When Odell Beckham Jr. trade rumors were initially floated weeks ago, few took them seriously. Just last year, the Giants made the 26-year-old the NFL's highest-paid wide receiver. Regardless of whatever issues the star player presented New York before and after that signing, the timing for a trade simply did not make sense.
Good thing the Browns did indeed take those Beckham trade rumors seriously.
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During the 2019 NFL free agency tampering period, a Tuesday night trade stole the show. Per multiple reports, New York agreed to send Beckham to Cleveland in exchange for a 2019 first-round pick, a 2019 third-round pick and safety Jabrill Peppers.
Giants general manager Dave Gettleman, who in combating trade rumors two months earlier said New York "didn't sign Odell Beckham to trade him," has some explaining to do.
Odell Beckham Jr. trade grades
Giants receive: 2019 first-round pick, 2019 third-round pick, safety Jabrill Peppers
Browns receive: Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
Giants: D
The Giants can thank the Steelers. Had Pittsburgh not reportedly agreed to trade wide receiver Antonio Brown to the Raiders in exchange for third- and fifth-round picks just a few days ago — SN gave the Steelers a big fat “F" for their part in that deal — this trade would look even worse for New York.
Compared to the Steelers' return on Brown, the assets the Giants receive in the Beckham trade are great. Even in isolation, a first-rounder and a third-rounder alone should be considered solid compensation. New York also gets Peppers, a budding talent who can help fill the defensive secondary void left by Landon Collins.
So the Giants' failure in this trade lies not in the details of the exchange, but in their own salary-cap management.
Just last week, SN explained why trading Beckham would make little-to-no sense for New York. For a team with relatively limited cap space with which to work in 2019, we wrote, the dead cap charges that would come with a Beckham trade were too steep to manage.
So now Beckham will count for $16 million in dead money against the Giants’ salary cap while he plays for the Browns in 2019.
2019 NFL FREE AGENCY:
Tracking top signings, trades, more
This is the latest in a line of questionable roster moves on the part of Gettleman, who was hired at the end of the 2017 season. He signed Beckham less than a year ago to a five-year contract worth up to $98.5 million. Beckham was guaranteed $41 million at signing, and in 2018, he earned $21 million in the form of a signing bonus and salary.
That means the Giants paid Beckham $21 million for 12 games under his new contract. And New York will continue to feel the salary-cap impact while he plays in Cleveland.
So there were no financial reasons for New York to trade Beckham. There certainly were no football reasons to do so, either. The Giants evidently were so angered by Beckham’s knack for creating negative publicity that, for the right price, they would be willing to move on without him.
Which begs the question: Why bother making Beckham the NFL’s highest-paid receiver in the first place? Keep in mind that negotiation last summer did not come without its own drama. The Beckham trade is another mixed message from a front office that evidently misjudged its chances to compete and is now backtracking to a full-on rebuild.
In its immediate aftermath, the Beckham trade left the Giants with a group of receivers that consisted of Sterling Shepard, Corey Coleman, Alonzo Russell, Quadree Henderson, Jawill Davis and Brittan Golden. (We promise none of those names are made-up.) Of those six receivers, five have contracts that are scheduled to expire next year.
So now the Giants and 38-year-old quarterback Eli Manning — he of a $23.2 million cap hit in 2019, also (mercifully) on an expiring contract — are stuck with that. And Gettleman is stuck paying for a receiver who is no longer on the team, a player he apparently did not care to employ in the first place.
All-everything Giants running back Saquon Barkley is probably pretty pissed. In New York, chances are he is not alone.
Browns: A
This is pretty straightforward. The Browns acquired one of the NFL's best receivers in exchange for a couple draft picks and a player they feel they can replace. (Earl Thomas, anyone?) With Beckham, they will field an offense that has the potential to be among the best in the AFC, if not the entire league.
And the cherry on top: The Beckham trade is a financial success for Cleveland, too.
Because the Giants already paid Beckham a good chunk of the money owed in his deal, the Browns will have him at an average of $15.4 million per year over the next five seasons. And it’s not like Cleveland needed cap-friendly numbers in order to make this trade work; it enters 2019 free agency with the third-most cap space in the league.
BENDER: How good will Browns' offense be?
Unless one believes the issues that led the Giants to trade Beckham will impact his relations with his new Browns teammates, particularly second-year QB Baker Mayfield, he or she will have a hard time figuring ways in which Cleveland comes out a loser in this deal.
Without Beckham, the Browns were already a trendy pick to win their division for the first time in franchise history (since 1999). With Beckham, according to Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook (via ESPN), their odds to win the AFC went from 12-1 to 7-1. Only the Chiefs and Patriots, the two teams that played in last season’s conference championship game, have better odds.
This trade is the latest in a line of promising roster moves on the part of general manager John Dorsey, who in just his second year on the job has transformed a roster that was full of holes into a team that entered 2019 searching for new players not in desperation for talent, but in confidence for luxury.
The Beckham acquisition is as luxurious as they come.