New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman has faced sharp criticism over his decision to trade for defensive lineman Leonard Williams in the midst of a losing season. He’s also faced some sharp criticism for the decision to slap Williams with the franchise tag.
Although Williams was quick to sign his tag and appears content in playing out the season on a one-year deal, the two sides continue to negotiate a long-term contract.
Regardless of whether such a deal gets done, Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report maintains that the entire Williams situation will be Big Blue’s biggest regret of the 2020 season.
Let’s be honest. The New York Giants may regret trading for defensive lineman Leonard Williams more than they regret hanging onto him. They gave the crosstown Jets a third-round pick and a conditional fourth-rounder to land Williams and got little in return.
In eight games, Williams had just 13 solo tackles and half a sack. Yet general manager Dave Gettleman has defended the trade.
“The juice was worth the squeeze,” Gettleman said.
Well, the Giants have squeezed twice now for Williams, giving him the franchise tag for another audition in 2020. That’s going to cost New York a whopping $16.1 million for a player who had just 46 total tackles and half a sack in all of 2019.
As we at Giants Wire have stated previously, the constant criticism of Gettleman for his decision to acquire Williams is contradicting. After all, the very same people who slam Gettleman for “ignoring analytics” repeatedly ignore analytics when it comes to Williams.
All anyone can seem to focus on is Williams’ number of sacks and little else. They commit the same football sin they accuse Gettleman of, ignoring the advanced data that suggests Williams is among the league’s very best interior pass rushers — not to mention his stellar performance against the run.
As Knox alludes, if the Giants and Gettleman do have a regret when it comes to Williams, it should be because of the trade in 2019, not the franchise tag in 2020.
from Giants Wire https://ift.tt/3fKcFSU
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