The Giants have been one-upped again. The Eagles have signed WR Steve Smith. This hurts. Double.
Yes, yes, we know Steve Smith had microfracture surgery, and that he was probably not going to be very effective in his first season back. But the Eagles knew this too. And they gave him a 1 year deal worth $4M, $2M of which is guaranteed, the other $2M in incentives.
Wonder: “Stealing.”
Marvelous: “Are the Giants having a meltdown? I know the medical issue, but this is Eli’s safety net. This WR was Eli’s most reliable route runner and bread and butter to move the sticks.”
Motown Blue: “One of the best, polished and professional receivers the Giants ever had is now with the Soviet Union of football for Giants fans…..sh**, excuse me I just puked. Loyalty and patience to a fault with a decrepit, old, out of touch with reality, head coach and they can’t be patient with Smith?”
So let me get this straight. You pay a 30 year old man outside of your organization $11.5M guaranteed to be a center, but you won’t pay a 26 year old Pro Bowler inside your organization $2M guaranteed to be a WR?
How do you let him walk to the enemy? For heaven’s sake, this man’s catch and run on 3rd and 11 on the penultimate offensive play of Super Bowl XLII is worth $2M alone! He has been a quiet soldier, a warrior for this franchise. And the Giants find this moment to get tight with money? His fierceness and resolve is worth $2M. Would you bet against Steve Smith?
Some commenters on this site have posited that the Giants are rebuilding. The Giants no longer have the services of Cofield, Andrews, O’Hara, Seubert, Boss and Smith. Add a contract dispute with Osi Umenyiora and that is as many as 7 starters. When you turn over as much as 1/3rd of your starters, that is rebuilding.
Glenn deserves to be thrown a prop for suggesting in January that Steve Smith might not be a Giant. Most, if not all of the commenters (including myself), gave Glenn some grief and felt that that possibility was unlikely, as long as the numbers were sane. But it happened. I’ll just add that if someone told me at that time that the Giants would lose Steve Smith over $2M guaranteed for a 1 year deal, I would have been aghast. If someone else had offered Smith a long term deal with a lot of guaranteeed money, you could understand the Giants not taking that kind of risk. But 1 year? $2M guaranteed? For a Pro Bowl WR? For a WR who is not a headcase (a rarity these days)? This is a bad decision by the Giants, plain and simple. The optionality is worth $2M alone. Do not be surprised if (when/if) the Eagles like what they see, they extend his contract. That is why they did this deal.
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