Ranking the 5 most important Giants free agent signings of the offseason
By Zak Musso
It’s July, which means training camp is going to get here before you know it. With the offseason rapping up, it is time to revisit just how wild the last six months have been in New York for the NY Giants.
After starting the season 4-7 a year ago, the Giants had an embarrassing stretch of incomprehensibly bad football, losing six straight games to end the season, culminating with Joe Judge having so little trust in the offense in Week 18, that he called a kneel down on third down from their own two yard line in the second quarter.
The late season debacle led to the firing of Judge and the forced retirement of the dreadful Dave Gettleman. The Giants decided to replace them by traveling to western New York, snagging the two top lieutenants of the Buffalo Bills, Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll. The Giants made countless roster changes, which includes the mass exodus of many veteran Giants players like Logan Ryan, Evan Engram and James Bradberry. It is clear the Giants roster got significantly younger, adding 11 players in the draft, all with a legitimate path to playing time in their first season.
In his first free agency class as the lead decision maker of the Giants, Schoen was not able to do much, as the Giants were in salary cap hell thanks to Gettleman’s incompetent resource management skills. Schoen did the best with the little he had to work with, and went out and added three impact players through free agency, while also adding multiple veterans to be mentors to the young roster. Here are the top 5 Giants free agent signings this offseason.
5. LS Casey Kreiter
While Kreiter is by no means a household name, re-signing him to a one year, $1.12 million contract was a no brainer for the Giants. Kreiter plays one of the more underrated positions in the NFL, long snapper, where he was a Pro Bowler in 2018 with the Denver Broncos.
Over the last two seasons, the Giants have had the worst offensive production in the NFL, so Kreiter has spent plenty of time on the field.
Kreiter has helped Giants kicker Graham Gano nail 60 of his 65 field goal attempts the last two seasons, good for a 92.3 make percentage. With about half of NFL games being decided by one score or less, every point matters. Having a reliable long snapper with a Pro Bowl perigee is essential for any team with winning aspirations.