Latest On Eli Manning, Giants' Draft Needs
- In a separate piece, Schwartz looks at three players the Giants will be monitoring closely at the Combine, all of which fill one of their above-referenced needs: QB Dwayne Haskins (Ohio State), LB Devin White (LSU), and OT Jonah Williams (Alabama). Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com says the team’s top priority this offseason should be adding defensive playmakers, and he takes a deeper dive into some of the collegiate prospects that Big Blue should thoroughly examine.
Paul Schwartz of the New York Post examines some of the difficult decisions facing the Giants as the 2019 draft approaches. The Scouting Combine gets underway this week, and when New York GM Dave Gettleman speaks on Wednesday — which will mark the first time he speaks publicly since the end of the 2018 season — Schwartz expects he will formally commit to Eli Manning as the team’s starter for 2019.
After that, though, the picture gets a little fuzzy. Gettleman would of course love to find Manning’s successor in the draft, but he eschewed high-end collegiate QB talent last year, and the quarterbacks in this year’s class are not as heralded. Gettleman has long maintained that he will not grade quarterbacks on a curve just because there is pressure on him to pick one, and the Giants have plenty of other needs to fill, so they will be one of the more interesting teams to follow in the next couple of months.
NFL Awards Compensatory Draft Picks
The NFL has awarded compensatory draft picks to several teams, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. The full rundown, which is below, includes two third-round picks for both the Rams and Patriots.
The NFL awards compensatory draft picks to teams, as directed by the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The compensatory pick system provides additional picks to teams who lose more/better qualifying free agents in the previous year than gained. As the NFL explains:
“Compensatory free agents are determined by a formula based on salary, playing time and postseason honors. The formula was developed by the NFL Management Council. Not every free agent lost or signed by a club is covered by this formula. No club may receive more than four compensatory picks in any one year. If a club qualifies for more than four compensatory picks after offsetting each CFA lost by each CFA gained of an equal or higher value, the four highest remaining selections will be awarded to the club.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement limits the number of compensatory selections to the number of clubs then in the League (32). This year, six clubs: the Ravens, Bengals, Colts, Rams, Giants, and 49ers qualified for compensatory selections under the net loss formula but will not receive those picks because the final numerical values of the CFAs who were lost by those clubs ranked 33rd through 39thamong the final numerical values of all compensatory selections. Each of those six clubs will receive compensatory selections for other CFAs lost whose final numerical values ranked within the top 32. “
Third Round
- (No. 33 in third round-No. 96 overall) Redskins
- 34-97 Patriots
- 35-98 Rams
- 36-99 Rams
- 37-100 Panthers
- 38-101 Patriots
- 39-102 Ravens
Giants Still Likely To Franchise Landon Collins
Despite all the noise surrounding pending free agent safety Landon Collins, the most likely outcome remains him being franchise-tagged by the Giants, according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Collins cleared some personal items out of his Giants locker on Wednesday, and at least one report suggested he’s not expecting to return to New York. However, just because the Giants haven’t expressed any interest in extending Collins for the long-term doesn’t mean the club doesn’t want to retain him for at least 2019.
Big Blue can keep Collins around for at least one more season via the franchise tender, which will cost roughly $11.2MM for safeties. Collins, however, has been adamant that he’s not in favor of receiving the tag, and he may even be willing to sit out spring and summer practice sessions in order to prove his point. If the Giants do franchise Collin, they’ll have until July 15 to hammer out an extension.
Collins, a second-round pick in the 2015 draft, has been a full-time starter for the Giants since entering the league. A two-time Pro Bowler, Collins posted 96 tackles, four passes defensed, and a forced fumble in 2018 while grading as the NFL’s 39th-best safety, per Pro Football Focus.
Could Giants Trade OBJ To 49ers?
Will the Giants trade Odell Beckham. Jr. this offseason? Speculation is mounting, and Mike Florio of PFT adds fuel to the fire by suggesting that OBJ and the 49ers could be a match.
The Niners have the No. 2 and No. 36 overall picks in the draft, giving them ample ammo to land one of the game’s most dynamic receivers. An outright swap of the No. 2 pick for OBJ may be too high of a price for the 49ers to pay, but Florio suggests that the Giants could send back a third- or fourth-round pick to balance things out.
Landon Collins May Hold Out If Franchised
Giants safety Landon Collins may or may not have cleaned out his locker earlier today, but the 25-year-old defensive back has already made it clear he doesn’t want to be franchise-tagged this offseason. Indeed, Collins may sit out spring and summer practice sessions if he is franchised, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (link via Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com).
The impact of Collins holding out for a long-term deal isn’t exactly clear. For one, many franchise players refuse participate in spring/summer workouts and practices as a way of expressing their frustration with the franchise tender, but few (Le’Veon Bell aside) actually sit out the season. Second, Collins is facing a four-to-six month recovery period after undergoing December surgery for a torn labrum, so he probably won’t be allowed to be on the field until the summer anyway.
The Giants seemingly have expressed no interest in working out a long-term agreement with Collins (reports as far back as November and as recently as this afternoon suggest as much). Therefore, New York has until March 5 to decide whether it wants to deploy the franchise tag — at a cost of around $11.2MM — on Collins.
Collins, a second-round pick in the 2015 draft, has been a full-time starter for the Giants since entering the league. A two-time Pro Bowler, Collins posted 96 tackles, four passes defensed, and a forced fumble in 2018 while grading as the NFL’s 39th-best safety, per Pro Football Focus.
If he does reach the open market, Collins will be among the most-coveted safeties in a crowded positional field. Among the other safeties scheduled to hit free agency are Earl Thomas, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, Lamarcus Joyner, Adrian Amos, Tyrann Mathieu, and Tre Boston.
Giants’ Landon Collins Packs Up Locker?
Giants safety Landon Collins cleaned out his locker at the team facility on Wednesday and said his goodbyes to teammates, coaches, and trainers, Josina Anderson of ESPN.com hears (on Twitter). From what sources tell her, it doesn’t seem like Collins expects to be a Giant for much longer. 
Meanwhile, Collins’ locker appears to be full, according to Ralph Vacchiano of SNY (Twitter link), and sources tell him Collins has not been informed of any decision on whether the team plans to franchise tag him. However, Collins personally took to Twitter and seemed to confirm Anderson’s report.
“The stuff in that locker that I have left I do not need 💯,” Collins wrote.
Reading between the lines, it sounds as though Collins is not envisioning a future with the Giants. Still, the ball is really in the Giants’ court. The Giants can keep the safety away from the open market with the franchise tag and attempt to negotiate a long-term deal with him between now and the summer deadline. If no long-term deal is reached and Collins is unwilling to play out the season on the one-year tender, his only real recourse will be to threaten a holdout.
Collins’ 2018 season was cut short by injury and he wound up missing one-quarter of the regular season. All in all, he finished out with 96 tackles, four passes defensed, and a forced fumble.
Minor NFL Transactions: 2/19/19
Here are today’s minor moves:
Kansas City Chiefs
- Signed: OL Justin Senior
New York Giants
- Re-signed: TE Scott Simonson
No Talks Between Giants, Landon Collins
The Giants and safety Landon Collins are not currently in active negotiations on a contract extension, sources tell Josina Anderson of ESPN.com (on Twitter). There’s still time for a deal to get done, but it sounds like there’s still a huge gap to bridge when it comes to a new long-term deal.
It seems likely that the Giants will employ the franchise tag on Collins, which is expected to be worth approximately $11.2MM for safeties. For his part, Collins has expressed a desire to stay in New York. He’d probably like a long-term deal, but there’s no indication that he wouldn’t cooperate with a tag in the interim.
Collins leads all defensive backs in tackles since entering the league in 2015. The former second-round pick has made three Pro Bowls in the last four seasons, putting him in somewhat rarified air.
Collins’ 2018 season was cut short by injury, but he indicated that he would have played through the pain if the Giants were still in the playoff mix down the stretch. All in all, he finished out with 96 tackles, four passes defensed, and a forced fumble. Collins graded out as just the 39th best safety in the NFL last year, per Pro Football Focus, but he was a top 15 guy in the previous two seasons. When healthy, Collins is clearly among the best young safeties in the league.
Bengals Eyeing Lou Anarumo For DC
Giants defensive backs coach Lou Anarumo is set to interview with the Bengals on Thursday, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (Twitter link) hears. At the moment, he is the frontrunner for their defensive coordinator job, according to Pelissero. 
Anarumo worked with new Bengals head coach Zac Taylor in Miami from 2012-15 and both men finished out the ’15 season as interim coordinators on opposite sides of the ball. After that, Anarumo reverted back to being Miami’s defensive backs coach under Adam Gase and hooked on with the Giants in January of 2018.
Outside of Anarumo’s interim DC stint in South Beach, he has exclusively served as a defensive backs coach for the last two decades. However, he’s a highly-respected coach and his history with Taylor may allow him to climb the ranks.
The Bengals have been left at the altar a few times in this cycle. Previously, they were close with coaches like Jack Del Rio, Dom Capers, and Florida DC Todd Grantham, but they were unable to seal the deal.
More Noise On Eli's-Coming-Back Front
- More evidence for the Eli Manning-will-be-back noise: the 15-year Giants quarterback has been working out at the team facility throughout the offseason, Breer notes. While this is not unusual, as Manning does this annually, his conditioning headquarters may have shifted had the Giants given him an indication they were legitimately considering moving on from him. Although nothing concrete has emerged on this front yet, Manning remaining the starter is the expectation for 2019.