New York Giants: 5 surprise cuts Joe Schoen could make
With a less-than-ideal cap space predicament, the revamped New York Giants front office may have some tough decisions to make in regards to roster cuts this offseason
Things are seemingly looking up for the New York Giants, as they recently brought on a new general manager in Joe Schoen and a new head coach in Brian Daboll, as both come from the Buffalo Bills.
While Daboll rounds out his coaching staff, Schoen gears up for what should be an interesting few months as we approach the start of the league year on March 16.
The Giants are projected to be about $10 million over the cap, ranking them in the bottom five of NFL teams, according to Spotrac.
Given the lack of a foundation and the lack of success in recent years, they’re arguably in the second worst position behind only the Saints, who are an unfathomable $76 million in the red.
How the New York Giants got themselves in this spot is irrelevant now with the previous regime out the door. What matters at this point is simple: how do they get out of it?
Given that Leonard Williams, James Bradberry and Kenny Golladay collectively represent over ⅓ of the team’s salaries, Schoen will have to get creative to work his way under the cap to give the New York Giants some breathing room heading into next year, especially if he wants to turn this team around sooner than later.
What this all means is that there will have to be some cuts this offseason, and not just the cuts that make sense from both a financial perspective and a player performance perspective. Some of these could simply be casualties of a new leadership group turning over a roster that was assembled by a predecessor that failed.
Keep in mind that the players on this list would be surprise cuts, to varying degrees of course. Some of the more logical cuts include a player like Darius Slayton, who underperformed greatly and has hardly any dead cap attached to his contract, making him an easy and highly predictable candidate to be cut.
Here are five New York Giants players who could be surprise cuts this offseason
New York Giants LB Blake Martinez
The first surprise cut is inside linebacker and team captain Blake Martinez.
The veteran has just one full season under his belt with the Giants after missing virtually all of last year due to an ACL injury he suffered in week 3.
It’s difficult to see this come to fruition, as the Giants’ linebacker depth isn’t something to write home about. However, the lofty $8.525 million in savings could be enough for Schoen to cut ties with the former Packer, even with the $5.5 million dead cap hit.
Martinez had a quality first year with the Giants back in 2020, registering a team high 151 tackles with three sacks and nine tackles for loss, as he played a big part in the unit’s 10th ranked run defense. His absence was felt too, as the team fell to 25th in run defense this past season.
Losing Martinez would hurt, there’s no doubt about it. But considering this is the final year of his contract as he enters his age 28 season coming off a torn ACL, it seems unlikely he’d be brought back on an extension anyway, making it slightly easier to warrant such a move.
Plausibility: Very Low