New York Giants: Slow start to free agency shows Giants going for natural rebuild

The New York Giants have been surprisingly quiet as the first 24 hours of legal tampering is over and done with. While there is still time to make noise, the Giants focus seems to remain on a more natural rebuild.

The New York Giants have not done much this offseason. Really, they have subtracted more than they added. Landon Collins is gone, so is Olivier Vernon. Adding Kevin Zeitler in the Vernon trade, and re-signing Spencer Pulley does show they are focused on building around the offense, but it also shows other things.

Based on the offseason so far, and based on the first day of free agency, it seems as if the Giants are all-in on adding major skill positions in the draft. The aforementioned trade was pretty solid, but might not make the biggest splash for they still lost a massive player. Also, by letting Collins walked they saved a lot of money. So, why are they not spending it?

Well, I think the Giants will get someone big. Big Blue always does. Look at Nate Solder from last year, Vernon a few seasons before that. They re-signed Odell before he could even hit the market. Although, we will talk about his situation on a different day.

To me, the writing on the wall is that the Giants want to go all-in on the draft. That is why there is little urgency to sign free agents, well, negotiate, on the first day they could have. The Draft is where the team will get better.

The Giants are sort of in purgatory right now with where they are. They have the star running back, star wide receiver, but just let the star safety walk. But, they bet on themselves by letting Collins walk and he is not worth what the Redskins are paying him. They have their franchise, and arguably best QB ever in Eli Manning in place to be the guy one last time in 2019? That makes it my guess that they want to surround him with younger talent to mold in the draft and hope that things come together.

With Eli, there is no real championship window. He has won two, that window might be closed. But what they can still do with Eli is surround him with talent that he can help morph into the future. That is where he will still prove he has a lot of value, even if it’s not in his skill set anymore.

It is so often we see the Giants have super busy offseason’s, spending a lot of money and letting the glamour of the New York market tempt big names to sign here. However, that no longer works. That has run the Giants out of talent. They have swung and missed on a lot of draft picks recently too.

That is before Dave Gettleman took over. Say what you about the Giants’ season last year, but it didn’t have much to do with the way he built his team, it was just his first year. The star of the show was Saquon, and Gettleman drafted him. Then the offensive line came around in the end and that may or may not positively reflect Will Hernandez. He finally muffed up the cash and paid Odell, who was hardly a problem in 2018.

The Giants desperately need to just go for a natural rebuild. They seem to be doing that. They need to use all of their draft picks, maybe even trade for some more, and build through fresh talent. Free agency is just as risky as the draft in terms of potentially getting talent that may or may not help you and it is typically way more expensive.

The Giants took the chance on keeping Collins, it didn’t work. It is time to draft his replacement. It might be the time to draft Vernon’s replacement too, I suppose.

While this tactic is risky, so is freely spending on free agents. Especially in the whole different demon that is playing for the Giants. I would agree that Dave Gettleman needs to do a lot more to prove that he is worthy of our trust, but I don’t think we have a choice either way. The writing on the wall indicates that the draft is where they want to get their talent.

While I am not ruling out the possibility of signing a few free-agents here are there, and perhaps even a big name, they are not really linked to anybody right now. Therefore, their best bet is to build through the draft, keep getting expensive talent off the books, and do a more natural re-build. “Winning the offseason” just isn’t doing it for them anymore. Time to stop pretending and start contending.

Long, sustainable winning often starts in April, not March. Maybe the Giants are due some good karma for finally realizing that. Just hope they can finally hammer down solid draft picks and have it all come together. Plus, in my opinion, they are way more than a big free agent away, there is only so much out there in that department.

At least Saquon Barkley is an absolute stud. No question it’s all about him again next year anyway.