Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr may one day play for the New York Giants, but logic suggests that won’t happen in 2019.
If nothing else, New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman certainly has fans, industry insiders and outside observers guessing as it pertains to what he’s thinking regarding the team’s quarterback of the future.
Maybe Eli Manning really will remain under center through the 2020 campaign as the club focuses on next year’s draft. Perhaps smokescreens have been floated, and Gettleman knows he can get the signal-caller of his choice in the first round this year. Maybe he is working on a trade for a proven commodity as this sentence is typed.
Just as leaking the right information at the right time has its benefits for any organization, keeping things close to the chest and leaving people playing figurative connect-the-dots games leaves all available options on the table until further notice.
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It was last October, as Dan Schneier of 247Sports wrote, when Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports linked the Giants with Oakland Raiders starter Derek Carr. La Canfora did so again this week, but through a more unconventional transaction than the one he offered ahead of last year’s trade deadline.
In the latest scenario he presented for CBS Sports, the Seattle Seahawks receive Oakland’s three first-round selections for Russell Wilson, and the Giants send a second-round pick and future first-rounder to Oakland to obtain Carr. It’s an agreement that benefits every club, but even La Canfora admits it’s more fantasy than anything else:
"My suspicion is Wilson plays out this season for a steal at $17M and gets Seattle back to the playoffs and then gets tagged (and then trade rumors swirl like mad come next February). And the Cardinals will stay at first overall and take Murray and peddle Rosen, eventually, for whatever they can. But time is clearly running out now on a five-year marriage between Wilson and the Seahawks, and I will always believe the very best time to secure the future Hall of Famer’s services for the foreseeable future came and went last spring."
The Seahawks relinquishing Wilson ahead of the 2019 season makes less than zero sense. He’s on arguably the most team-friendly deal in the NFL considering he’s second in passer rating among active quarterbacks. The 30-year old one-time Super Bowl champion who should own a second ring remains one of the best deep-ball throwers in the game and has shown no signs he’s on the wrong side of his career.
There’s never been even a hint he’s the type of player who would hold out and miss meaningful action to force Seattle into offering the money he deserves. As ESPN’s Brady Henderson explained, the Seahawks can retain Wilson via the franchise tag year-to-year through 2021.
This leaves the Raiders, specifically Jon Gruden, and the Giants discussing Carr’s future football home. The assumption exists the eccentric Gruden will want to choose and groom his own quarterback from the ground up, and he may do just that down the road. He can take his time. His ten-year contract won’t expire until late next decade. Finding his quarterback of the future can be a labor of love, something that likely appealed to him when he accepted the gig in January 2018.
Gruden possesses the draft capital to select a quarterback with a first- or second-round pick this year and then stash that rookie behind Carr for a season or two. It’s no secret scouts and draft experts aren’t enamored with the depth of this class’ talent at the position. According to Spotrac, Carr’s contract becomes much more Oakland-friendly, regarding dead-cap value, starting in 2020. Moving on from him now goes against conventional wisdom.
Add in that the Giants don’t have much to offer straight-up for Carr. Oakland has more than enough draft capital for this month’s player-selection process. You may have heard Odell Beckham Jr. will be representing the Dawg Pound and the Cleveland Browns in September. The entire Big Blue front office, ownership included, would have to defect to a new nation if Saquon Barkley was even shopped, let alone dealt, after his rookie campaign.
Gettleman and the Giants are full of surprises, such as extending Sterling Shepard when many believed the receiver could be on the chopping block by mid-October. With that said, his commitment to Manning through the start of training camp, at least, seems set in stone. That leaves no room for Carr, Wilson or any other QB1 on the depth chart.