Whether they want to admit it or not, the New York Giants are a football team that is currently in rebuild mode.

Unlike many other rebuilding teams, however, the team was lucky enough to be blessed with three phenomenal young talents at marquee positions: Odell Beckham Jr. at wide receiver, Saquon Barkley at running back and Landon Collins at safety.

As the Giants traded away many of their assets during the season, they elected to hold on to these three players with the expectation that the front office would try to build around them in the future.

Those plans unexpectedly changed last week, as the team notified Collins that he will not be franchise tagged this offseason.

This seemingly inexplicable decision means that the three-time Pro Bowler will soon become an unrestricted free agent and presumably sign elsewhere, thereby leaving the Giants with nothing but memories and a gaping hole on their already flimsy defense.

It’s hard to understand why New York decided that the 25-year-old was not worth paying approximately $10 million in order to keep him around for another
year.

In fact, the team could’ve even slapped the franchise tag on him and then traded him away sometime this offseason if they felt he did not fit their scheme.

Letting the homegrown standout walk away for nothing is not only a terrible football move, but it’s also a terrible business move.

The Green Bay Packers received a fourth-round pick from the Redskins last season for safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who isn’t nearly as talented as Collins. The Giants could have gotten back even more in return for their defensive whiz, yet elected to do nothing.

The organization had already acquiesced the season by the time the trade deadline rolled around, so it made obvious sense to trade away Collins at that point if they knew they weren’t going to franchise tag him in 2019.

They could have secured a great draft pick from a team and potentially lost even more games, thus putting them in a better position come draft time.

Even if the decision not to retain Collins is a relatively a new one, the Giants could’ve tagged him and simply traded him away to a contender with cap space.

Over the past few seasons, the Giants have slowly become the Cleveland Browns of the East Coast. The once respected organization has been butchering this rebuild — or lack thereof — by failing to fully commit to it.

The front office was insistent that they could still compete with their core group of guys, even when it became obvious midway through the 2018 season that they were dreadful.

Now they have decided to let one of their best players walk out the door for nothing, leaving fans of Big Blue feeling very blue
indeed.