Tag: Leonard Wiliams

Leonard Williams was sorely missed in Giants’ loss to Cowboys

New York Giants DT Leonard Williams missed Monday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys and that factored heavily into the outcome.

New York Giants defensive lineman Leonard Williams missed his first NFL game with an MCL sprain on Monday night.

After starting his career in 2015 with the New York Jets, Williams has been an integral part of the Giants defense for the last two-plus seasons. His absence in Week 3 when the Giants hosted the Dallas Cowboys was painfully obvious.

Williams hasn’t filled the box score this season, recording just seven tackles (five solo) so far, but his impact on defense goes beyond his ability to tackle or break through the line.

His leadership plays a big role in how the defense functions overall, and his ability to pressure the quarterback and set the edge typically draws extra attention. Without Williams on the field, the Cowboys made things look too easy.

For instance, through the first two games of the season, Ezekiel Elliott had 105 yards and no touchdowns. Tony Pollard had just 51 yards rushing. Against the Giants, Elliott recorded 78 rushing yards and scored his first touchdown of the season. Pollard had 105 yards rushing and averaged over 8.0 yards per carry.

Also consider that the Giants had three turnovers over the first two games and none on Monday.

Williams was very clearly missed on the field this week. Watching him pace the sideline, irritation and frustration plain on his face, shows just how much he wanted to be out there. Hopefully his knee heals quickly because it’s clear that the Giants need his presence on the field.

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Leonard Williams trade continues to be big win for Jets, bust for Giants

The Jets continue to reap the benefits of the Leonard Williams trade, while the Giants fail to keep him long-term.

Joe Douglas somehow solved a lot of problems when he traded Leonard Williams to the Giants. He acquired two important draft picks, cleared up cap space, eliminated a potential offseason conundrum, opened up opportunities on the defensive line and, to top it all off, inadvertently stuck a thorn in the side of the team’s roommate.

The Giants weren’t able to reach a long-term extension with Williams before the July 15 deadline, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Williams will now play on his one-year, $16 million franchise tag the Giants applied to him earlier this offseason. This is the complete opposite outcome Giants general manager Dave Gettleman wanted when he gave the Jets a 2020 third- and 2021 fifth-round pick for Williams. Gettleman said he made the trade to bolster the Giants’ defense in the short-term before locking Williams up in a long-term contract this offseason. Somehow, neither happened and now both sides will play out the 2020 season before re-assessing contract negotiations next season.

The Jets, meanwhile, already started reaping the benefits of the Williams trade during the season and continued to do so this offseason. New York’s run defense DVOA, per Football Outsiders, didn’t go up or down when Williams left the team and the Jets finished with the second-best run defense in the league and seventh-best in yards allowed despite losing their marquee lineman. Douglas then used the first of two picks from the trade to select Ashtyn Davis — a dynamic safety who can play all over the field — in the third round of the 2020 draft.

Davis figures to play a small but important role on the defense immediately, which could turn into a bigger one down the stretch – especially if Douglas trades either Jamal Adams or Marcus Maye. That alone is a big plus given the great depth on the Jets’ defensive line and the lack of quality defensive backs in the deep secondary. 

The lone negative of the Williams trade is that because the Giants failed to sign a long-term extension before the start of 2020 league year in March, the 2021 fifth-round pick the Jets received in the trade won’t turn into a fourth-round pick. A small loss in an otherwise massive win for Douglas and the Jets.

Even better, now the Jets don’t have to worry about negotiating a long-term extension with a defensive lineman who only tallied 7.5 sacks and 51 quarterback hits in the past three seasons. That’s the Giants’ dilemma now. The Williams trade already looked bad for the Giants after Williams recorded only half a sack and 11 quarterback hits in five games in 2019, but failing to keep him past this season would be a massive failure on Gettleman’s resume considering the draft capital the GM gave up to get him.

Douglas, meanwhile, secured a huge win by dealing Williams. Not bad for his first big trade.