Giants called Bills about OBJ

[Billy Buffalo]

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After a potential trade for then-Steelers receiver Antonio Brown fell through, Bills G.M. Brandon Beane said that “our focus is on free agency.” And he meant it.

Giants G.M. Dave Gettleman, who said on multiple occasions that the Giants didn’t sign receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to a long-term deal in order to trade him, picked up the phone after learned about Buffalo’s failed quest for Brown and called Beane about Beckham, according to Peter King of Football Morning in America.

“Beane didn’t bite,” King writes.

It’s unclear why Beane wasn’t interested. If, however, there was any truth whatsoever to the notion that Brown ultimately balked about being traded to Buffalo, Beane surely didn’t want or need Beckham doing the same thing. Because if Beane and the Bills were interested in Brown from a football standpoint despite the things that made him no longer welcome in Pittsburgh, Beane should have been more than interested in Beckham from a football standpoint despite the things that made him no longer welcome in New York.

That was the only call Gettleman made, opting not to launch a full-blown effort to shop Beckham. Setting aside whether it was a wise move to trade Beckham at all, it was prudent to wait for the phone to ring, if the goal was to trade him. The fact that Gettleman made even one call shows that this wasn’t a case where the Browns made the Giants an offer they couldn’t refuse; instead, the Giants were ready to move on from Beckham, and it was a question of getting an offer that they deemed sufficient.