Where the Giants Salary Cap Currently Stands
The New York Giants addressed the statuses of their two biggest unrestricted free agents-to-be, quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley, just minutes before the league's franchise/transition tag window closed.
Jones was signed to a four-year deal worth $160 million with an additional $35 million in incentives that could boost the deal's total value to $195 million. The $40 million APY makes Jones the ninth quarterback in the league whose annual average earnings top the $40 million threshold.
Jones, per reports, will have a $19 million cap hit for the first year of his deal, $13 million less than what he would have counted for had the team used the $32.4 million franchise tag on him. That $13 million saving is, in part, what allowed the Giants to use the non-exclusive franchise tag on Barkley, who will count for just over $10 million if he plays on the non-exclusive franchise tag.
Giants general manager Joe Schoen confirmed Jones got a $36 million signing bonus, and his first year's P5 (base) salary is around $9 million.
That amount currently puts the running back 11th among running backs for APY in 2023 at his position. However, the Giants and Barkley will likely continue discussing a long-term deal that might raise Barkley's APY over the life of such a contract while lowering his 2023 cap hit.
According to Over the Cap, the two transactions reduced the team's originally estimated $43,151,832 of cap space to $36,721,167 total, $33,567,128 of which is the effective cap space (what's needed to remain within the Top 51 rule, which begins on March 15, the first day of the new league year).
With these two key free agents set for the time being in terms of cost, additional dominos should begin falling into place in the coming days, which will see the Giants clear more cap space.
The team has to decide whether to make receiver Kenny Golladay, who will be cut on March 15, a standard or post-June 1 transaction. If Golladay is a standard cut, the Giants will save just $6.7 million on their cap and have to eat $14.7 million in dead money. The good news is that Goladay's contract would completely come off the books this year.
If he is designated as a post-June 1 cut, the Giants would save $13.5 million (which would not be available to them until after June 1) and have dead money hits of $7.9 million in 2023 and $6.8 million in 2024.
That $13.5 million is tempting enough to consider waiting for, as not only could that money be used to sign the incoming draft class, but it would leave the Giants with more than enough to get through 2023, including if they wanted to extend some of their eligible players such as safety Xavier McKinney or left tackle Andrew Thomas during the season.
In the meantime, the Giants are expected to work with defensive lineman Leonard Williams to find a way to lower his team-leading $32.26 million cap figure. That, however, might prove to be challenging. Williams has an $18 million base salary for 2023 and a prorated signing bonus of $14.26 million, which was inflated thanks to prior restructuring.
The answer is to extend the defensive lineman. Still, any such extension in which part of the $18 million base salary would be converted to a prorated signing bonus would only add to a prorated bonus that's already ridiculously high. General manager Joe Schoen has already gone on record several times, saying he'd rather not kick the can down the road.
The team could also look to secure Dexter Lawrence's services for the long term, as Lawrence, who as of now is set to play on the option year of his rookie deal at a rate of $12.4 million (5.4 percent of the team's 2023 cap), would almost certainly get a lower cap number via an extension, which seems to be on the Giants' to-do list anyway.
In short, the Giants are in much better cap shape than they were at this time last year when they had to trim cornerback James Bradberry from their books. With Schoen having said in the past that his roster-building philosophy centers around the draft rather than going overboard with free-agency spending, Schoen should, thanks to how the dominoes have fallen thus far, have enough to add some upgrades to positions where the depth leaves something to be desired.
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