Have you ever felt like you’ve experienced something before? Most fans of the New York Giants should have a bad case of deja vu right now, because it’s that one time of the year when the media is reporting on Odell Beckham Jr. trade rumors. It’s a process we all went through last year, when there were plenty of people who were sure that Beckham would be a member of the Los Angeles Rams.
To their credit, that move didn’t seem as unlikely at the time. The Rams had already made high profile moves, and while it would have been surprising, it hardly would have been shocking for the Rams to acquire Beckham as the last of those roster changes. But the move never happened, Beckham signed a new contract to play with the Giants long term, and a lot of reporters had to eat their words after pushing the rumors that a move was about to happen.
We’re going through the same thing again this season, even though it’s even more unlikely that Beckham leaves the Giants. Realistically, it’s hard to say that the New York Giants front office went into this season expecting very much. If one more bad season was all it would take for them to change their minds about Beckham and trade him away, potentially to the 49ers for the 2nd overall draft pick, why would they have signed him to a huge contract in the first place? Why not begin the rebuild earlier and trade him without signing him to a new contract?
That $95M contract makes it much harder to find a trade partner, too. If the Giants wanted to make a trade, they wouldn’t have agreed to it. Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that the value they get from a trade is better than the value that they would get from keeping Beckham, especially if the theoretical trade involves the Arizona Cardinals and the second overall pick. The Giants have already shown that they’re committed to rebuilding around Saquon Barkley and Odell Beckham Jr. It just wouldn’t make sense for them to turn that around right now and make a trade in the buildup period to the draft.
We’ve already been through this, everyone. You might see more and more rumors about a trade in the coming weeks, but just remember: the speculation this year isn’t even as tense as it was last year during the offseason. Just because the rumors are being repeated again doesn’t mean that reporters know more about the Giants front office than they did at that point. And that’s why, going into the draft, there’s more important things to focus on.