The New York Giants may have moved on from safety Landon Collins, but it’s not quite clear if Collins has moved on from the Giants yet. Since joining the Washington Redskins, Collins has become something of a source for inside information on what the Giants organization was like during his time there. Collins has spoken in the past weeks about feeling heartbroken that the team let him go, and also claims that the locker room loved fellow departed player Odell Beckham Jr.
More recently, Collins spoke to ESPN and talked about the departure of both players, as well as others who were sent away following Dave Gettleman’s appointment as General Manager.
According to Collins, the reasons why he and others were traded or allowed to leave in free agency weren’t just on the field ones. Rather, it may have had something to do with certain players being too outspoken for the front office’s tastes.
“I know with myself, [Harrison], Odell, [Vernon], all we wanted to do was win, and we spoke up because we had to get them to listen to us. We had to get them to get us winning pieces to help us at least be contenders. I think we were too vocal, and that platform was bigger than the Giants, you know, and our words stood out more,” Collins told ESPN.
Collins claimed that the team didn’t want them to bring media attention to the Giants’ situation because it wasn’t ‘good media.’
“I wish he’d say something. Try to. I mean, he had come around, shake your hand, say ‘Good job, big fella,’ or something like that. But honestly, talking to him, or saying anything, having a full conversation or anything with him, nothing,” Collins said about GM Dave Gettleman.
“I mean, he basically … I don’t know him, he don’t know me, that’s kind of how it just kind of was.”
Gettleman definitely didn’t take much time to start cleaning house after getting the job with the Giants, but it remains to be seen whether much has been cleaned up at all. Players such as Beckham, Collins, Damon Harrison, and Olivier Vernon are now gone, and some of those trades can be considered better than others, but the fact of the matter is that the Giants are now left with an entirely unproven group and have removed many of the cornerstones from the team’s most recent playoffs appearance.
Gettleman will look good if the Giants can bounce back to that standard within the next couple of years, but if the results continue as they have for the past two seasons, it might just end up looking like having more vocal players is a better alternative to the current state of things.