Landon Collins could be forced to play for the New York Giants for another year. That’s not really the best outcome for even the most loyal player at the moment, with the way things are going this season. But if the Giants and Landon Collins can’t settle on a deal, he could be the player that is franchise tagged and left on the roster for another year after not getting the desired outcome in contract negotiations.
The report comes from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who also claims that the Giants made a second round pick their asking price for a trade involving Collins. Pretty cheap, for a safety of his caliber. But now, the trade deadline has passed and Collins is still on the roster, and the Giants have to figure out what to do with him in the last year of his contract.
The franchise tag is the obvious option here. There’s not another player of Collins’ importance who deserves the tag going into the 2019 season, and it looks like Collins is set to survive the rebuild for now. While the Giants have shown that they’ll get rid of big name defensive players if given the chance when they traded Damon Harrison, they have to put some talent on the field next season despite the team’s status as “rebuilding”.
Perhaps more interesting than this story, however, is the fact that the Giants were willing to trade Collins away this season for less than a first round pick. It shows that, whether they do it blatantly or not, the organization is waving the white flag and putting all of its focus on the draft and free agency during the offseason. In clearer terms, they’re tanking.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, given their 1-7 record. It’s just interesting that this is indeed what the team is going for at this point in the season.