4. Kareem Martin
Right up there with Alec Ogletree in terms of worst moves of the Dave Gettleman era, Kareem Martin will go down as the poster child of the failed James Bettcher/Arizona Cardinals rejects. In a classic case of what seemed like Gettleman bidding against himself, Martin somehow inked a 3/$15M deal with $7.2M guaranteed.
The move never made any sense from the beginning, as Martin only amassed 3.5 sacks and 8 quarterback hits in 56 games (14 starts) with the Cardinals. Martin went on to make just 1.5 sacks in 16 games with Big Blue in 2018, before suffering an injury early on in 2019 and being cast away to IR (he likely could have returned long ago, but wasn’t deemed worth it to bring back).
Martin has now played six seasons and accumulated just 5 sacks, and the Giants ended up paying $7.8M per sack. The former Virginia Tech Hokie was also the ultimate liability in pass coverage and will be lucky to play in the NFL again at all. With a $5.9M cap hit and just a $1.1M dead cap charge, it would be a travesty for Martin to remain with Big Blue in 2020.
2020 Cap savings: $4.8M
Chance it happens: 90%