New York Giants Guide to the 2017 Free-Agent Market
The annual NFL free-agency period is now less than 30 days away.
As the New York Giants have been idle for over a month since being eliminated from the postseason in the Wild Card round, the front office has had plenty of time to assess the roster needs and to chart out a course regarding the potential free-agent targets from other teams they might pursue.
Of course, free agency never really goes according to plan—there are surprise additions to the free-agent talent pool just as there are projected free agents who end up re-signing with their respective clubs at the 11th hour that another team might otherwise want.
So what's in store for the Giants, projected by Over the Cap to have $23,914,686 of cap space, a number that Inside Football projects could swell to as much as $33 million?
Let's look at a few of the positions of need where the likelihood of the Giants plucking a veteran free agent currently on someone else's roster is a strong possibility.
Offensive Tackle
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The Giants have an interesting decision to make regarding starting left tackle Ereck Flowers.
Both head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese said the front office would evaluate whether left tackle is Flowers' best position.
While they try to figure it out, a potential free-agent target who can play both tackle spots and is likely to be cheaper (and younger) than Cincinnati's Andrew Whitworth is Detroit's Riley Reiff.
Reiff, drafted by the Lions in 2012 in the first round, No. 23 overall (the same draft spot that the Giants hold in this year's draft), played out his option year in 2016 having earned just over $8 million as a base salary.
Although Reiff—who in 2016 moved to right tackle and had a bit of a see-saw year—isn't quite in the same class as Whitworth, his projected salary per year should come in well under the $10 million and up the league's top left tackles are getting.
Another advantage Reiff offers over Whitworth is he's younger. The Giants would no doubt like to establish some sort of continuity among their starting offensive line.
If they were to sign the 35-year-old Whitworth, at best they might get two years out of him, whereas if they went with the 28-year-old Reiff, they could probably get him on a four- or five-year contract. And barring any catastrophic injuries, they would not have to worry about one of the tackle spots for a while.
Wide Receiver
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The strength of the Giants' offense is supposed to be their passing game—except that wasn't the case in 2016, not by a long shot.
Yes, part of the problem was the pass protection, while another area was some of the maddening decisions made by quarterback Eli Manning.
The receivers were just as much to blame as well. Per Pro Football Focus, Odell Beckham Jr., Dwayne Harris, Sterling Shepard, Tavarres King, Roger Lewis and Victor Cruz accounted for 21 dropped balls, the most drops in a season since McAdoo installed the new offense in 2014.
That group's 996 yards-after-the-catch also represents a drop from the 1,041 the year prior.
The projected odd man out of that group is Cruz, even though at the time of writing, the Giants have not made any decision regarding his $9.4 million cap figure.
While many might hope for Cruz and the Giants to work out a pay cut that would enable him to stay, he has two things working against him—his struggle to adjust to playing as an outside receiver after making his name as a slot receiver and his lack of contribution on special teams.
Even if Cruz agreed to a reduced salary and a reduced role, if he's not going to play special teams, then he becomes a luxury the team cannot afford to keep.
If the Giants are to get the passing game back into the top 10, they will need better play from the line, the quarterback and the receivers. It would also help if they can get a tall, physical fit on the outside, who, like Beckham, can get open with regularity.
Giants fans who are dreaming of Alshon Jeffrey of the Bears can probably forget it given the projected cap space he could eat up.
Also, while it's generally preferred to get a player under 30, in this case, an exception might be worth making if that exception is Pierre Garcon of Washington.
Per Brian McNally of CBS DC, the Redskins are torn between prioritizing Garcon and DeSean Jackson, with both receivers prepared to test the free-agent market if Washington continues to balk.
Garcon, 6'0", 200 pounds, is a solid possession receiver who caught 79 of 100 targets for 1,041 yards and three touchdowns in 2016.
While not the tall target the Giants would probably like to one day have in a receiver, the 30-year-old is a physical receiver who is a more-than-acceptable blocker and who showed no signs of slowing down.
A two- or three-year deal for Garcon might be just enough to allow the Giants to groom a third-day pick to be the long-term solution as that third receiver.
As an added bonus, landing Garcon, whose market value Spotrac projects to be two years, $17.538 million ($8.7 million per season) would strike a blow to a division rival's offense.
Defensive End
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If defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is indeed looking to get a contract similar or better to teammate Olivier Vernon's deal, as Ralph Vacchiano of SNY reported, it's probably not happening with the Giants.
What's also not likely to happen is New York slapping the franchise tag on the 27-year-old defensive end, a figure that Albert Breer of MMQB, projects to be $17 million.
If Pierre-Paul leaves, the Giants have restricted free agent Kerry Wynn, Owa Odighizuwa and Romeo Okwara on the roster, all of whom will get a chance to compete for the vacancy opposite of Olivier Vernon.
Of those, Okwara ended up winning the starting job after Pierre-Paul went down last season with a core muscle injury requiring surgery.
Although Okwara didn't post the monster numbers he did in his starting debut against Dallas in Week 14, he still finished with a respectable five tackles (two solo) against the run (in 22 run snaps), and, per PFF, a 9.8 pass-rush productivity score, second among the Giants defensive ends, behind Vernon's 11.6 and just ahead of Pierre-Paul's 9.2.
With that said, the Giants will probably add a low-cost veteran defensive end to the mix for depth, especially given Odighizuwa's poor luck with injuries in the first two years of his career that have stunted his development.
Carolina's Mario Addison, 29, is a name that could surface if the Giants want to replace Pierre-Paul with an experienced veteran who won't break the bank.
Addison, who has mostly played right defensive end in his career, bounced around the league after going undrafted out of Troy. He eventually found a home with the Panthers in 2012, carving out a nice niche for himself as a rotational defensive end who has never played in more than 47 percent of his team's defensive snaps.
Addison, 6'3", 260 pounds, had his best season in 2016, leading the Panthers defensive ends with 9.5 sacks and 35 hurries.
Spotrac projects the market value for Addison to be four years, $28.639 million, a reasonable $7.1 million per year for a guy who averaged $1.28 million on his soon-to-be completed two-year contract with Carolina.
The Giants will also probably look to draft a defensive end within the first three picks—Michigan's Taco Charlton (6'6", 272 pounds) is an early name to watch—because, as former general manager Ernie Accorsi once said, you can never have too many pass rushers.
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Kicker
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Unlike some NFL teams, who go through kickers and punters like there's no tomorrow, the Giants have been rather fortunate to find players who have performed well enough to stick around for multiple seasons.
That changed in 2016 once the details of kicker Josh Brown's alleged history of domestic violence was made public. Brown, who had kicked for the Giants since 2013, was dumped by the team and replaced by Robbie Gould, the former Bears kicker.
Gould held his own in the place-kicking department, nailing all his field-goal attempts and all but three of his PATs. However, his kickoffs left something to be desired in terms of height and distance, a deficiency that might give the Giants reason to hesitate in re-signing the soon-to-be 35-year-old.
The Giants have already signed street free agent Aldrick Rosas to compete for the job. However, if they're looking for a big leg that has made a few pressure kicks in his career, they might want to place a call to Seattle's Steven Hauschka, who is set to be an unrestricted free agent.
Hauschka, 32 years old, is not expected to be retained by the Seahawks, who last week signed former Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh.
Hauschka converted 89.2 percent of his field-goal attempts in 2016, missing a couple of chip shots in the 20- to 29-yard range. However, he posted a career-best 54 touchbacks, with only 31 of his 86 kickoffs being returned (also a career best).
Hauschka's prior contract, a three-year, $8.55 million pact, averaged $2.85 million per year. Recent history has shown that the Giants have paid their kicking specialists on average between $2 million and $2.1 million per year, which could make Hauschka too expensive for their budget.
Linebacker
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Giants fans clamoring for "high draft pick" and "linebacker" to fall in the same sentence this year are likely to be disappointed—unless the sentence reads: "It's unlikely the Giants will spend a high draft pick on a linebacker."
The reason for this is the Giants place a higher premium on the defensive front and on the backfield, a model that was successfully put into effect last year.
Still, that doesn't mean the position isn't in need of some fresh talent. Mark Herzlich, Keenan Robinson and Kelvin Sheppard are all set to hit free agency on March 9, the chances of all three returning being very slim.
Of the three, Robinson, whose 389 receiving yards allowed in coverage is the lowest of nine 4-3 outside linebackers who logged at least 75 percent of their snaps, will probably be the top target.
However, Sheppard and Herzlich have also been instrumental on special teams; thus, it's likely the Giants might try to add a veteran or two at this position with an eye on special teams after the initial wave of free agency dies down.
Assuming the Giants are comfortable proceeding with B.J. Goodson as their future starting inside linebacker in the base defense, a potential depth signing is Seattle outside linebacker Michael Morgan.
The 6'3", 235-pound Morgan spent seven games in 2016 season on the injured reserve list after having sports hernia surgery but was activated by the team in early December.
Prior to his injury, Morgan, who had primarily been a special teams contributor, had earned a starting job as the strong-side linebacker.
As a special teams contributor, he has recorded 21 tackles since 2012, missing only three tackle attempts in that time frame.
Morgan, 29 years old, is coming off a one-year, $1 million contract with Seattle that included a $200,000 base salary.
Given that he's also coming off the injury, there is a chance the Giants, if interested, might be able work out a one-year "show-me" deal, as they did with Robinson (who showed them) and Sheppard (who did not).
Defensive Tackle
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For as good as the Giants' defensive line was in 2016, they probably would have liked to receive better pass rushing production from the interior.
In 2014, that's what they got from Johnathan Hankins, who recorded a career high 7.0 sacks. A pectoral injury cut short his 2015 season; this year he dealt with assorted lower body injuries as well, his sack total dipping to 3.0.
If the Giants decide to move on from UFA Hankins, especially if he's eyeballing a contract that pays him in the same neighborhood as teammate Damon Harrison's five-year, $46.25 million ($9.25 million/year) deal, New York could look again to the AFC for a potential replacement.
That would be Lawrence Guy, 6'4", 304 pounds, of the Baltimore Ravens. Although Guy, a seventh-round draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts who also made a stop with the Chargers, found a niche in the Ravens' 3-4 base defense, Ourlad's and NFL.com both wrote that Guy has experience as a 3-technique in a four-man front.
Guy has since developed into a pass rusher. According to Matt Harmon of NFL.com, Guy was the eighth-best interior defensive lineman (out of 10) who excelled in "creating pressure by their average raw yards of distance from the opposing quarterback at the time of the throw or sack."
Harmon, using Next Gen Stats arrived at a 4.24 yard average for Guy in getting to the quarterback on pass-rush attempts.
The 27-year-old Guy is coming off a two-year, $2.3 million contract ($1.15 million average per year). As a rotational interior lineman, he could be an affordable option if he hits the open market.
Unless otherwise noted, contract and salary data are from Spotrac and advanced analytics from Pro Football Focus.
Patricia Traina covers the New York Giants for Inside Football, the Journal Inquirer and Sports Xchange. All quotes and information were obtained firsthand unless otherwise sourced.
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