The front office can manipulate the cap with the best of them
Teams like the Los Angeles Rams, Kansas City Chiefs and New Orleans Saints have been manipulating the NFL’s salary cap in their favor for years. Finally, the New York Giants can be mentioned in that breath.
What the front office did this off-season was nothing short of stupendous – re-arranging contracts to fit under the cap like masters of Tetris. While Gettleman leads the front office, a lot of the credit goes to the team’s VP of Football Operations/Assistant GM, Kevin Abrams.
Abrams is as much of a reason the Giants landed free agents like Golladay and Jackson as Gettleman and Judge are. The unheralded assistant is known for his salary cap expertise, and he put on a clinic this off-season.
The Giants entered Free Agency with only $3 million to spend – after some serious cap gymnastics, they spent the third most in the entire NFL. They got the players they wanted – they weren’t outbid or outsmarted.
While Gettleman’s ‘computer people’ and ‘window theory’ wise-cracks give the impression that the team’s front office is stuck in the stone age, their manipulation of the cap should be celebrated for the creativity shown. Without it, this years free agent class would look a lot less impactful.
Joe Judge has made the Giants into a desirable destination
Giants’ coach, Joe Judge, may not have brought the team back to the promise land yet – but he has brought them back to being a desirable destination for players.
After years of ineptitude by former coachers Ben McAdoo and Pat Shurmur, the Giants lost some of their luster as a premier destination in the league. Judge has changed that – and players like Golladay and Jackson have mentioned him as a big reason why they signed with the team.
"“I do want to win, and talking to Coach Judge and seeing what he did last year, and then understanding that I’ve been through that process,” said Jackson, after inking his contract. “Having a foundation and being able to build on that foundation, and having guys around that I’ve talked to that say they understand what he’s looking for and what he wants – just everybody being on the same page and being cohesive, that’s the biggest thing.”"
Judge has had his fair share of skeptics – media members questioning a lot of his methods. He’s been torn apart by people over his lap-running punishment, his handling of the Marc Colombo situation and the possibility of being another failed Belichick assistant turned head coach.
The Giants’ 2021 free ggent class proved that while Judge has his skeptics, he’s somebody that players want to play for. Golladay even spoke on Judge’s vision – saying “that had me right there.”
He’s not trying to be his former bosses, Bill Belichick or Nick Saban. He certainly isn’t like other former Belichick assistants, Matt Patricia or Josh McDaniels.
He’s his own man, writing his own story – one that ends with the Giants on top. If he continues to be the coach he’s been since his introductory press conference, the Giants will be a desirable destination as long as he’s there.