John Harbaugh’s call to Titans owner in Jeffery Simmons pursuit crossed a line, and losing out was a blessing in disguise for the Giants
The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones confirmed what I’d been hearing in Nashville about the Giants and Jeffery Simmons. How New York actually went after him is where things get strange.
In the fallout of the Tennessee Titans trading defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons to the Chicago Bears, we’re learning more about the trade calls Tennessee was fielding before Bears GM Ryan Poles got the deal done.
The New York Giants were one of those teams, and their pursuit of Simmons included a move that’s going to draw plenty of attention around the league.
In a piece for The Athletic on Saturday morning, NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported that multiple league sources told him the Giants were seriously interested in Simmons.
Here on the local front, I had heard something similar from a pair of sources in the 72 hours before the trade went down. What I heard wasn’t reportable, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I was buying it given how I view the Giants’ roster!
It’s not just that the Giants were interested, though. It’s how they went about it that’s controversial.
When the Titans opened the door to a Jeffery Simmons trade
First, a note we hadn’t been given by Titans GM Mike Borgonzi. During his media availability this week, Borgonzi told us he didn’t receive a serious offer for Simmons until Wednesday evening, and I believe he’s telling the truth on that. But Jones’ reporting adds important context about when Tennessee actually decided they would entertain the idea if somebody made an actual offer. According to The Athletic:
“But after stuttering to a 1-6 start, the Titans brain trust held a meeting Tuesday during which they opted to begin listening to offers for Simmons. That opened the door for the Bears and GM Ryan Poles, who has known Borgonzi since the mid-’00s at Boston College and as they rose through the ranks with the Kansas City Chiefs.”
So the Titans had an official change of heart Tuesday. I’m not sure how that lined up with the Giants’ interest, but it makes sense that the shift opened the door for a trusted confidant like Poles to swoop in with his material offer.
I wasn’t convinced anybody else was serious enough to make an offer, because the Bears’ proposal came in Wednesday night and the deal was done by Thursday morning. Roster logic around the league also told me there weren’t really any other teams positioned to push their chips in for that position at that price point.
But New York felt like it was. Per Jones, Giants GM Joe Schoen had tried to trade for Simmons in calls to Borgonzi, to no avail. Schoen was one of many people Borgonzi had told no over time.
John Harbaugh’s end-around to Amy Adams Strunk
Here’s where it gets strange. Giants coach John Harbaugh doesn’t answer to the GM in New York. He answers to ownership in a unique power structure, and he took that approach straight to Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk. From The Athletic piece, Jones wrote:
“Harbaugh then opted to call Strunk, the Titans controlling owner, in an attempt to get Simmons. Harbaugh got the same message from Strunk, who has empowered Borgonzi to make football decisions for the franchise. One GM who became aware of the call said it violates a code amongst primary football decision makers that they will only deal with each other.”
I have two takes on this.
The first is that one GM calling it a violation is only the start. I am certain Tennessee’s front office feels… strongly about that stunt. There’s an element of “all’s fair in love and war”, the NFL is a year-round war game, and you do what it takes to win. I’m sure that’s how Harbaugh would defend it. But I bet if you hooked Borgonzi up to a lie detector, he would have plenty of choice words about another team’s head coach going around his back.
Borgonzi had already told that coach’s GM no. Harbaugh then went to a hands-off, intentionally absentee owner to try to go over Borgonzi’s head. I bet a lot of people around the league, and especially the Titans, aren’t fond of that. It’s a wild move!
Why missing out on Simmons is a blessing in disguise for the Giants
My second take: the Giants losing out on this trade is a crisis averted for them.
That’s not to say New York can’t win a shaky NFC East this year, and it’s not to say the Giants are a bad team. I think the stability Harbaugh brought has taken root immediately. The issue is that the price for Simmons was two first-round picks and then some, and the Giants are a team objectively in flux.
New York is on its third quarterback, JJ McCarthy, who they acquired for a fifth-round pick. He’s young, and he just flamed out with the team that spent a top-12 pick on him. He’s had a fantastic first five quarters in New York, but it’s five quarters. We haven’t the slightest idea what he’s going to be.
The same goes for Jaxson Dart. He wasn’t terrible as a rookie, but he wasn’t a surefire franchise guy until he started to look that way in his own five quarters at the start of this season, ironically enough, before going down for the year. Will McCarthy spark a competition when Dart is healthy next offseason? Is there an allegiance element with Dart that makes it messy? Does one of them get traded? There’s no telling what the quarterback future of this team looks like.
It’s wishful thinking to treat five quarters of McCarthy making some great throws as proof he’s the solution who’ll carry the Giants on a playoff run. Mortgaging the future for a defensive tackle with that much uncertainty under center would have been indefensible in my book. That’s getting over your skis, and Giants fans should be happy this one never happened.
