Scout.com is reporting the Browns have traded RB Ruben Droughns to the Giants in exchange for wide receiver Tim Carter. By acquiring Jamal Lewis on Wednesday coupled with the option of possibly drafting Adrian Peterson next month, Droughns became dispensable to the Browns. They’ll avoid paying him a $1.75 million roster bonus, which was due near the end of the month.
The real question is: Did Giants’ GM Jerry Reese panic? With Cleveland highly unlikely to pay Droughns’s roster bonus and presumably set to release him if it couldn’t trade him, why did the Giants feel that they had to make this right now? Shouldn’t they have waited until he was released?
Actually when you think about it, this wasn’t a terrible move by Reese. Several backs that New York had been targeting – including Lewis, Dominic Rhodes, Willis McGahee and Ahman Green – are now off the market. And unless the Giants traded up for Peterson or Marshawn Lynch, Droughns is a better option right now than the rest of the rookie class set to come out. So they give up a wide receiver in Lewis that they’ve been disappointed with and get a back to complement Brandon Jacobs. I’m sure he wasn’t the first choice, but given the options, he isn’t Curtis Enis either. Plus, who knows what Droughns would have commanded if he was released and able to test the market, especially considering how overpriced everything is right now. New York can see what it has for a year and reevaluate next offseason.
