Giants Free Agency

The Giants have been relatively quiet in free agency.  They
have signed  a number of non star players to one year contracts.  This
biggest move they have made has been restructuring some of their player
contracts or cutting other over priced players.  They have been very
patient picking up Brandon Meyers as  a replacement for the solid Martellus
Bennett.  Meyers put up good numbers with the Raiders but Oakland message
boards don’t appear to be too upset about his departure.   They call
him  a product of the system and point to the lack of wide receivers. 
He should do ok.  The Giants signed Dan Connor to play MLB.  This is
another non exciting signing.  The guy was a stud at Penn State but has had
a very mediocre pro  career.  However, once again he will be more than
adequate if we are just trying to replace Blackburn.  Collin Jenkins is a
very solid signing.  Canty never lived up to his contract and Jenkins has
some skills.  The Giants still hope that Marvin Austin lives up to his
promise but that has to happen this year before all hope is lost.  
 
Column reader Bob F has been very vocal to me with his strong
opinion on getting Cruz signed.  I could not disagree more.  The guy
is reportedly looking for $10m per year.  He is not that good of a
receiver.  His numbers are misleading.  He is very much the product
of Eli manning and the system.  Until injuries slowed Nicks, has benefitted
from Nicks’ constant double teams and didn’t show he could lead them or catch
the ball when not open as  a number one receiver should.  The
slot receiver in this Giants offense just gets a lot of balls thrown
there.  Steve Smith thrived and never produced again.  If Welker got
$6m per, Cruz should not get more than $5m.  There is only so much you can
spend at receiver and Nicks is the main man and his contract is up next
year.  They should spend the bigger money on him.  The question for
Reese is Cruz that much better then Randle.  Randle flashed as a rookie
and this year will be telling.  There was never a risk that anyone would
sign Cruz while a restricted free agent given the compensation the Giants would
get on top of the contract Cruz would need.  They can have him for less
than $3m this year and have another year to see if Randle can step in.  
 
What needs to be remembered s that every dollar they spend on
Cruz is one dollar less they can spend elsewhere.  That is something not
fully appreciated.  Its not as if the Mara’s and Tisches are putting the
extra money in their pockets.  They are spending it elsewhere.  JPP,
Linval Joseph and Nicks all need to be signed next year and the cap was flar
this year.  There is a salary cap and you can and will spend a certain
amount.  You want to avoid too much deficit spending as this puts teams
into salary cap hell in prior years.  Only Democratic Giant fans would
actually suggest that.  When you look at  a player part of the
analysis needs to be one of relative value,  It’s not just how much is
this guy worth but how much worse is his replacement on the team and how much
are you paying that guy.  That is what got Bradshaw sent out of town
(Brown and Wilson are close to as good with  a much lower salary). 
Canty would have cost double Jenkins who will be as good or better.

Getting Webster to cut his salary was good but he
was signed a day or two before some substantial cornerback cuts around the
league.   You wonder if they would have demanded he go to $3m if they
 knew the other options at the time.  Aaron Ross at the reported minimum
makes sense as a better 4th corner option than they had.  Left guard and right tackle
are still largely unaddressed (unless they know Locklear will be recovered from knee
injury).  Without  a doubt David Diehl will be asked to take  a significant pay cut as
he is not worth the $4m+ and is in the final year of his
contract allowing for a tolerable salary cap hit if cut.

This year in general is very interesting in NFL free agency.  Most didn’t
realize the cap would be flat.  The result was that even after expected
cuts the excess cap room that people had to spend was significantly lower 
than expected and certainly lower than planned for when prior year contracts
were signed leaving a lot of current and near future cap casualties which will
have ramifications.  The Giants, are being patient and may wind up with
some bargains on some very good players.  Stay tuned.