New York Giants: Trading Odell Beckham Jr. solves nothing

The New York Giants won’t solve any of the team’s issues by trading superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. this offseason.

Once-in-a-generation talents don’t come along every draft class; hence the description. The New York Giants have one in superstar wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., but he has picked up his fair share of critics along the way. They say he needs to mature and grow up. They go so far to suggest he’s a headache. Nobody, not even Beckham’s biggest detractors, can deny he has the goods to be the best in the business and a player who may be headed toward the Hall of Fame considering the records he had already broken before celebrating his 25th birthday last November.

Depending on who you believe or hope to be credible, the Giants are either definitely shopping Beckham before the upcoming NFL Draft, listening to offers for his services or not at all interested in moving on from him ahead of the expiration of his rookie contract following the 2018 season. Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News reported on Monday that the Los Angeles Rams “have talked with the Giants about possibly trading” for Beckham. Hours after that story went public, Kim Jones of the NFL Network and NFL.com tweeted that any deal “probably won’t happen.”

Beckham has become a polarizing figure among members of the fan base, some of whom are tired of the player’s antics that involve unique touchdown celebrations (the dog/fire hydrant), emotional outbursts during and after games and headlines that have nothing to do with winning games. Recently, Beckham was the unintentional star of a viral video that featured him holding a brown cigarette in bed, and what appeared to be a white powdery substance on that same bed.

Those few seconds of video, alone, aren’t enough for the NFL or the Giants to punish Beckham. He hasn’t failed any league tests en route to earning a suspension or ban. He is expected to be healthy and ready to go when asked to play. That video, coupled with Giants co-owner John Mara recently suggesting no player is untradeable, and also NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport claiming on Monday morning that Beckham “will not set foot on a field without a new contract extension” all understandably resulted in rumors that the Giants could be ready to part ways with the dynamic playmaker.

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Say, for the sake of argument, there is some smoke generating this fire, and these rumors carry a little weight, and maybe more. The Giants trading Beckham before the start of the 2018 season wouldn’t make any sense because it would go against the team’s apparent plan to try to win now while also planning for the future. Yes, trading Jason Pierre-Paul opened up salary-cap space for 2019 and beyond, but that money, theoretically, should be used to pay Beckham and others on the roster right now.

It cannot be stressed enough that quarterback Eli Manning turns 38 years old next January, and that the Giants can save a ton of cap space by moving on from him after this season. Taking away Manning’s best weapon would be a figurative waving of the white flag for 2018. If the Giants are serious about getting anything for Beckham, general manager Dave Gettleman should’ve tried to trade Manning earlier this month. Simply put, it’s too late to hang the greatest quarterback in team history out to dry, especially after how former head coach Ben McAdoo treated the two-time Super Bowl MVP last fall.

Trading Beckham at any point in the spring eliminates an imaginary problem the Giants won’t actually face this year. The Giants, not Beckham, hold the power in negotiations, as they can use the franchise tag to keep him past 2018. Essentially, Beckham’s options between now and September are to either play out the final season of his deal or lose portions of the $8.459 million owed to him, per Spotrac, if he skips any mandatory football activities and/or games.

It is somewhat ironic social media users are attempting to link Beckham with a potential move to the Cleveland Browns, because the Browns have provided the blueprint for how the Giants should handle this situation. Josh Gordon, a game-changer at the position in his own right, has spent more time on suspension lists than football fields since May 2014. The Browns continue to hold onto Gordon’s rights for as long as possible, probably because those running the franchise realize the team couldn’t possibly receive equal compensation for a trade involving somebody with such a high ceiling.

As good as Gordon was all the way back in 2013, Beckham is more of a proven product. His actual value on the trade market can’t be determined because we still don’t know how good he’ll be assuming he continues to improve and stays healthy through his prime. Accepting even a couple of first-round selections for Beckham would be a gamble for a new front office and a new coaching staff that would alienate customers once the paperwork for that transaction was accepted by the NFL.

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All of this talk ignores the reality that trading Beckham doesn’t solve a single issue that plagued the 2017 Giants. Doing so won’t immediately fill roster spots for a team pursuing a return to the playoffs. Beckham isn’t known to be a locker room cancer or a disruptive force among teammates. In fact, he worked to return from injury earlier than advertised last season.

Maybe the Giants will receive a shocking and unimaginable offer for Beckham between the typing of this sentence and the opening night of the draft, or perhaps he will land in trouble either with the league or the Giants because of his non-football activities. Unless one of those things occur, expect Beckham to remain with the Giants through 2018. The alternative does no favors to a team that is still trying to improve its roster from what it was on March 1.

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