Before this off-season, Dave Gettleman was widely regarded as one of the worst general managers in the NFL. Now it seems like the general opinion has shifted. People have been praising his decision-making this off-season. Why though?
The three moves that are the crux of his recent praise have been re-signing Leonard Williams, as well as the free-agent signings of Kenny Golladay and Adoree Jackson.
On the surface, this seems like a solid free agency class. They re-sign a key player on their defense and arguably get the best receiver in free agency. They also landed a corner who has played well when on the field.
So, why don’t I like these signings? Allow me to explain…
Cap Space
I know a lot of fans don’t care about future cap space. However, choosing not to care–rather than being informed and honest with yourself–will set you up to be blindsided when some of your favorite players are cut or traded. This will inevitably make your team worse.
First, to make these signings happen, they had to release their best offensive lineman, Kevin Zeitler, as well as Golden Tate. Then, they had convert part of James Bradberry’s and Blake Martinez’s contracts into bonuses to clear up space. This will only make their cap issues worse for the following season.
Then there are the actual signings. Because the Giants still didn’t have a lot of cap space, they had to sign these guys to smaller cap hits for year one to fit under the salary cap. This means that their cap hits in the future will be larger than their average annual salary.
Because these caps hits take a large increase in 2022 in order to make work this year, the Giants are once again put into a bind with cap space. As it stands here are the Giants seven highest cap hits for 2022:
- Leonard Williams: $26.5 million
- Kenny Golladay: $21.15 million
- James Bradberry: $20.5 million
- Adoree Jackson: $14.375 million
- Blake Martinez: $14.025 million
- Logan Ryan: $10.75 million
- Sterling Sheppard: $10.5 million
Once you add all that up, you are looking at seven players accumulating $117.8 million in cap space, which is nearly 60% of their 2022 cap space. As it stands, they are currently at $16.1 million in cap space, and that can get even lower as we wait on a decision for Saquon Barkley’s 5th-year option. This also doesn’t include their 2021 draft class either. So, when it’s all said and done they could very well be in the red after these decisions have been made. They still have to consider resigning Jabrill Peppers, Evan Engram, and Will Hernandez. All three of those players’ contracts expire after the 2021 season. New York only has 38 players under contract for 2022.
Now let’s look at the current state of their roster.
The Roster
Normally I don’t include re-signed players as “additions” as they were on the team last year. So, in reality, their biggest additions were Kenny Golladay and Adoree Jackson. And this is where people need to start being honest with themselves. Is this really good enough to win the division? The worst division in the NFL? I have some serious doubts. Washington made some splashes themselves, with the additions of Ryan Fitzmagic, William Jackson III, and Curtis Samuel. Seeing as Fitzpatrick is objectively a better quarterback than Daniel Jones, Washington’s defense is both younger and better than the Giants’ defense, and they have the better coach, there isn’t much to convince me that the Giants are good enough to surpass Washington.
Even if they manage to sneak by Washington and win the division, do you seriously think they are good enough to beat the best Wild Card team? This will likely be the 2nd place finisher in the NFC West, which is arguably the best division in football. I don’t think so. This leads me to my final point.
Expectations
I am not sure what the conversations have been like for Dave Gettleman and John Mara. Rumor has it that ownership has been growing impatient with the lack of success. Maybe Gettleman is feeling pressure because of this and this is a hail mary effort. Nevertheless, if they were to manage their expectations and trust the process they might have put themselves in a better position long-term.
As it stands, this year’s team will be better than next year’s team, barring any franchise-altering trade. They put themselves in a corner, cap-wise, and all they did was get themselves out of it until next year. If they need to fill any needs next off-season, it will likely come at the expense of one of their higher-paid players. Filling a need, but creating another, which is a recipe for mediocrity. It’s something I have seen as a Dolphins fan with Jeff Ireland and Mike Tannenbaum. The difference was Miami was not getting nation-wide praise for impatience and reckless spending.