New York Giants – New York Jets trade is a head-scratcher for both teams

New York Giants

The New York Giants defense is bad. They looked horrible Sunday against Detroit, once again giving up over 400 yards to their opponents. Something had to change, but Leonard Williams? His addition to Big Blue comes as a shock and not only because he was acquired from the Jets.

First of all, the New York Giants should be sellers ahead of Wednesday’s NFL trade deadline. They have a 2-5 record and are headed for another bottom 10 finish in the league this year. Why would they want to add a player won’t be there in the long term? Even if the Jets are paying half his salary, the trade still adds several million to the payroll while at the same time losing a third-round pick for next year that the team could use for depth.

Any parallels to the Mets adding Marcus Stroman at the MLB trade deadline are completely wrong. In that trade, the Mets got a starting pitcher who is under team control for another year. Leonard Williams is a pending free agent.

Big Blue fans know that General Manager Dave Gettleman loves his “hog mollies” on both sides of the line. Williams has been a very good player at times during his five year NFL career, but not great by any stretch. There is no doubt he helps the New York Giants faltering defense, but can he make that much of a difference. Especially when it takes playing time away from young players who will be with the team for several more seasons such as BJ Hill and RJ McIntosh?

Finally, for what he gave up, Gettleman could have gotten more than a 75-day rental. Williams’ current cap hit is $14.2M per season. They wouldn’t re-sign him at two-thirds of that amount as a free agent next winter. Paying him what they are for the rest of 2019 and sending away what they did for a lost season is perplexing. If they were going to add a player to the defense, it should have been someone who can cover man.

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