Top 10 Best Free Agent Signings in New York Giants History
By Neal Lynch
Free agency is a gamble. It’s very rare a team gets their money’s worth and it’s a foregone conclusion you’re going to overpay to fill needs. With that said, not all free agents are a bust. Here are the New York Giants best free agent signings since free agency began.
So, before we dive into the list, here’s how we got here. If you were to glance at the best New York Giants of all-time, you’d see the majority of top talents were picked in the draft. This list doesn’t include undrafted free agents – we’ll address that in a different article. This list is all about unrestricted, restricted, or the highly controversial “Plan B” free agents. Full disclosure: I utilized Pro Football Reference and their approximate value for players in Giants franchise history. I eliminated any players who had less than 3.5 years of service on Big Blue and wanted to make sure I didn’t just list the free agent signings with the highest approximate values, which is why I displayed the total approximate value along with the average approximate value per season. Someone like linebacker Michael Boley had an average AV of 7 over four seasons, but was excluded. Defensive tackle Fred Robbins was also in the running with an average AV of 6 over 6 seasons. Call them honorable mentions.
Enough with the foreplay, here’s the rundown:
10. Chris Calloway
Approximate Value w/ Giants: 43
Average Approximate Value per Season: 6
The Giants signed Chris Calloway as a Plan B free agent before the 1993 season. He would go on to play in 112 games over seven seasons with Big Blue, 86 as a starter. Calloway caught 334 passes for 4,710 receiving yards and 27 touchdowns. His best season came in 1997 when he started all 16 games, hauling in 58 throws for a career-best 849 yards and 8 scores, which was good for 9th in the league. In three playoff games with the G-Men, Calloway had 10 catches for 107 yards. He never surpassed 1,000 yards in a season, but can you blame him? Just look at the carousel of quarterbacks throwing to him: Phil Simms (in his last 2 seasons), Jeff Hostetler (on his way out), Dave Brown, Tommy Maddox, Danny Kannell, and Kent Graham.
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