Giants, Kenny Golladay Agree To Terms

The Giants brought Kenny Golladay in for a lengthy visit, and arguably the top free agent still left on the board will play in New York next season. Golladay has agreed to sign with the Giants, veteran NFL reporter Josina Anderson tweets.

Even after the salary cap’s significant reduction, Golladay secured a deal near the top of the wide receiver market. He will sign a four-year, $72MM deal with the Giants, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Golladay will receive $40MM guaranteed, Rapoport adds, noting that this contract can max out at $76MM. Dan Duaggan of The Athletic passes along the full details in a Twitter thread, noting that Golladay gets a $17MM signing bonus and that the deal includes a voidable fifth year for cap purposes. The 2021 cap hit will be just $4.5MM, but that number jumps to $21.15MM in 2022.

Although the Bears were the first team to bring Golladay in for a visit, the Giants extended their summit with the 6-foot-4 wideout to nearly three days. Golladay began meeting with the Giants on Thursday. Two afternoons later, he will become the team’s new No. 1 wide receiver.

The Bears made a strong push to have Golladay stay in the NFC North, attempting to find salary space for to form an elite Golladay-Allen Robinson tandem. Ultimately, this came down to Bears and Giants for the Northern Illinois product, Rapoport tweets. While Rapoport notes the Bears were prepared to incorporate void years to create cap space for a Golladay deal, their effort proved to be for naught (Twitter link). The Ravens also pursued the talented wideout, perhaps further increasing Golladay’s price.

Months ago, the Lions offered Golladay a deal in this $18MM-per-year ballpark, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com tweets. Golladay opted to wait and hit the market. Despite the likes of Will Fuller and JuJu Smith-Schuster taking one-year deals at lower rates, Golladay managed to secure a deal in the top 10 among receivers.

Linked to Golladay weeks ahead of free agency, the Giants will land their top target. The longtime Lions pass catcher entered the week with interest in joining the Giants, with SNY’s Ralph Vacchiano reporting (via Twitter) he had them atop his list for a bit now. The Giants gave Golladay the option of a long-term pact or a one-year contract, SI.com’s Albert Breer tweets.

Golladay, 27, will replace ex-Lions teammate Golden Tate in three-receiver sets alongside Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton. Golladay will be easily the team’s highest-profile receiver since Odell Beckham Jr. It took an OBJ-level contract to move this past the finish line. The Giants released Tate earlier this offseason, ending a two-year partnership that did not ultimately work out. Going into his fifth season, Golladay profiles as a more natural heir apparent to Beckham as Big Blue’s WR1. This receiver trio will join the Giants’ new Evan EngramKyle Rudolph tight end tandem. Along with the returning Saquon Barkley, Daniel Jones‘ next skill-position crew looks substantially better than the one with which he played last season.

While Golladay missed most of his final Lions season — due to hamstring and hip injuries — he posted two 1,000-yard seasons and became Detroit’s top boundary threat since Calvin Johnson. The jump-ball standout ventured to the Pro Bowl in 2019, doing so despite Matthew Stafford going down midway through that season. The Lions will be starting over at wideout, having now lost Golladay and Marvin Jones this week. Jones joined the Jaguars.

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