The Giants Signed Leonard Williams To A 3 Year, $63 Million Contract With $45 Million Guaranteed, Which Means They Can Actually Start Doing Stuff In Free Agency (Like Signing John Ross To A 1 Year Deal)
The Leonard Williams saga has been going on for no less than 10 years and you cannot convince me different. First he was a bust that Dave Gettleman should have never traded draft picks for or franchised because he couldn't turn those QB hurries into sacks. Then as the anchor for Patrick Graham's defensive line, he finished 7th in the NFL in sacks with 11.5 last season. And then he became the reason the Giants couldn't do anything exciting in free agency because his $21 million franchise tag figure was absolutely buttfucking the Giants salary cap.
But Lenny With The Big Hair finally signed his extension that was two years in the making and Giants fans can finally put all of this Williams nonsense behind them. Just kidding, we will hear about the backwards ass process of Dave Gettleman trading for a guy that was about to become a free agent then tagging him then buying high for the rest of Gettleman's career if not the rest of our lives unless Williams goes to Canton. Bottom line, Williams is here which I imagine makes Coach Judge and Coach Graham happy, which in turn makes me happy.
The biggest thing is that Williams' cap hit will now come down a bunch, which means the Giants can start pursuing other free agents.
With the first of those free agents coming in like two seconds after the Williams deal was announced.
As someone that has always employed the free agent strategy of sorting by Speed in Madden, I love this move. In fact, I actually signed John Ross in the 2021 season of my franchise when he was a free agent because when you mix someone that can do this:
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With someone that can do this:
Magic happens.
Actually to be honest, Ross didn't really do much for me in Madden outside of some decent kick returns but I'm all for taking talented players off of perennially losing franchise and hoping they improve on your franchise (See: Leonard Williams. Also See: Players like Romeo Okwara that have left the Giants to produce elsewhere now that we have become a loser franchise too).
At the very least the Ross signing is a one year flier for someone that showed enough talent to be drafted in the middle of a fucking INCREDIBLE run of picks.
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If you throw a fast number on John Ross, who I will refer to as The Fastest Man In The NFL from here on out, there will be no literally stopping him. Him being able to catch the ball is a completely different story, but number 80 is out there which I feel like has to improve his hands at least a little bit (To be clear, I gave Jaylen Waddle number 80 when I drafted him in my franchise since I don't believe in giving a number that good, let alone one worn by the Salsa King of New York to anybody).
I know Giants fans were pissed off that the Vikings snagged another beloved defensive tackle in Dalvin Tomlinson and we still have plenty of holes to fill on this roster (haha, holes to fill). But at the very least, the uncertainty of the Leonard Williams situation is over and maybe, just maybe they will bargain hunt during this weird coronavirus offseason like they did last offseason when they got James Bradberry, Blake Martinez, and Logan Ryan for bargains.
Or….OR…..
JK, I can't do this again. Not ride the Odellcoaster, which I will never be ready for, but read into every cryptic Odell tweet. My brain is still completely burned out from WandaVision, so Odell either needs to explicitly say if he's coming back to a New York football team, clarify if he's talking about his recovery from a torn ACL, or that he's Mephisto himself because I'm not doing this again.
UPDATE: Fuck it, let's run it back! Danny needs him