WE’LL STAY PUT
After Monday deal for Jets’ Williams, Giants hold fast at deadline
At least the Giants don’t have to face Jamal Adams in a Cowboys jersey this week on Monday Night Football. Tuesday’s trade deadline ultimately fizzled quietly for Big Blue and the entire NFL, including Dallas’ failure to close on the Jets’ Adams, which would have meant two games a year for the Giants against the dynamic safety in the NFC East.
As it is, the Giants will meet Adams and the host Jets at MetLife Stadium in two weeks.
Giants GM Dave Gettleman, meanwhile, held on to veterans Janoris Jenkins, Nate
Solder and
Alec Ogletree. And meaningfully, Eli Manning also stayed put, meaning if the two-time Super Bowl MVP retires after his 16th NFL season, he will retire a career Giant.
Keeping these players does not mean more change isn’t coming.
Just like last season at 1-7, this year’s Giants (2-6) brass is re-evaluating everything about its lineup and could start giving new players fresh looks at key spots.
Gettleman’s lone major trade, then, remains his Monday deal for Jets defensive lineman Leonard Williams for a 2020 third-round pick and a 2021 fifth-rounder that becomes a fourth if Williams resigns.
Acquiring Williams, 25, did not send any of the Giants’ starting three defensive linemen packing, either. Instead, it is intended the rest of this season to create a more formidable and deeper rotation with incumbent starters Dexter Lawrence, Dalvin Tomlinson and B.J. Hill.
“We are excited to have Leonard,” coach Pat Shurmur said in a quote released by the team. “He is a young, yet very experienced defensive player who has the ability to make an impact against the run and the pass. In our system, he has the ability to play multiple positions on our defensive line. I have been impressed by how hard he plays every single snap. Everybody we spoke with talked about what a hard worker Leonard is and what a good teammate he is.”
Lawrence, a rookie firstrounder out of Clemson, has flashed some encouraging play, but none of those three players have been good enough. Williams will slide into a prominent role immediately, therefore, and expects to get up to speed on the scheme quickly. “I don’t think it will be too hard,” Williams told the Giants Wednesday. “When I was in college, I had a different defensive coordinator every year, I had two different Dcoordinators here (with the Jets). I think because I’ve had so many different D-coordinators and had to learn defenses quickly, I’ve learned how to learn stuff fast.”
Acquiring Williams, a rental in the final year of his contract, still is a head-scratching move given that the Giants aren’t contending this year.
They also paid draft capital simply for the right to negotiate with him on a contract extension, but there’s no guarantee he’ll re-sign, and he’ll be expensive for a former firstrounder who hasn’t delivered as a pass rusher.
Williams admitted he was “a little bit shocked” by the trade from the Jets “because I got drafted there.”
“I know we have a new G.M. (Joe Douglas), so I knew it was still a possibility,” he said of the Jets’ decision. “Mentally, I was still preparing myself, but I didn’t know if it was going to happen or not.
I also didn’t know it would happen with the Giants. I think that’s a big help not to have to go to a new city.”
Williams added: “Any change is going to be a little bit of an adjustment. At the same time, I am excited, the guys seem happy to have me here. I’m obviously going to try to work hard and do as much as I can for people that want to have me around.”
The Giants waived linebacker Tae Davis to clear the roster spot that Williams fills. Davis started in Week 1 at linebacker and didn’t even last the full game. The Giants decided he was a better fit than B.J. Goodson, who since has seen some meaningful snaps for the 7-1 Green Bay Packers.
The trade for Williams is the first trade ever between the Giants and Jets. They’d made one before, but it was voided.
On Aug. 23, 1983, the Giants traded center Chris Foote to the Jets for a draft choice, but the Jets released Foote six days later, nullifying the trade.