The NY Giants now have a very real scenario brewing of Nate Solder opting-out of the 2020 NFL season due to COVID concerns.
When you combined the fact that NY Giants offensive tackle Nate Solder is such a good guy dealing with such a horrific family problem with him proving he’s a liability on the field, and this new opt-out clause proposed by the NFLPA could cause a scenario that’s actually beneficial for both sides in many ways.
I think it’s clear to even Nate Solder himself -it surely has got to be clear for the NY Giants – that just doesn’t have it anymore after two seasons with Big Blue and heading into his 32-year-old season in year three with NYG.
Our friends over at Empiresportsmedia.com were the first that I’ve seen on the internet make the somewhat obvious connection between this new opt-out clause with Nate Solder, who seems like a perfect candidate for the measure if there ever has been one.
There's a very real possibility that Nate Solder elects to opt-out of the 2020 season due to his son's cancer liability..
— Alex Wilson (@AlexWilsonESM) July 21, 2020
In that scenario, is Andrew Thomas the sure-fire left tackle or do you consider Cameron Fleming there too? #NYG
The two main sticking points that relate directly to Nate Solder from the NFLPA’s suggesting of handling the opt-out procedure fall right in line with Solder and his personal family situation, as here are two of the things a player must be suffering from to qualify from the original ESPN piece discussing the provisions.
"An opt-out clause for at-risk players to receive salary (but not bonuses) if they decide not to play. An opt-out clause for players with at-risk families to earn an accrued season and benefits if they decide not to play."
Nate Solder would surely fall under those categories with a child with cancer at home, and since he’s collected the better portion of his four-year salary in portion – including a good chunk of his 2020 salary – it makes the decision easier for the vet to fade away under legitimate circumstances when he’s clearly shown he can’t get it done on the field for the NY Giants over the past two seasons.
Here’s exactly why in detail it affects both sides positively.
Here’s why an opt-out could make sense for both Solder and NY Giants
This one has many levels to it; levels that affect the honor of Nate Solder and the feeling he must bare of letting down his teammates while being so highly-paid these last two years, looking after his family first as we’ve known him to do, likely even when he’d have to give up substantial money to do so, a legitimate path for him to collect a good portion of his money while not having to pay with the NY Giants getting their squeeze out of the scenario by saving on his official 2020 salary number — $9.9M.
Seems like a win-win for all parties involved, as long as Solder values a potential family health risk over $9.9M, which would be rare, but if there’s any father we’ve seen in the NFL that values his family over money and the game, Solder would top the list.
The reason that $9.9M number keeps coming up despite his total cap hit being $19.5M, is because the NFLPA is proposing that players get to hold on to their bonuses if they opt-out, but not their base salaries that come from actual games, which in Solder’s case is $9.9M.
The NY Giants would save that almost $10M directly against the cap, and since they have plenty of young guns at offensive tackle, including Andrew Thomas who simply must start at left tackle in 2020, the cap savings and getting rid of 2019’s worst tackle have to be exciting prospects, even if Solder is such a good guy.
After opting-out, Solder’s career with the NY Giants has the NFLPA has also asked that vets with family risks at home get to accrue a year of salary, effectively ending his NY Giants career with only $6.6M in dead cap remaining on his monster deal in 2020.
However, since the NY Giants would be saving that $10M in 2019, they’d really have a net cap savings of $4M dollars over the last two years of his horrific contract, while also not coming away looking like the bad guys they would deserve to look like by cutting Solder during a pandemic.
So to summarize, the NY Giants would get salary-cap relief they couldn’t have expected to be a possibility before the COVID 19 pandemic, Nate Solder gets to walk away with his dignity and his 2020 signing bonuses – just $8M against his $20M cap it – which may seem like he’s getting ripped off, but in reality he’d be getting $8M to not play football in 2020 and essentially go out on his own terms while looking out for his family
Again, these all seem like wins on both sides if Solder is taking his family health situation seriously, as one would have to believe to be the case after what we’ve seen in that regard over the last year.
Before COVID, this wasn’t an option either side could have thought to be possible, but now that it’s on the table it could be the perfect compromise between the tackle and the NY Giants to help get each other what they want without a negative PR storm.
It also would help clear the madness coming from some members of NY Giants nation that actually believe not only should Solder start for the 2020 Giants, but he should start at left tackle, it could have disastrous impacts on Andrew Thomas’ development.
And lastly, it’d potentially open the door for a guy like Nick Gates, Matt Peart, or even veteran Cameron Flemming to step up and play better football than Solder was anyway. With all of those tackles being significantly younger than Solder, it plays right into the idea of getting young players reps in a rebuilding year.
Which should really be the goal across the entire NY Giants roster.