Free agency is the kind of thing that can build a team up. Many teams have acquired lasting players that way, and made the leaps they need to improve. But for the New York Giants, 2019 definitely wasn’t the year for them when it comes to free agents. We’re only a couple of years later in 2021 and none of the free agents from 2019 are still here.
The 2019 free-agent class is now officially wiped out.
Golden Tate
Antoine Bethea
Markus Golden
Olsen Pierre
Mike Remmers— Jordan Raanan (@JordanRaanan) March 4, 2021
Most of them were gone already by the time we got to this point. Antoine Bethea was one of the oldest players on the team during his time with the Giants and was never expected to serve in his safety role as more than a stopgap until the draft.
Markus Golden, on the other hand, was the leader for sacks in 2019 but would end up traded during the 2020 season after the Giants strangely underutilized him and hardly gave him playing time in the new defensive scheme.
Golden Tate being cut for cap space removes the last member of that 2019 free agent class from the current group of players. It was of course, expected that he would be out of the door as soon as last season ended.
That’s partly for cap reasons, but also because of controversy. Last season, Tate wasn’t the most popular player with the coaching staff after his outburst on the sidelines and his wife’s behavior on social media landed him in hot water.
And with Tate’s production dropping from last season, it only makes sense for the Giants to move on due to all those factors.
The 2020 free agent class was far more successful than the 2019 one, but hopefully the Giants will take a look back at 2019 this year and use it as a learning experience.