FRONT-OFFICE FIREWORKS
Gettleman’s options grow again after handing JPP over to Bucs
AT THE end of a long flight, feeling tired, muscles stiff, there is the added annoyance of trudging down to the lower concourse to collect your belongings.
Not so for Dave Gettleman. He is traveling lightly on his maiden Giants trip, ensuring he does not have to make a stop at baggage claim. There is more freedom to maneuver this way.
The affable but grizzled general manager Thursday offered another reminder there is a new guy in charge and his attachments are few. Trading Jason Pierre-Paul to the Buccaneers was surprising, but not shocking, given JPP’s work on the field and the dent he put in the team’s finances.
Send ing Pierre-Paul to Tampa Bay means the last rema in ing defensive link to the most recent Super Bowl triumph gets to continue his career in his home state. The Giants get back the Bucs’ third-round draft pick (69th overall) and the teams swapped fourth-round picks, the Giants obtaining the 108th overall pick, moving down six spots.
What this does is give the Giants four of the first 69 picks in the draft — Nos. 2, 34, 66 and 69 — and certainly opens the door to take defensive end Bradley Chubb with the second-overall pick on April 26.
The Post reported the Giants will rate Chubb, along with running back Saquon Barkley and guard Quenton Nelson, as the top three players in this draft — ahead of all the quarterback prospects. All three are in play for the Giants. There also might be scenarios in which the Giants can trade down and still get one of their three toprated prospects.
Or, they can stay put and take Chubb as JPP’s replacement, the perfect marriage of need and value.
“Look, Bradley Chubb’s no joke now,’’ ESPN analyst Louis Riddick said Thursday. “That is a legit, legit player. I’m of the belief last year, if you were stacking him up play-forplay with Myles Garrett, I’m taking him. If they were both coming out the same time, I’m putting Bradley Chubb ahead of Myles Garrett. I think he’s that good.’’
Garrett was the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft, going to the Browns. Riddick interviewed for the Giants’ GM job that went to Gettleman.
This is part salary dump, part Gettleman getting out of a bad contract inherited from Jerry Reese, part scheme-related, with a new defense in place this season, and part an acknowledgment from the Giants they believe JPP’s best days are behind him. This is also the Giants’ surprise and delight they could get a third-round pick out of this.
It is revisionist thinking to slam Reese for this one. Think back to March 17, 2017 — the day JPP’s contract extension was finalized. The Giants were coming off an 11-5 season and their first playoff appearance in five years, fueled by a rebuilt and expensive defensive overhaul. The organization was thrilled Pierre-Paul was able to make it back from the horrific July 4, 2015, fireworks accident that permanently damaged and disfigured his right hand. They gave him a four-year, $62 million deal that included $20 million in guaranteed money, hoping, privately, they could get at least two productive years out of him. They did not get even one. He led the Giants last season with 8.5 sacks, starting all 16 games, but his impact was minimal. As it turns out, the Giants spent $22.5 million for the one season.
This trade only saves $2.5 million on this year’s cap. What it does, more significantly, is remove cap hits of $19.5 million in 2019 and $17.5 million in 2020, clearing space the Giants will need if they are to sign Odell Beckham Jr. and Landon Collins to long-term extensions.
Pierre-Paul was the last of his kind — incredibly, the only rema ini ng player from six consecutive draft classes, from 2008-13. Reese took 45 players in that span and now they are all gone, which is as damning a reason as any the Giants bottomed out in 2017.
Everything about this fit was wrong. New defensive coordinator James Bettcher is bringing his 3-4 front to the Giants, and JPP is much more of a classic 4-3 end. Could he stand up and rush the passer as an outside linebacker? He is 29 years old, with a history of back surgery, sports hernia surgery and a right hand that is not fully functional. The Giants did not envision an upswing for Pierre-Paul.
In the boom-or-bust world, Pierre-Paul must be considered a boom pick. He was a roster survivor — the third longest-tenured Giants player, behind just Eli Manning and long-snapper Zak DeOssie. He arrived as the Giants’ 2010 first-round draft pick, taken 15th-overall out of South Florida as a raw, athletic marvel. As a rookie, he learned from Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora and was unleashed the following season, with 16.5 sacks and 88 total tackles — both still stand as his career highs — as the Giants rode a defensive surge to another upset victory of the Patriots, this time in Super Bowl XLVI.
He never ascended that high again, and this upcoming season he will return to MetLife Stadium wearing red, bay orange and pewter, lining up and taking aim at Manning, blocked by Nate Solder, the new Giants’ left tackle. Things change quickly, especially with Gettleman leaving the baggage behind.