Orleans Darkwa Cleared For Workouts
Free agent running back Orleans Darkwa has been given the medical greenlight from doctors, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Darkwa will now be able to work out for teams, which will make him an interesting summer pickup for teams in need of backfield reinforcements. 
Darkwa had several offers in free agency, but did not find any deals to his liking. Those clubs were encouraged by his decision to have a plate removed from his leg in May and he should draw plenty of interest after healing up from the procedure.The signing of unrestricted free agents no longer counts against the 2019 compensatory draft pick formula at this stage of the offseason, so a team won’t have much to lose by signing Darkwa to a relatively inexpensive one-year deal.
Darkwa visited the Patriots in April, but they’re already overloaded at running back with first-round pick Sony Michel, James White, Jeremy Hill, Rex Burkhead, Mike Gillislee, and Brandon Bolden under contract (not to mention fullback James Develin). The Giants reportedly had some level of interest in re-signing him, but they’ve since drafted Penn State standout Saquon Barkley with the No. 2 overall pick and signed veteran Jonathan Stewart . The crosstown Jets were also eyeing Darkwa at one point, but they signed Isaiah Crowell and Thomas Rawls.
Darkwa had the best year of his NFL career in 2017 with career-highs in starts (11), rushes (171), yards (751), and touchdowns (five). The 26-year-old managed 4.4 yards per carry, and also added 19 receptions for 116 yards in the passing game. Overall, Darkwa was roughly a league-average running back, as he finished 22nd among 45 qualifiers in DVOA, Football Outsiders’ efficiency metric.
Extra Points: Anthem, Giants, Rams
Last month, the NFL changed its rules regarding the national anthem, allowing players who choose to not stand to remain in the locker room. So far, the new policy has not been well-received, and this week a group of civil rights organizations asked the NFL to eliminate the new rule.
“This policy represses peaceful, non-disruptive protest of police violence against unarmed African Americans and other people of color,” the various groups wrote (via USA Today). “It is disappointing that a league built on grit and competition lacks the constitution to stomach a call for basic equality and fairness.”
The groups want to meet with Roger Goodell to discuss the situation, but it’s not clear whether he’ll take them up on their offer, or if the league is willing to change course on its decision.
Here’s more from around the NFL:
- In addition to some of the more obvious candidates for extensions this offseason, CBSSports.com’s Joel Corry suggests Giants safety Landon Collins, Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks, Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap, Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, and Ravens linebacker C.J. Mosley are among those in line for new deals. Collins’ case is particularly interesting as the Giants shift to a different scheme under new defensive coordinator James Bettcher. The Giants will ask Collins to play a good deal of man coverage, which isn’t necessarily his strong suit, so the Giants might not want to pay him at the top of the safety market.
- In an interview with SiriusXM, Steelers free agent safety Mike Mitchell indicated that he hasn’t received much interest on the open market. The Steelers said in March that a return was possible, but that seems unlikely after the team added rookie safeties Terrell Edmunds (first round) and Marcus Allen (fith round) as well as free agent Morgan Burnett.
Giants, Odell Beckham Jr. Yet To Begin Serious Extension Discussions
Despite Odell Beckham Jr. having become extension-eligible in January 2017, he and the Giants aren’t far along in contract discussions.
The Giants have held preliminary talks with Beckham about what would have to be a monstrous re-up, but Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv reports no serious negotiations have begun. This comes on the heels of Beckham saying he’ll be at Giants camp, but some caveats exist regarding that pledge. The sides have not been close on terms in these early conversations.
Beckham’s camp, per Vacchiano, does not believe the Giants are willing to participate in serious talks at this time, despite the wideout’s status and contributions to the team. The Giants want to see their top weapon on the field to make sure he’s the same player after undergoing season-ending ankle surgery last year.
Beckham’s side would like the Giants to open serious discussions and be amenable to meeting the wideout halfway regarding his deal demands, Vacchiano reports. It’s been reported Beckham’s had a good rapport with New York’s new coaching staff, but at this juncture, it does not appear that’s translating into legitimate extension talks.
Pat Shurmur said Beckham had been cleared for minicamp action, but Beckham did not participate in team drills last week. He has, however, been present for most of the Giants’ offseason workouts, while fellow extension-anglers Khalil Mack and Aaron Donald have not shown up at their respective teams’ sessions.
Vacchiano writes that a Beckham holdout half-measure could involve the wideout refusing to participate in team drills at training camp, which would be approximately nine months since his surgery. Beckham did not look limited by his surgically repaired ankle during his individual drills, so the Giants would surely take that as a sign of discontent if he were to take this route. Shurmur said he expects Beckham to be 100 percent by the time the Giants begin camp.
Beckham’s on pace to become the greatest wide receiver in this franchise’s near-100-year history. His three full seasons all rank in the top five in Giants history, with only Victor Cruz‘s 2011 outpacing Beckham’s best work. But his demands have long been believed to be immense, which makes sense given his age and superstar status.
Giants Reshuffle Front Office
Six months into the Dave Gettleman regime, the Giants reorganized their front office on Wednesday. The headline move involved longtime Giants exec Kevin Abrams moving from the assistant GM title to the VP of football operations. But Big Blue made many other moves as well.
Former Panthers exec Mark Koncz joined his former boss as a consultant this offseason, but Gettleman established the longtime Carolina staffer as the Giants’ new director of player personnel, the team announced. Additionally, Chris Pettit is now the Giants’ director of college scouting, moving to that role after spending 13 years as an area scout.
Koncz worked for the Panthers from 1994, a year before their first season, until he was fired one week after Gettleman’s ouster last summer. Koncz served as Carolina’s director of player personnel during Gettleman’s tenure and spent nearly 15 years as the franchise’s director of pro scouting. Pettit’s worked in a full-time role with the franchise since 2005 but began his run with the Giants as an intern in 1998.
Former Giants linebacker Jessie Armstead will serve as special assistant to Gettleman, Patrick Hanscomb will shift from a role in the pro personnel department to a job as an area scout, specializing in the Mid-Atlantic region, and the Giants hired Marcus Cooper over from the Bills. He’ll serve as an area scout as well, working in the southeast. Cooper worked with the Bills for seven years, most recently serving as Buffalo’s Combine scout.
Ed Triggs will work as the Giants’ football operations coordinator, with Ty Siam assigned to football ops/data analytics. Charles Tisch will be a football operations assistant.
With Gettleman being diagnosed with lymphoma, Paul Schwartz of the New York Post anticipates Abrams’ role increasing and sees the team’s cap expert and chief negotiator looming as a logical successor to the current GM at some point.
Giants Promote Kevin Abrams
- Giants executive Kevin Abrams, a member of the organization since 1999 and the assistant GM for the last 16 years, has been promoted to the team’s vice president of football operations. Abrams was considered as an internal candidate for GM before the hiring of Dave Gettleman.
Giants' Grant Haley Among Top UDFA Earners
- NFL.com’s Gil Brandt observes (on Twitter) that there were 32 undrafted rookies to make bonuses of $15K or more. The top earners were Eagles running back Josh Adams, Giants cornerback Grant Haley, and Raiders kicker Eddy Pineiro, with the trio each making $25K. Generally, it’s assumed that the highest-paid undrafted free agents have the best shot of making the regular season roster.
- Speaking of the CFL, former NFL Ricky Stanzi has been released by the Calgary Stampeders (via Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com). The 30-year-old had a standout performance during the 2017 Spring League, and he ended up earning a contract with the Canadian team. The 2011 fifth-round pick had stints with the Chiefs, Jaguars, Texans, Giants, and Lions during his NFL career, although he never managed to take the field for a regular season game.
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Odell Beckham Jr. Gaining Giants Support
On Day 1 of the true NFL offseason, here’s the latest, beginning with a difference from Odell Beckham Jr.‘s 2017 situation in which the Giants’ star pass-catcher currently finds himself.
- Beckham hasn’t joined 2014 draft-class peers Khalil Mack, Aaron Donald and Taylor Lewan in holding out. He showed up for Giants minicamp and said he would be there for training camp. His standing in the organization may be on the rise, too. One new Giants coach told SI.com’s Albert Breer that Beckham “has been awesome” to the new personnel in the building. Breer said the perennial Pro Bowl wideout will have more people in the organization going to bat for him during these negotiations than was the case last year. The talks, though, aren’t progressing at this point.
Giants Notes: Beckham, Webb, Hill, Riley
The next several weeks could be crucial in the Giants/Odell Beckham Jr. relationship. The superstar wideout said he intends to show up to camp on time, but this may not be a full-on pledge. Instead, it could be contingent on how extension talks — currently not going well — proceed. In an expansive piece attempting to gauge this situation, ESPN.com’s Bill Barnwell writes the presence of Dave Gettleman could make a significant difference in this process.
Famously known as a hard-line negotiator, alienating Steve Smith and rescinding Josh Norman‘s franchise tag in Carolina, Gettleman has repeatedly said he wants the Giants to be geared around their ground game more than they have been in the past. He authorized the highest running back draft pick since Reggie Bush and could have four new starting offensive linemen come Week 1. Barnwell suggests the Giants could use this season to see how Saquon Barkley impacts their offense rather than authorizing a wide receiver-record contract for Beckham before the season. This strategy certainly wouldn’t go over well with Beckham, and it could run the risk of a lengthy holdout, but the Giants would also have the franchise tag as a short-term option in 2019.
Here’s the latest on Big Blue coming out of minicamp.
- After minicamp, Davis Webb has a big lead on Kyle Lauletta for the backup job, Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com notes. This would mark the 2017 third-rounder’s first time as the backup, with Geno Smith having held that job last season (save for Big Blue’s rough PR week in early December). However, Lauletta has impressed new OC Mike Shula. “He has a nice calmness about him,” Shula said of the rookie fourth-rounder. “If things don’t go exactly how they are drawn out on the board, his mind works pretty fast, so far, and he finds the next guy, gets through his progressions. He has a good feel for anticipation and touch, so I think he’s off to a good start.”
- While Barkley and second-round pick Will Hernandez have moved into the Giants’ starting lineup, third-round pick B.J. Hill may be ready to join them. The rookie lined up alongside Damon Harrison and Dalvin Tomlinson in the Giants’ new 3-4 scheme at minicamp, according to Dan Duggan of The Athletic (subscription required). The Giants don’t have a surefire competitor that would deprive the N.C. State-developed rookie of a viable path to a Week 1 start, so this will be an interesting situation once training camp begins.
- Another surprise starter could come in New York’s secondary. The Giants are preparing to give Eli Apple another chance at cornerback opposite Janoris Jenkins and aren’t as talented at this spot as they were with Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie also in the picture last season, but Duggan writes Landon Collins could have an interesting sidekick as well. Low-level UFA addition (and converted corner) Curtis Riley has a legitimate shot to start alongside Collins, per Duggan, after working extensively with the first unit in the offseason. Darian Thompson and Michael Thomas are among the others vying for that job with Riley, who played 11 games (no starts) with the Titans the past two seasons after entering the league as a UDFA in 2016.
Odell Beckham Jr. Extension Could Alter Manning Plans
While Odell Beckham Jr. and the Giants reportedly aren’t close on an extension, it still seems like a deal will get done at some point. The team has repeatedly made it clear they don’t plan on letting their franchise player hit the open market. But whenever they do lock up Beckham, it could have a ripple effect on the team’s finances and roster, opines Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com.
Dunleavy notes that if Beckham gets the $17MM+ per year he’s looking for, it would put the Giants in rare territory. It would make the Giants one of only two teams in the league to have three players with a cap hit above $17MM, with the other being the Broncos. Eli Manning will have a cap hit of $22.2MM in 2018, while Olivier Vernon will have a $17MM cap hit. Dunleavy thinks committing so much cap space to just a couple of players could cause the Giants to look to move on from Manning sooner than they would otherwise.
Because of Manning’s importance to the franchise, Dunleavy writes the team’s handling of him is like “handling a grenade”, one that “went off in their hands last season” when they briefly tried benching Manning for Geno Smith. Dunleavy thinks that “if Manning struggles in 2018, it makes economic sense for the Giants to move on because Beckham’s inflated salary cap hit essentially could take the place of Manning’s atop the chart.” Whatever happens, it seems possible that Beckham’s looming mega-extension could mean the beginning of the end for the Manning-era in New York.
Beckham, Giants Far Apart On Extension
Odell Beckham Jr. said earlier Saturday he would not hold out from training camp, taking a different line from some of his fellow high-profile 2014 first-round peers. But that doesn’t mean everything’s good on this front.
The Giants’ best player is entering a contract year and has been angling for an extension for some time. As of now, the sides are not close on terms, with Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv reporting there has been “no movement” in these re-up talks as of late.
Beckham plans to report to Giants training camp on time, but a source informed Vacchiano those plans could change if his contract negotiations continue to stall. The 25-year-old wide receiver showed up for OTAs and minicamp, despite recovering from an injury and with Khalil Mack and Aaron Donald skipping their respective teams’ offseason activities. But this impasse has generated headlines for some time.
Beckham seeks a contract that surpasses Antonio Brown‘s and makes him the league’s highest-paid pass-catcher. Although Beckham has no first-team All-Pro appearances on his resume, compared to Brown’s four, he has an obvious case to be this position’s highest-paid player. He’s four years younger than Brown and is vital to a Giants team that’s just made it clear it still believes in Eli Manning. For Big Blue’s offense to excel, it will need Beckham.
Big Blue is set to pay its No. 1 wide receiver $8.4MM this season on a fifth-year option. Brown earns $17MM per year. A $100MM pact for Beckham has been mentioned in this lengthy saga. It’s unclear exactly where Beckham wants to take the market, but 2014 draftee Mike Evans signed for $16.5MM annually earlier this year. That almost certainly won’t cut it with Beckham, but it may be clear the Giants — at least, at this juncture — do not view a deal that far surpasses that as realistic.
In the latter stages of his rehab from a broken ankle, Beckham ran routes but did not participate in team drills at minicamp. The Giants did not invest too much in the receiver position this offseason. They released Brandon Marshall and did not draft a wideout, perhaps showing confidence they can come to terms with Beckham — a trade-rumor subject earlier this offseason — before the start of the regular season. Although Dave Gettleman‘s taken hardline stances with Panthers players in the past, John Mara hasn’t made it a secret what he thinks about the LSU alum’s abilities.