How Upcoming Roster Decisions Might Affect New York Giants' Salary Cap

How will some of the anticipated roster transactions the Giants plan or need to make affect their fragile salary cap situation?

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Aug 18, 2022 8:00 AM EDT

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New York Giants

The New York Giants have a lot of work to do ahead of the regular season.

While head coach Brian Daboll and his staff try to figure out who is going to be on the 53-man roster, behind the scenes, general manager Joe Schoen and his staff are going to have to figure out how to ensure the team has enough salary cap space to get through the year.

According to the latest NFLPA public cap report, the Giants have $5.027 million of total cap space, though it’s not known if that reflects the current state of the roster, which the Giants reduced by three on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the team’s estimated cap space under the Top-51 rule, which is still in effect through the first week of the season, is $4.615 million, per Spotrac.

But if the season were to begin this week, the Giants would find themselves in an unfavorable cap situation because of that $5+ million, New York will need several million alone to pay their practice squad, which for players with more than two seasons of service can make a salary of up to $19,900 per week—and that doesn’t include any standard practice squad elevations in which if a player is called up, he will make a proration of the league minimum salary for the week, depending on the number of accrued seasons he has.

In other words, any cap space the Giants have left will be eaten up very quickly just as part of the natural process of setting the roster and practice squad. And that will ultimately leave the Giants with no wiggle room to add players to the roster.

Why Are Things Still This Bad?

If you thought it would take one off-season for Schoen to fix the salary cap, you were probably being a little too optimistic. The Giants’ cap situation, as it currently stands, is the continued fall out of the mismanagement from last year when the team went on a wild spending spree to add free agents in hopes of fielding a competitive team. To get the space necessary to sign guys, contracts were restructured, and one might even say there was a degree of overspending on certain free agents who ended up not producing.

When the new regime came in, some of those players no longer fit the direction the team wanted to pursue. Thus of the $32.971 million in dead cap space that Over the Cap lists the Giants as having, some of the biggest dead money hits include Logan Ryan ($12.65 million, pending the outcome of a grievance the safety filed against the team), offensive tackle Nate Solder ($4 million), and tight end Kyle Rudolph $2.408 million.

In addition, there is the $11.27 million in dead money the Giants were forced to eat when they parted with cornerback James Bradberry to sign their draft picks. That move partially resulted from the restructuring of Bradberry’s contract the year before creating more space for the massive free-agent spending spree.

Will It Get Any Better Soon?

If you mean will the cap problems go away this year, the answer is no. While it’s true that the Giants will reclaim some cap money as they cut guys from the roster that currently sit in the top-51, that amount projects as minimal.

Let’s make a quick projection using the Top 51 list posted by Over the Cap. The following veterans could find themselves on the bubble come cutdown day (their cap savings is listed in parentheses):

WR Darius Slayton ($2.45 million)
Edge Oshane Ximines ($995,000)
DE Nick Williams ($895,000)
WR Marcus Kemp ($965,000)
WR Robert Foster ($965,000)
LB Carter Coughlin ($867,464)

(Note: Any players outside of the Top 51 who received signing bonuses would result in more dead money being dumped into the team’s already growing pot.)

Based on the above list, the Giants would potentially be looking at an estimated $7.137 million in cap credits if these players are trimmed off the roster and if there is no injury settlement involved.

Speaking of injury settlements, the Giants could look to move on from certain players dealing with ongoing injuries. However, such a move would necessitate an injury settlement resulting in only a portion of the base salary being credited to the team.

Injury settlements are negotiated between the player and the team and are based on the estimated amount of time it is believed a player will miss during the regular season.

For example, if a player is due a $1.7 million base salary, but both parties agree that he will miss four weeks, he would be due 1/17 of his $1.7 million base for every week he’s projected to miss, or in this case, $100,000 per week--$400,000 total. That total counts against the cap, whereas the balance ($1.3 million) gets credited back to the team’s cap.

Assembling a list of potential players in this category is tricky, given that the Giants have been tightlipped regarding injuries. Still, one player who comes to mind is tight end Ricky Seals-Jones ($695,000), who has participated in just one training camp practice thus far.

To recap, yes, the Giants stand to gain some financial credits. But whatever credit they recoup following the roster cutdown date, it will quickly be spent on the practice squad players and veterans whom they might acquire off waivers or via free agency to upgrade the roster.

So Now What?

Schoen has made it clear that he doesn’t like to have to kick the can down the road when it comes to restructuring contracts because it simply pushes money into future years, often long after the players have moved on.

He’s already had to do that with Blake Martinez and Sterling Shepard, and he might have to do it again to give himself enough breathing room.

The most logical contract for Schoen to target if it comes down to needing more money is defensive lineman Leonard Williams. Williams carries a team-high $27.3 million cap hit, including a $19 million base salary.

By converting part of that base into a signing bonus and then tacking on a voidable year (Williams is signed through 2023), the Giants could realize significant cap savings that should give them enough breathing room to operate through the season.

Williams can benefit in that he’d receive the bulk of his $19 million base salary up front if it’s converted into a signing bonus. The Giants would obviously benefit from getting a lower cap number.

Williams’ $19 million base salary is fully guaranteed. So long as he’s receiving at least $19 million in 202, whether it’s cash up front or a P5 salary, the Giants will be able to meet the terms of the contract.

Here is a scenario that lowers Williams’ cap figure from $27.3 million to $17.996 million for a $9.304 million savings and includes the voidable year in which $4.666 million of the converted base into a signing bonus is accounted for.

Leo Williams Proposed New Contract — Over the Cap Contract Constructor

Because Williams’ 2023 cap is $1 million less than his 2022 figure, if the Giant were to follow this model, his cap figure would rise to $30.966 million, or roughly a $4.6666 million increase which shouldn’t be backbreaking for a player that has otherwise been productive as a Giant.

Final Thoughts

There’s no easy way out of the mess for Schoen that won’t involve having to kick the can down the road. The good news is that the 2023 league-wide cap, thanks to the influx of money expected from the new television broadcasting rights contracts, is projected to come in at $225 million.

Per Over the Cap, the Giants are projected to have $54,036,210 in total cap space next year, which should be more than enough to get their draft class signed (that amount still to be determined), add a few players via free agency, and, if the chips fall into place, re-sign one or both of running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Daniel Jones.