GM had ‘one’ delicious offer
On Thursday, Dave Gettleman scoffed that any trade offers he’d received for the No. 2 overall pick amounted to “a bag of donuts, a hot pretzel and a hot dog.”
But it turns out he actually was offered some Krispy Kremes, an Auntie Anne’s and a Ball Park Frank, and Gettleman just wasn’t hungry enough to deal for premium return.
Gettleman incredibly said on a Monday afternoon appearance on WFAN’s “The Afternoon Drive With Carlin, Maggie & Bart” that he did receive “one very reasonable offer” for the pick.
“We did have one very reasonable offer. We did,” Gettleman said.
But not only did Gettleman balk, as he admitted on Thursday, once the Giants were on the clock at No. 2, he didn’t even check back with any teams to see if Sam Darnold’s presence on the board would increase that trade’s value.
Gettleman sat at two and took Penn State running back Saquon Barkley instead.
“(Cleveland) went Mayfield, we were taking Saquon. It’s that simple,” he said Thursday.
Gettleman’s rationale for not trading back? “Are you going to be upset if you trade back and don’t get the guy you really like, that you feel can really help your football team?” he said on WFAN Monday. “Those are things you’ve got to think about when you start trading back.” So, yes, the Giants loved Barkley and didn’t want to lose him. Still, considering their roster needs depth, if Gettleman wasn’t going to take a quarterback — another questionable move, with Eli Manning 37 years old and his skills deteriorating — the GM owed it to the organization to learn all of his options before making a decision.
More than anything, though, it’s shocking that on Thursday Gettleman was asked “Did you have any significant enough offers that made you consider a trade?” and here’s what he said: “The short answer is no, not really. People call you and they want the second pick of the draft for a bag of donuts, a hot pretzel and a hot dog. Leave me alone. I don’t have time to screw around.”
And then on Monday he said he had a reasonable offer and took Barkley anyway.