Desperate to inject some new blood into a wounded 0-4 season, the Giants on Thursday night agreed to a trade to acquire linebacker Jon Beason from the Panthers in exchange for a conditional late-round draft pick.
Beason will take a physical for the Giants on Friday, and if he passes, the deal will be completed.
That the Giants and Panthers would do business together is no surprise. Carolina’s first-year general manager, Dave Gettleman, was a longtime front-office executive with the Giants and continues to have close ties to the Giants organization.
Beason, 28, might be damaged goods. He played in only four games last season before undergoing microfracture surgery on his right knee and has yet to regain his form this season. The Panthers replaced him last year with Luke Kuechly, a rising star at middle linebacker, and Beason this season had become expendable in Carolina. He recently lost his starting job on the weak side to Chase Blackburn, the former Giants linebacker.
When the Panthers thrashed the Giants, 38-0, in Week 3 this season, Blackburn started at weak side linebacker and Beason did not play.
Passing the physical is no sure-thing for Beason, who continues to have issues with his right knee following microfracture surgery last October.
“You have your good days, you have your bad days,” Beason recently told the Charlotte Observer. “When you pound on it, obviously you have that little setback. You take a day off, and you feel better.’’
The Giants have done everything but throw darts at a target to find a productive linebacker. This summer, they tried to resuscitate the career of former first-round pick Aaron Curry, who did not make the final roster, and then retired. Last season, they sent a fifth-round pick to the Bengals for Keith Rivers, another former high first-round pick who flamed out in Cincinnati. Rivers has yet to make an impact with the Giants. In 2010, they brought in Keith Bulluck, a former first-round pick of the Titans, who had one nondescript season.
Beason is another former first-round pick (2007 out of Miami) but at least he once was a productive NFL player. In his first four years, he made the Pro Bowl three times (2008-10), compiled the top four tackle seasons in Carolina franchise history and was extremely active as an undersized (6-foot, 237 pounds) middle linebacker.
In 2011, Beason became the highest–paid middle linebacker in the NFL, signing a five-year, $50 million contract, with $25 million in guaranteed money. The deal voids at the end of this season, and he’s making $1 million this year.
He tore his Achilles tendon in the 2011 opener and was done for that season. He has been slow to return from the microfracture surgery he had last season.
The Giants lost their starting middle linebacker, newly acquired Dan Connor, to a neck injury in the season opener. Mark Herzlich has been starting in the middle ever since.