New York Giants fans exalted when former general manager Dave Gettleman retired.
While he’s not the sole reason for the team’s demise after their last Super Bowl appearance, his decision harmed the Giants’ competitiveness.
Case in point: the 2018 season turned out to be Eli Manning‘s last, and Gettleman didn’t have the foresight to select a quarterback with the second overall selection in that year’s draft.
The Giants could have had either Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson if he went that route.
Instead, they selected Saquon Barkley, who has been largely forgotten after his first two seasons.
The former Penn State standout is still working his way back from an ACL injury.
Meanwhile, Jackson became a league MVP and Allen made the Buffalo Bills into perennial contenders.
Aside from draft day misses, Gettleman overpaid players, leading to meager returns for their payroll.
However, new general manager Joe Schoen is scrubbing Gettleman’s blunders like this move that NJ Advance Media beat reporter Zack Rosenblatt shared.
Joe Schoen reached his “last resort”: The #Giants converted $8.965M of CB Adoree’ Jackson’s contract into a signing bonus (with a void year added), creating $5.98M in cap space, per @FieldYates.
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) April 4, 2022
Rosenblatt tweeted, “Joe Schoen reached his “last resort”: The #Giants converted $8.965M of CB Adoree’ Jackson’s contract into a signing bonus (with a void year added), creating $5.98M in cap space, per @FieldYates.”
Giants’ Cap Situation
The restructuring of Jackson’s contract increased the Giants’ cap space to $6.7 million.
It’s a small amount, considering that the Indianapolis Colts have the most cap room at $22 million, even after acquiring former league MVP Matt Ryan.
Therefore, they don’t have much flexibility to sign free agents.
Schoen will look to reload their roster via the draft because they are not a premier free-agent destination.
He will also take note of more contracts to restructure in hopes of creating more cap space.
NEXT: Are The Giants Making A Mistake Sticking With Daniel Jones?
John says
Everyone in hindsight says the Giants could have had Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson in the 2018 draft and ignores the fact that neither was ranked in the top three for QBs and Allen was ranked as the 6th best in some of the rankings.
In reality, if the Giants had taken a QB in the 2018 draft it would have been Sam Darnold. How has that worked out for the Jets and now the Panthers.