Do New York Giants have a top 15 free agent?
By Curt Macysyn
Pro Football Focus came out with its rankings of pending free agents.
For New York Giants fans, the football evaluation website was not a source of good news recently. In 2017, Big Blue did not have many high performance players on the roster. Only guys like defensive tackle Damon Harrison ( 90.4 grade), tight end Rhett Ellison (78.2 grade) and safety Landon Collins (88.5 grade) were graded as top 10 performers.
With a few notable exceptions, Dalvin Tomlinson for one, most of the other player grades were not good. Admittedly, new general manager Dave Gettleman likes to watch game film. That likely means that the New York Giants will be in a better place to secure talent. That is – after Gettleman decides who the keepers are.
Football evaluation website, Pro Football Focus, ranked guard Justin Pugh as the 12th best free agent in this class. They did so even though Pugh only garnered a 52.4 grade for the 2017 season. Regarding Pugh, PFF stated:
"“Since entering the NFL as a first-round pick in 2013, Pugh has emerged as one of the better guards in the NFL, but unfortunately, injuries have plagued him in all but one of his professional seasons. With an entire offseason to recover from the back injury that cost him the last six games of the 2017 campaign, Pugh enters free agency as a high-end, starting caliber guard, who graded above 80.0 in both 2015 and 2016, and has allowed just 39 pressures over the last three seasons on the interior, the fourth-best mark among guards with at least 750 pass-blocking snaps since 2015.”"
True enough, and Pugh was also a victim of being pinballed around the offensive line. He was moved to left guard to support left tackle Ereck Flowers. He was shifted to right tackle when needed over there.
How did that work out in making Flowers a better player?
New York Giants
Some folks still believe that Pugh’s best position remains right tackle. But that may be the initial landing spot for Flowers next season.
Carolina Connection
Previously, we wrote about the New York Giants salary cap conundrum. Thinking logically, the G-Men likely have one, maybe two, priority free agents they can sign. It’s irrelevant if Big Blue re-signs one of their own – like Pugh – or someone from another team.
This year’s shopping spree will be short and sweet. The money is simply not there.
Interestingly enough, Spotrac, the football salary website, deems Pugh’s contract value to be at 4-years, $28,529,730. Keep in mind, the G-Men picked up his fifth year option at $8.821 million. That’s a big gap between what he made last season and his perceived future earnings.
We’ll take the Spotrac estimate with a grain of salt.
A name that has come up in recent weeks as free agent fodder is Andrew Norwell of the Carolina Panthers. Spotrac considers his value to be much higher than Pugh. It thinks Norwell will get a 5-year, $56,638,889 contract. That’s an average annual value of $11,327,778, which would siphon off about half of their current cap room.
Related Story: Free Agency Rumors: New York Giants targeting Andrew Norwell
Compared to Pugh, Pro Football Focus rates him as the 7th best free agent:
"“[Norwell] will very likely have a lot of interest if he hits free agency as the fourth-year guard put together an impressive season that saw him ranked third among guards with a PFF overall grade 88.8 and a first-team All-Pro selection. While Norwell performed well in the run game (83.4 run-block grade – eighth-best among guards), his performance in pass protection is what will set him apart from other players at the position. Throughout the regular season, Norwell allowed just 13 hurries on his 564 pass-blocking snaps, which resulted in a pass-blocking efficiency of 98.3, the second-best best mark among qualifying guards.”"
This decision seems to be an either – or proposition. But if the Giants make a strong push for Norwell, they may get shut out of the Pugh sweepstakes. Maybe Gettleman is comfortable with that. After all, Pugh suffered through an injury-plagued 2017 campaign. Previously, he has had concussion issues and a back problem.
Norwell seems to give the G-Men more help in the passing attack. That’s music to quarterback Eli Manning’s ears. The decision at this position will determine how quickly this rebuild can begin, so it’s an important benchmark. Remember, former general manager Jerry Reese created a salary cap crunch without solving the offensive line problem. That’s why he is on the unemployment line right now. Gettleman won’t make the same mistake.