New York Giants Free Agency: What’s Next Before NFL Draft?

Busy, busy, busy. There is no rest for the weary, specifically for New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen, who has been practically working around the clock to re-work the roster so that new head coach John Harbaugh can make good on his hopes of fielding a playoff contender this year.

Schoen, assistant general manager Brandon Brown, Harbaugh, and defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson were in attendance at today's Ohio State Pro Day.

Meanwhile, Schoen has continued to work the phones with free agents who will fortify the roster going into next month's NFL Draft, and he's gotten nearly two dozen contracts done with modest cap room, while reportedly reworking OLB Brian Burns' deal.

Schoen has signed 22 players (15 from outside the building and 7 returning veterans) since the free-agent discussion period opened a bit more than two weeks ago (March 9).

The returnees are RT Jermaine Eluemunor, ILB Micah McFadden, GRD Aaron Stinnie, OL Joshua Ezeudu, WR Isaiah Hodgins, OL Evan Neal, and LB Caleb Murphy.

Many of these deals reportedly were 1-year contracts with several levels of incentives. Indeed, the Giants appear to have gotten more creative with their paperwork than in the past, likely due to the hiring of former NFL chief football administration officer Dawn Aponte as their vice president of football operations and strategy (with a heavy emphasis on the salary cap).

Salary cap expert Patricia Traina of New York Giants On SI and the host of the Locked On Giants podcast noted the Giants cut LB Bobby Okereke ($9M) and OL James Hudson III ($5.3M) and got RB Devin Singletary to take a pay cut in addition to reworking Burns' deal into a heavy bonus that cleared nearly $15 million in cap space.

She explained to Big Blue Breakdown Live! host Paul Dottino, that Schoen may have some more moves up his sleeve to free up additional money.

For example, veteran kicker Graham Gano is coming off a serious neck injury and likely will become a cap casualty since the Giants spent a hefty amount of money to sign former Dolphins All-Pro Jason Sanders.

In addition, "the team can find even more money by extending defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence’s contract for another couple of years - Lawrence has no more guaranteed money left in his current deal - and by also restructuring left tackle Andrew Thomas’s deal.

Trading outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux is another way to gain a nice chunk of cap space ... roughly $14.75 million."

What else can they do? Join us tonight on the Big Blue Breakdown Live! podcast to find out more about that and ask your questions to Paul, either in the chat or via a video call.

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