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 Engram–Kyle 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.
So exhibit A for why JuJu was dumb.
He never got an offer like this.
He was offered more by 2 teams for at least a 1 year deal.
I like that JuJu did it for the TEAM and not the money. Ben had his back for years and he wants one more year with him. How many times can you say a guy didn’t do it for the money?… in any sport??? So JuJu doing it is a class act move. The Steelers have the talent to win, so he is taking the high road and solidifying himself as a good teammate. One which ANY team would love to have. Golladay is an overpay for a guy who has injury history but is very talented. However, he is older than JuJu and thus, you can not idly stand by and say he was dumb for his contract. He easily could have earned more, but, in reality, what team is positioned better? Steelers hands down. Giants are years away, especially with Jones.
As someone from Pittsburgh, Juju is NOT. a good teammate. If he was, he would have wisely stopped self-branding himself as a jackass while dancing on other teams logos during pregame warmups. He will have ZERO CHANCE of sticking around after next season once Ben retires, and he has mediocre offensive skill around him.
Juju isn’t as good as golladay, and juju gives opponents chalk board material before every game, so the Steelers get to play people who want to destroy them weekly
Sometimes winning and being happy where you are outweigh the big money.
At least make some sense with comments throwing shade.
Overpaid. Can’t see this guy putting up 1000 yard seasons consecutively especially with Daniel Jones
People said the same when Diggs went to Buffalo, but he just helped elevate Josh Allen’s game. Could easily be a similar scenario.
You’ll have to excuse Tatsumaki. If it’s not his team it’s a bad move. That and he also thinks everyone makes Anti-Sematic remarks in private like certain M. Leonard
Here we go with the “I’m a saint, I don’t mistakes” rhetoric again. What is true is your a liar.
Diggs had a level of success golladay has never had consistently in his career. He also had cousins and allen throwing to him not Daniel Jones. To each there own but I don’t see this deal panning out for giants as most of there deals do.
I agree with tats on this one. Golladay had 1 great season and played on a bad team. He also had stafford throwing the rock someone Jones isn’t close to in terms of talent. Giants just need to spend cash to satisfy there fan base, the bar is low in nfc east.
You do realize Jones Passer rating on throws over 20+ Yards is the best in football right? They both can complement each other extremely well.
Golladay has played 47 games over his first four seasons, and has 183 receptions for 3,068 yards (16.8 ypc) and 21 TD’s. Over the first 47 games of Diggs’ career, he had 248 receptions for 2,940 yards (11.9 ypc) and 18 TD’s.
In Golladay’s first three seasons, he had two thousand-yard seasons and one season with double-digit touchdowns. In Diggs first three seasons, he had zero thousand-yard seasons and maxed out at 8 TD’s in 2017.
The PFF grades for Golladay’s first four seasons, 2017-2020, were 68.0, 81.0, 79.9 and 81.6. The PFF grades for Diggs’ first four seasons, 2015-2018, were 77.7, 79.1, 81.7 and 81.1.
Golladay and Diggs are very different kinds of receivers, and Diggs was further along in his career when he was traded to Buffalo, but unless Daniel Jones is completely irredeemable, I see no reason why he and Golladay can’t be successful together, especially with the rest of the skills players they’ve surrounded Jones with (not familiar with how their OL is looking). And Rudolph should be an excellent security blanket for Jones, while he and Golladay should vastly improve their red zone offense.
Don’t mind nategater77 dude has shown him self to be untruthful in his statements. He and Leonard are the same accept we have zero video footage of Nate using hate speech.
In terms of golladay this seems again like giants allocating funds poorly. We have seen this time and time again and rarely does it work out. Giants will probably release him a year or 2 from now around the same time Jones is cut after not panning out.
Oh imindless aka Tats throwaway. Keyboard Warriors think it’s ok to be racist and say everyone is.tell you what mindless go rub one out like the trolling basement loser you are. Since you and Tat are the same worthless racist loser you can essentially rub each other
Courtside with the tin foil theories lmao. Woke one courtside who would like to cancel anyone that disagrees. Smart!
Nope your obviously a lonely pathetic no friend high school loser. You and mindless are always on together it’s obvious you need “him” to agree to make your theories seem legit
Only thing need of canceling is your multiple accounts you racist loser
I don’t know how many said that about Diggs, but your point is relevant. I’m not sure how this will work out-I don’t consider Golladay on Diggs’ level-but he has proven that he has high level talent. I like that Golladay can adjust to a QB in need on the fly, like he did with Stafford. Jones is a bit similar in how he likes to play, in terms of liking/having to improvise a lot and direct receivers. My questions are how this will pair with Garrett’s offense and what this will do to Slayton, who is a deep threat as well. Maybe they put Shepard in the slot and Slayton and Golladay outside? It’ll be interesting to see how the three are utilized next year.
Golladay and Slyaton outside and Shephard in the slot make the most sense. It will be interesting to see how many snaps and targets Engram and Rudolph each get, or if Engram gets traded, as my NYC relatives fervently hope. Rudy can still be a TE1, based on the 20+ games of his I’ve seen over the last two years.
That Daniel Jones shot is just ignorant. There is nothing Jones can’t do on the football field. As soon as he is protected you are going to see how special he is.
The dude SUCKS
Is that you, Mama Jones?
Tatsumaki –
Allen Robinson did it with Mitch Trubisky…Golladay will be just fine with Jones
What a shame to him to a team with crap at the QB position. So much for his fantasy value. Cutting from my dynasty team.
Nobody cares about your fantasy team.
I don’t care who cares about my fantasy team. Free world brother !
Jones is not good, I’d sell golladay fast man!
Allen Robinson has had back to back seasons with at least 98 receptions and almost 2,500 combined yards with Mitchell Trubisky and Nick Foles throwing him the ball the last 2 years, so I certainly wouldn’t write off Golladay because of Daniel Jones. Terry McLaurin also had over 1,100 yards last year with a whole pack of mediocre QB’s throwing him the ball. Golladay will do just fine.
JuJu really decided to do tik tok dances instead of get paid what he is worth
So you know for certain JuJu turned down a huge deal like this? From most reports, he took maybe a million or two lesscto sign with the Steelers.
I too believe the most money JuJu was offered was 10 million. Seems very legit.
If he’s happy, he’s happy. TikTok is stupid and useless but I don’t know how relevant it is to JuJu’s decision. If he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, that’s his choice. I don’t believe New York was going to offer this deal to him, so it doesn’t matter in terms of relevance.
You have to do some serious mental gymnastics to tell yourself JuJu’s market value was anywhere near what he signed for.
Wasn’t JuJu told by the coach to stop the Tik Tok dances during the season? If he wanted to dance he should have gone somewhere else then
What an overpay.. desperate franchises make desperate moves
You can never succeed at anything if you are completely risk adverse.
Gosh this team is…something
ha, we’re terrible and pretty rudderless. It’s OK to say it!
This will become a contract the Giants will regret before too long. Guy can’t stay healthy amd when he plays can’t get seperation.
Agree, and I am a Golladay fan. He’s gone from one bad team to another. But, he’s rich now and that puts a lot of salve on losing wounds.
I don’t know about his ability to get separation, but the guy sure puts up huge numbers somehow
I would really like the Giants to still consider a receiver with their first round pick this year. Even with Golladay, WR is a weak spot (of several).
They still need help on both the offensive and defensive lines as well as LB and maybe CB, but a WR in the first round would really let you know if you need to move on from Jones. Give him a bunch of weapons and if he still struggles, move on.
I’d like to see them take a possession receiver myself. Granted, those are much harder to find now than they were in previous years, but that’s what the Giants could use. Of course, you can accomplish some of that with a possession tight end, which the Giants should consider taking as well.
NYG has a lot of options with what to do, even though they have a lot of needs. Defensive tackle (now that Tomlinson is out), EDGE rusher, middle linebacker (Martinez is okay but he struggles to get off blocks and is average in coverage), or any offensive line position. If they traded down, it may not even be so bad. Honestly, the Giants could take a high level player at any position (except for maybe running back) and it could possibly be a good pick. I would like to see a possession receiver or tight end taken at some point in this draft though for them.
Giving Jones all the weapons in the world means nothing if his OL can’t give him enough time to get rid of the ball. Golladay, Slayton, and Shep are an above average receiving corps. Draft quality linemen to truly see what DJ’s ceiling is, then decide whether or not to extend him.
Golladay, Slayton, and Shep is not an above average receiving corps. Slayton has shown signs but not accomplished much in the league (despite being ostensibly the #1 receiver last year; Tate was invisible so I’m not counting him). Golladay can’t stay healthy and Shepherd has his own health issues. And there’s absolutely no depth behind them, unless you want to count Ross who has his own huge injury history.
OL isn’t great, but it did its job in the second half of the season last year. Lost Zeitler, but Thomas is hopefully improved and maybe Solder gives them something.
imo, WR is still the biggest need. Their draft should be WR in the first round, best available OL in the second round, then defense the rest of the way.
The Giants’ GM has no clue. Golladay is no superstar, thus you are only handicapping the team by paying him like one.
Gettleman has made good moves. Of course health is something you can’t control in football. They can now use the draft to get best players available rather then specific positions.
The best player available approach worked well in the era when coaches had a few seasons to nurture and develop a prospect but it is not as effective now. In the salary cap era whole positions can be decimated overnight (Raiders OL for example) so GMs are forced to address positional needs as a priority.
Good point, lemon.
For all those reminding us that Golladay had Matthew Stafford throwing to him, I’d just remind you that Stafford missed the last 8 games of the 2019 system.
With Stafford: 35 catches, 640 yards, 7 TD’s
Without Stafford: 30 catches, 550 yards, 4 TD’s
So, he was clearly better with Stafford, but if you extrapolate his eight games without Matt over a whole season, he still would have caught 60 balls for 1,100 yards and 8 TD’s. Which sounds an awful lot like Stefon Diggs’ 2019 campaign of 63 receptions, 1,130 yards and 6 TD’s.
Golladay should do just fine with the Giants and Daniel Jones.
Love the guy but he can’t stay heathy.
Went from one losing organization to another one. We will last one season in New York
He will last one season in New York not We stupid iPhone
Bet Steve Smith feels like he has egg in face for his comments now
I don’t think Steve Smith ever feels that way.