Eli Manning is the New York Giants quarterback going into the 2019 season. That was made certain as soon as the Giants kept Manning on the roster past Saturday, allowing him to collect his $5M roster bonus and showing that the team doesn’t have an intent to make a move to send him away. 2020, however, could be another story entirely. There’s some more options in 2020 compared to 2019, and those options come from both the NFL Draft and free agency.
And when talking about 2020 quarterbacks, Russell Wilson is possibly the first one to come to mind. Wilson is with the Seahawks this year and there’s no questioning that, but the player is also an unrestricted free agent in 2020 and the Seahawks haven’t reached a long-term deal just yet. Which means that, like Landon Collins this year, there’s some chance that Wilson hits the free agent market unexpectedly.
The Giants are one of the teams in the running for Wilson if he does become a free agent, and Wilson himself was asked about that by Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. “We are in New York, but I’m not sure the Seahawks are going to let me get away,” said Wilson.
Perhaps more interestingly, Wilson said that there’s a chance that he becomes the highest paid quarterback in league history. “Well, there’s a great potential of that. We’ll see what happens,” he said, later stating that he sees himself with 10 to 15 years left in the league. As Wilson is already 30 years old, that seems like a tough ask, but Wilson hasn’t shown many signs of slowing down so far.
But if the Seahawks don’t want to make Wilson the highest paid quarterback in the league, and he hits the open market, would the New York Giants be interested? It’s not as far-fetched as it seems, if Eli Manning isn’t on the roster in 2020.
Manning is the highest paid player on the team, and the two other highest paid players entering the offseason, Olivier Vernon and Odell Beckham Jr., have been traded to the Cleveland Browns. The Giants also saved by letting Landon Collins walk rather than agreeing to the expensive contract that the Washington Redskins eventually signed with the star safety.
So the question is, if the Giants could afford Russell Wilson in 2020, should they try to make the deal? The answer to that largely depends on the upcoming NFL Draft, as well as the play of both Wilson and Manning through the 2019 season.