The retrospective may be 20/20, but the decision by Giants general manager Dave Gettleman to sign the four-year contract with Golden Tate for $ 37.5 million in 2019 looked just as bad as it is now.
OK, maybe the change was worse than anyone could have expected, but it was still a signing that didn’t make a lot of sense to the Giants at the time.
Two years after starting the business, it can be safely classified as a failure. Tate may have already played his last game with the Giants before the end of Year 2. The 32-year-old will miss Sunday’s game against the Ravens due to a calf injury and could miss Week 17 against the Cowboys as well. If the Giants lose the postseason, it would mean that he played his last game in a Giants uniform.
Tate was relatively productive in his first year, getting 676 yards and six touchdowns in 11 games, but the Giants were a bad team (4-12 record) and Tate lost five games due to suspension and injuries.
It only got worse in 2020, when the Giants really needed better production on the wide receiver. Tate has a $ 10.35 million limit reached this season, and that only gave the Giants a total of 35 receptions for 388 yards and two touchdowns. How bad is it? Well, 68 wide receivers have more catches than him; 79 receivers have more yards (388). It averages 2.3 yards after receiving for reception, down from 5.8 last year. He averages 2.1 yards of separation, well below the league average of 2.86, according to the NFL’s NextGen Statistics. He averaged 1.31 in week 15.
In addition: Tate was cast in a game earlier this season after complaining about his role.
Going back to 2019: Tate was signed immediately after Gettleman controversially decided to replace Odell Beckham. For all intents and purposes – especially with the size of his contract – Tate was Beckham’s replacement. In that sense, he was an unquestionable failure.
It was a movement that didn’t make much sense from the beginning. Tate was emerging from one of the worst moments of his career, achieving just 30 receptions for 278 yards and a touchdown in eight games with the Eagles after a Lions mid-season shift. His stock never fell, so Gettleman went and handed him the second longest free agent contract that year. Tyrell Williams (four years old, $ 44 million) got a bigger one, and that didn’t work exactly well either – Williams lost the entire season due to an injury.
Furthermore, Tate was not exactly a good climber, at least not considering the Giants’ staff when he was hired. The Giants also handed Sterling Shepard a four-year, $ 41 million deal last season.
The problem: Shepard and Tate are playing better at the slot machine.
It wasn’t exactly a profitable free agent class at the wide receiver, and the Giants had an obvious need for the position. It was understandable that Gettleman felt the need to add a productive receiver to fill the Beckham-sized void in the depth chart.
He just chose the wrong player – and paid a lot for it.
Perhaps he was influencing Eli Manning’s return – that was before Daniel Jones was called up – that he was no longer able to throw the ball into the background. But better, less expensive options were available.
The smartest choice would have been the quick rejection of John Brown, who signed with the Bills in a $ 27 million deal for three years.
Brown was coming out of a 2018 season with the Ravens, where he had 715 receptions and five touchdowns, averaging 17.0 yards per catch. Brown ran the 40-yard run in 4.34 seconds out of college and is one of the best deep threats in the NFL when healthy.
In 2019 with Bills, Brown accumulated 72 receptions for 1,060 yards and six touchdowns. He is also two years younger than Tate.
If the Giants were determined (for some reason) to sign a slot receiver, Jamison Crowder might have been the better option. He signed with the Jets for three years and $ 28.5 million. To be fair, Crowder was coming out of a 2018 season full of injuries, but he was productive in 2017 with Washington (66 receptions, 789 yards, three touchdowns) and is still only 27 in 2020. He had 833 yards and six touchdowns in last year, and has 576 yards and five touchdowns in 10 games this year.
Ultimately, signing with Tate was clearly the wrong decision, and now he is likely to be cut this season.
This measure will save the Giants about $ 6 million in cap space.
They can use that money to ….
Sign a broad receiver.
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Zack Rosenblatt can be contacted at [email protected]. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip on here.