This isn’t a talk about whether or not the New York Giants should have traded Odell Beckham Jr. The decision is done and Beckham is already in Cleveland. There’s no turning back. It is, however, reasonable to debate whether the team should have gotten more in return for their star receiver, rather than one mid level player and a draft pick that’s from the middle of the round.
The Giants settled on a trade with the Browns but there’s been a lot of talk about how the 49ers could have been a better destination. The 49ers hold the 2nd overall pick in the draft, and one common rumor was that the Giants wanted to second Beckham to San Francisco to acquire that pick for themselves.
ESPN’s Pat McManamon and Jordan Raanan have now reported further on that deal which never came to fruition, claiming that the 49ers were shocked that the Giants went ahead with a deal with Cleveland and didn’t let them increase their own offer. If that’s true, it could mean that the Giants potentially missed out on a better deal than the 17th overall pick.
The 49ers were stunned. Lynch and Gettleman had multiple conversations spanning weeks. Despite the 49ers monitoring the situation closely, they ultimately never heard from the Giants before the trade was made. Gettleman’s contact with Lynch ended the days prior to the conversations with Cleveland. It’s strongly believed the 49ers would have been willing to offer more for a wide receiver of Beckham’s stature, according to a league source.
It may be true that trading Odell Beckham Jr. is a viable strategy, but it doesn’t look like the Giants went about it in the most coordinated way. The ESPN report claims that the 49ers were willing to trade the second overall pick if it included a pick swap with the Giants at number six.
How would they have increased that offer to top Cleveland’s? We might not ever know what they would have offered, but it’s safe to assume they could have offered more value. The 49ers do, after all, hold a higher draft pick than the Giants and making a trade for the second overall pick would give the Giants a wider range of options to begin rebuilding with, opening up chances to improve the defense with a player like Nick Bosa or Kentucky linebacker Josh Allen.
Instead, the Giants ended up with a deal that adds some value to the team but might not be the best that they could have found. Will that come back to bite them this season? We’ll see once fall arrives.