How Giants Could Optimize James Bradberry Cap Savings if He's Not Traded

If the Giants aren't able to trade cornerback James Bradberry, here's another, albeit extreme, way they can potentially save a large chunk of his salary cap hit.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Apr 2, 2022 2:15 PM EDT

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New York Giants

Giants general manager Joe Schoen would rather not do it, but he might not have a choice.

The "it" is to extend the contract of cornerback James Bradberry, a player whom the Giants have reportedly been trying to trade for several weeks now, only to not receive a good enough offer in return for the 28-year-old cover cornerback who made his first Pro Bowl in 2020.

The cap-strapped Giants desperately need Bradberry's $13.4 million base salary, which would increase to $13.5 million (he has a $100,000 workout bonus due, which the Giants can avoid paying if they get him off the books sooner than later).

New York, depending on which source you believe, has less than $2 million of salary-cap space, not nearly enough to sign what is currently a nine-member draft class that will be joining the team later this month, let alone cover the in-season operating expenses associated with standard practice squad elevations and such.

The $13.4 million would certainly be a nice start and a big puzzle piece. Still, Schoen has been steadfast in refusing to give Bradberry away for next to nothing, and he seems willing, if all else fails, to keep Bradberry on the roster if he doesn't get a fair offer in return.

Of course, keeping Bradberry on the roster has its pros and cons. The pros would be that it lessens the need to add another cornerback this year in the draft--perhaps even eliminating adding another cornerback as soon as the first round.

The biggest con is the money--isn't that what it's always about? And if Bradberry does remain a Giant, Schoen will be forced to go down a rabbit hole that he's tried to avoid: restructuring the player's contract.

The following scenario is an extreme but certainly plausible way the Giants could restructure Bradberry's deal to optimize the savings.

James Bradberry: Proposed contract restructure. — Over the Cap Contract Constructor

This proposal lowers his base salary to the minimum for a player with his accrued experience and converts the remaining $12+ million into a signing bonus.

It also adds two additional voidable cap years, which spreads the dead money to 2025. However, with the cap scheduled to take a large jump starting next year and with Schoen having otherwise shown restraint in not restructuring a lot of contracts thus far, having to potentially eat a little over $3 million in those two additional voidable years shouldn't be that big of a deal.

The drawback, besides the fact that Bradberry's contract would be on the books likely long after he departs the team, is that the $9.273 million saved for this year wouldn't be enough to take care of the draft class, but it's still a large chunk of change that would at least help.

Ultimately, the only way to optimize the cap savings is to move Bradberry via trades. Those teams mentioned as potential trade partners with the Giants no doubt know this, which is why no one has, at least so far, rushed to finalize the deal.