Landon Collins will not be franchised, or extended, and will hit free agency. This has left a lot of people confused.

I have mixed feelings. Long feelings short, I would have preferred to keep him, but I’m surprised or shocked we’re letting him walk. I just wish we had traded him earlier this season when we would have gotten a return for him. This feels like a waste. But letting him walk isn’t necessarily the wrong move. As a player I think he’s pretty overrated. I can say that because I’ve watched him for 4 years as a Giants fan, which makes me more qualified than you. It’s just science.

Lets break Collins down into pros and cons.

PROS!
-He’s 25
-He is an excellent run stopper.
-He is a locker room leader and a great teammate
-His 2016 season was legitimately all-pro levels
-He is smart
-He has been hurt, but when healthy he’s great

CONS!
-He can’t cover very well. He was routinely targeted and beaten through the air.
-His 2016 season was the last time he was healthy
-In 2016 the entire defense played inspired football, and you could make an argument that they overachieved against mediocre competition
-You don’t really build a defense around a one dimensional box safety.
Stupid hair

Collins is overrated. Believe it or not I’m not even saying that because we lost him and I’m rationalizing it. I genuinely wish we kept him. We could afford it. We could cut Vernon or one of the other bad contracts. He’s one of the few young talented players we had on defense and he was a great locker room presence. I’m sure he would have loved to stay. I’m sure the locker room isn’t happy about it right now. But Collins is definitely overrated. He’s had one great season, and it was a season where the entire defense played well, which made his job easier. Outside that single season, he’s been goddawful (his rookie year) and either meh or hurt (past two seasons).

He plays box safety very well. He’s excellent in run support. If your team needs run support in the secondary, he’s your guy. Dude is a thumper. But that of course gets him injured. Worse, he isn’t good in coverage. He was beat by tight ends a lot, which shouldn’t really be happening to a safety. QBs where not afraid to throw at Landon Collins. He was the best player in our secondary and he couldn’t cover. It’s hard to justify giving a limited player that big of a contract. Obviously once the Giants finally jettison Eli and Vernon, they will have some cap space, which made this doable right now, but still. It’s a big contract for a limited guy who has had one great season and been hurt or merely fine since. If he turns out another 2016 it will definitely be a sad day for Giants fans. I do wish him well. I personally want him on a contender like the Chiefs.

Gettleman’s plans are still a big mystery at this point. So far he’s been a mixed bag. I liked him getting rid of JPP, I liked Saquon and think that pick gets too much hate considering we need more time to see it play out (especially if the Giants draft Haskins this year, which I’m personally rooting for). His draft was pretty solid. Bringing in Jonathan Stewart was terrible. Letting Collins walk is extremely debatable. Giving Alec Ogletree a big contract to be mediocre was a bad move, which looks worse after letting Collins walk. I love how he was doing what he could to fix the line this season, as the team brought in guys and rotated guys on the line until the Giants found some semblance of stability. Simply seeing effort there was an improvement over McAdoo and Reese. At this point he might genuinely be a huge disaster of a GM or he might be really good and we just need more time to see what he’s trying to do.

I wish Collins a good career and many more thumps. I’ll miss ya big guy.

 

EDIT: HAHAHA WE GOT ZEITLER FOR VERNON IM TOTALLY ON BOARD WITH THAT. The defense is gonna be bad but if we get a QB and then go D this draft things are looking up