Dave Gettleman demands he would trade back in the NFL draft and called it an “urban myth” that he’s reluctant, in spite of always failing to have done as such in his eight years as a general manager with the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers.
Gettleman, the current general manager of the Giants, has the eleventh pick in next Thursday’s initially round and six selections overall to work with this year.
“I’ve tried in the past. Honest, I’ve tried to trade back,” Gettleman insisted with a laugh when asked about his track record. “But it’s got to be value. I’m not getting fleeced. I refuse to do it. If someone wants to make a bad trade back, God bless them.”
Gettleman has made 54 total selections as a general manager. He’s traded up a few times (most recently back into the first round for Georgia cornerback DeAndre Baker in 2019), yet never back. It has nearly become an annual running joke. NFL Network draft investigator Daniel Jeremiah said recently that he thinks “we’ll see a right turn in a NASCAR race before we see Dave Gettleman trade back.” Gettleman himself snickered at that and thought it was a decent line.
Now, Gettleman has let it be known’s very nearly an urban myth. He just can’t seem to set the record straight.
That is maybe in light of the fact that he must be judged on outcomes. Not almosts, which he demands have occurred.
“We’ve had opportunities. I’ve tried,” Gettleman said. “You have to understand, the other piece of this is sometimes you have a trade and the guy that the team is trading up for gets picked in front of you. We’ve had that happen to us. ‘We got a trade. We got a trade. So and so selects … no trade, Dave. Goodbye. Hang the phone up on me.’ So that happens too.”
It’s still a significant streak. The Cleveland Browns have made five trades back in the first round alone since 2013, as indicated by ESPN Stats & Information. Those interfered with 2014 and 2018.
This very well could be the year for Gettleman and the Giants, who haven’t traded back as an association in any round of any draft since the first round in 2016. New York needs an edge rusher and the agreement at that position is that none of the current year’s options are top-11 players.
ESPN senior draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has Michigan’s Kwity Paye as the top edge rusher. He’s ranked 16th on Kiper’s most recent Big Board.