Right now this team is 0-2 & by no means am I giving up on the season. It doesn't look good, but I'm hoping this can be turned around & figured out. However, it is fair to ask if giving Odell the highest paid contract in the NFL is a good allocation of resources given the state of the OL.
NFL teams are built from the inside-out. The game is won in the trenches, that has never changed. WR's are easier to find than OL. I think Beckham is incredible & a unique talent, but I can't help but thinking giving him massive money is a mistake. Some thoughts-
-2013 onward has been ruined by a putrid offensive line. We've had Beckham since 2014 and it has yielded an overall record of 23-28 (he's missed a few of those games), but his incredible performances aren't producing wins. He's saved the offenses ass many times, but is that a correct way to build a sustainable winner? Last year was driven by the defense & special teams.
-The Giants aren't constructed well. This has been a bad team that threw massive money out in free agency towards the defense to make up for lousy drafting. Ideally, free agency should supplement drafting, not be the driving force. It just isn't an ideal/sustainable ingredient to winning.
-Lastly, it just feels like the Giants have a Ferrari that they could buy & it'll be really fun to drive, but the Ferrari won't help when a SUV is needed in the snow. That's what Beckham feels like, so much else is broken here.
I know people are going to say, no way you can trade an all pro talent like Beckham, and I get that. He's an amazing talent. But does signing him make sense long term?
Again, I hope it doesn't come to this. I'm rooting hard for this to turn around. BUT, if we are sitting at 1-5, does trading him & loading up on picks make sense? This thing needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
If they package is great enough I'd entertain it for any player but we aren't going to get some unreal offer - that team would have to pay twice in both assets and salary cap. So if it's a couple late firsts, no thanks, does nothing for me. And a couple late firsts is more realistic than anything else mentioned.
You are right terps there's no guarantees. But we aren't going to be lying Eli anymore and we won't be paying for a FA QB because hat doesn't really exist anymore. Our next QB will most likely be cost controlled so I'm not nearly as worried about the cap with Beckham as you are. He's going to get a bit more than Antonio Brown; is Pitt better with or without him?
I thought Pittsburgh was nuts to pay Brown what they did.
If they used Brown's money to sign two or three players on their defense, they'd be better.
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but whatever works.
You are right terps there's no guarantees. But we aren't going to be lying Eli anymore and we won't be paying for a FA QB because hat doesn't really exist anymore. Our next QB will most likely be cost controlled so I'm not nearly as worried about the cap with Beckham as you are. He's going to get a bit more than Antonio Brown; is Pitt better with or without him?
I thought Pittsburgh was nuts to pay Brown what they did.
In your opinion then, which players/positions are worth paying for? Even New England pays up now and again. Seems like you just prefer to never pay anybody a second contract. Which just isn't realistic
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are they better with or without Brown? Ben might retire sooner than Eli so that cap room will become available to use sooner rather than later.
If they used Brown's money to sign two or three players on their defense, they'd be better.
Completely disagree but no sense in arguing anymore.
And the season after he "retired," the Lions made the playoffs, which does not happen often up there.
Johnson's production was able to be replaced. At that particular position, you can do that.
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are they better with or without Brown? Ben might retire sooner than Eli so that cap room will become available to use sooner rather than later.
If they used Brown's money to sign two or three players on their defense, they'd be better.
Correct. If you asked Ben privately, he would likely tell you he would rather have the type of team that he was able to lead to 3 Super Bowls (2 SB wins). Ever since the money was put more into the offense side of the ball and less on the defense, they haven't gotten back to the Super Bowl and have not even been able to sniff the Patriots in these games when they play head-to-head. And they won't be able to again until that happens.
There's many reasons why Pitt hasn't gotten back to a SB, almost zero of it has to do with paying Brown instead of other players (he just got paid this year and they've been heavily investing in defense anyway). Fact is it's really fucking hard to get to a Super Bowl, even harder when the best dynasty in the history of the sport has your number and your aging QB is inferior to theirs as is the HC.
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You completely lose me at Beckham possibly being done performing at a high level. Unless it's a career ending injury how does that even make sense? We also wouldn't bet that haul of picks because no team is giving multiple 1sts and $100 million to a non QB.
The biggest risk in the entire scenario you have presented is that we'd lose a game changing player for 1 or 2 more Ereck Flowers'. Cool.
Why should we assume that Beckham will continue to put up similar production? We're two games into this season and he hasn't reached 40 yards receiving.
Why do you assume we'd blow the picks? We've drafted some good players in recent years...and we've especially excelled at drafting WRs. In my scenario you could just as easily draft two good players with the picks you get for Beckham, and have the cap space to pay a couple more quality free agents.
Our record since we drafted Beckham is 23-27. You think that number is going to get better when his cap hit is 6 times what it is now?
Ok I'll humor you. Let's say we trade Beckham to the Bills for two first rounders. You've already said you wouldn't trust Reese to pick OL in the draft. A pick will be burned at WR to replace him.
So in the end we probably end up with two unknowns at OT/WR with the picks and probably another unknown at OL with our own pick plus money. Money that we won't be able to spend on OL FA upgrades because the list is trash for '18.
A lot of things would have to work out in this scenario for the trade to be palatable. We'd have to hit on two OTs in the draft, hit on a replacement WR, re-sign Pugh and Richberg, and successfully move Flowers to guard. Highly improbable.
The only other scenario would be picks and players for Beckham. Just don't see it unless a team like TEN is dying for a playmaking WR and gives up something crazy. Just don't see it happening.