1. ILB Ryan Connelly
Wow.
That’s all I really have to say about this one, as Ryan Connelly wasn’t even on my radar of potential NY Giants cuts even though he’s coming off a torn ACL. Connelly was one of the few lone bright spots on an abysmal Big Blue defense in 2019 before he went down early with that injury and I’m at a loss for words to describe making sense of this one.
By all accounts, Connelly was coming on strong late in camp as he recovered from what is now a very clean injury due to how far the sports medicine world has come in rehabilitating torn ACL’s. When you factor in that the NY Giants don’t have any other linebackers that can really cover it makes this move all the more shocking
Obviously, we don’t have access to medical records and most of us weren’t on the grounds during training camp, but giving up on a 2019 fifth-round pick that was a legit difference-maker from the moment he stepped on the field will never make any sense to me.
From a salary perspective, the NY Giants will incur dead cap charges of 251K, 167K, and 83K over the last three years of his cheap rookie deal where he was set to make just 675K, 850K, and 965K in 2020/2021/2022.
The team may try to sneak him on the practice squad but I’d be shocked if he wasn’t scooped up by another team.