher than Landon Collins who the Giants let go in free agency rather than pay him the massive salary he received from Washington. This will going forward help to offset the dead money cap hit from the trade. This is probably an upgrade on Collins and Peppers has a super high ceiling.
So the Giants have lost a bit of pass rush and the deep threat, however, they may have extended Eli’s career by giving him some protection, and allowed a better environment to develop for a young quarterback. They have also upgraded their safety position and should pick up a compensatory draft pick in the process. Suddenly doesn’t look quite so bad.
The final piece of the jigsaw is what can they do with those two extra draft picks?
Well if the rumour mill is to be believed the Cardinals are planning to move on from Josh Rosen, only a year after trading up to pick him at number 10. Yes, he had an awful rookie season, but I doubt many young quarterbacks could have done better given what was around him. The general consensus is that Arizona would take a third-round pick from for him and of course, the Giants have just acquired one from Cleveland. If they could pull off that trade and let him learn behind Eli for a season he might just turn out to have been both that number 10 pick after all.
This would leave the Giants with Two first-round picks to try and address that deep threat that they’re lacking now and it is distinctly possible that D.K. Metcalfe could still be on the board at pick 17. Okay at this stage he doesn’t look to be as good as OBJ, but you never know and does have the look of a young Calvin (Megatron) Johnson about him. His size and deep ball threat, it would allow Eli to get the best out of the likes of Barclay and Engram on the shorter routes, and he would be a menace in the red zone too.
This would still leave the Giants with the number six pick and given they would have their quarterback of the future already they could pick up either one of the top edge rushers to replace Vernon or possibly add to the offensive line with someone like Jawaan Taylor.
So there is still a lot of things have the following to place before the above scenario plays out, however assuming everything fell into place and the Giants went edge, they would have a franchise quarterback who they don’t have to rush onto the field, and upgraded offensive line, a replacement deep ball threat and a much better defence. Suddenly the trade looks somewhat less lopsided, and maybe the Giants front office did have a plan after all. The next few months are going to be interesting where Big Blue is concerned.
