Did New York Giants Overpay for WR Kenny Golladay?

The Giants clearly overpaid for receiver Kenny Golladay in free agency, according to our colleagues over at All Lions. Here's why we disagree.

Our friends, John Maakaron and Vito Chirco from All Lions.com, believe that the Giants overspent on the four-year, $72 million contract given to receiver Kenny Golladay (you can hear Vito's argument in the video above).

Sour grapes or good riddance? You'd have to ask Vito and John about that. Still, with all due respect to the dynamic duo (who does an outstanding job of covering the Lions), the argument that the Giants overpaid for Golladay needs to go a little beyond the contract numbers. 

We can start with the 29 dropped passes that went for incompletions that were charged to Giants quarterback Daniel Jones's stat line, the seventh-most among quarterbacks who took at least 50% of their team's snaps last year. 

Among those dropped balls were play-making opportunities--deep balls, third-down conversions, and touchdowns--which, had they been made, makes one wonder if the Giants might have won an extra game or two to where they wouldn't have had to worry about the Eagles taking care of business.

But that statistic aside, the Giants had to put better talent around Jones to conclude without a shadow of a doubt that he is indeed their man of the future. 

The Giants are undoubtedly aware of what has been transpiring the last three seasons in Florham Park, where the Jets are headquartered. The Jets have been trying to develop their latest franchise quarterback prospect, Sam Darnold, for three seasons only to have gotten nowhere.

 A large part of that is the Jets didn't exactly do a great job of surrounding Darnold with a strong supporting cast (and yes, that includes coaching).

The Giants? Sure, they could have waited until the draft to add a rookie receiver on a cheaper contract, especially considering the receiver class is loaded with talent. 

But with six picks and some more needs to address, the Giants didn't want to go into this draft knowing that they needed to come away with a player at a certain position and have now set themselves up to have flexibility in their six draft selections.

Look, in free agency, a team is almost always going to overpay for a big name, particularly if the team is borderline desperate to accomplish a bigger goal and the free agent, who comes ready-made for life in the NFL, can prove a quick fix.

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But the Giants aren't blind. They not only saw what happened in Florham Park but they also no doubt are aware of how the Rams and the Eagles both gave up on their supposed franchise quarterbacks after signing Jared Goff and Carson Wentz, respectively, to blockbuster deals.

(The Eagles are in cap hell because of that trade, not that they are likely to get much sympathy from the Giants.)

So, did the Giants overpay for Kenny Golladay? Perhaps--very few players acquired in the first wave of free agency are worth the contracts they get, and very few finish their deals.

Still the Giants entered into the agreement with Golladay with their eyes wide open and with much more at risk than he $18 million per year they gave Golladay.

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