New York Giants Mailbag: Caponomics, Hots Seats, and More

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Justin, John Mara said last month that he didn’t anticipate making any changes to the GM/HC. That’s not to say that if things continue to head south, he can’t or won’t change his mind. 

However, it doesn’t do the franchise any good to keep changing head coaches and general managers every three years because you start from scratch. So unless something completely out of the blue happens, I don’t think Daboll or Schoen will be dismissed after this season. 

You give them a chance to pick their quarterback and go from there. As for your statement about Schoen being a disaster, what was the team’s record in 2022, draft class notwithstanding? 

And what would you have had him do with Jones after he got them to the postseason and won games that knocked them so far down the draft order? Also, would you have preferred Saquon Barkley or an improved offensive line?

What say you, Giants fans? You can chime in on MetsGiantsGuy’s post.

Not that I’m aware of. And I would be shocked if Daboll gives that up.

I don’t have an opinion one way or another about it. I mean, they did all right this year with their draft class despite not having a director of college scouting, right?

I think a better question here is, will he have a chance to rush for 1,000 yards? I mean, if you play for a coach who seems to empathize with the passing game and then if you’re on a team where most times you’re playing from behind, how realistic do you think the chances are for any Giants running back to hit 1,000 rushing yards?

I suppose you could, but you also have to consider the possibility that the players needed a longer learning curve than initially thought. 

Jalin Hyatt had one big breakout game that put him on the map, but there were concerns about how he was deployed in college and how that put him behind the eight ball. As I recall, Joshua Ezeudu was part of a North Carolina offensive line whose members weren’t exactly world-beaters. 

And Jones was overdrafted by a general manager who saw far too many similarities to Eli Manning regarding the intangibles, perhaps believing that coaching would bring out the best in him. 

As for Evan Neal, you could make the case that he had flaws in his game that he was able to skate by while in college, but not at this level. Guys need to be receptive to coaching, and while I’m not suggesting anyone in particular wasn’t receptive to coaching, I’m just saying sometimes there’s more than what meets the eye.  

No on Slayton, who, to be honest, I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to come back this time. 

They might try to get Ojulari bak, but I suspect someone will give him a handsome payday that the Giants won’t be willing to match.

I think quarterback, cornerback, and interior defensive line have to be the top priorities in the offseason, with cornerback at the top. I don’t think they have to go crazy with adding another receiver unless they believe Jalin Hyatt can’t be part of the big three.

I’ve already gone on record in my weekly “Why the Giants Will Win, Why They Won’t and a Prediction” series as saying I won’t be picking the Giants to win any more games, so I guess that would be the answer.

Sure. I discussed this with Emory Hunt of CBS Sports and Football Gameplan for an upcoming Locked On Giants episode. We talked about next year’s quarterbacks class and who is emerging as a potential first-round talent.

(Spoiler alert: this upcoming class isn’t as deep as last year’s.) So it’s very possible the Giants don’t draft a quarterback in the first round and instead go for a younger veteran.

The results indicate they’re not, but that can be deceiving. I think–and I know this will sound weird–that the worst thing that has happened to this team under the Schoen-Daboll regime was that first season in which they went to the playoffs. 

I think that masked many roster issues and prompted them to make moves that I’m fairly certain they wouldn’t have made (Darren Waller trade, Daniel Jones contract) had they not gone to the postseason. 

You can argue how last year was supposed to be like the first year of this regime, though the injuries they had last year didn’t help in terms of clarity. 

That said, Schoen and Daboll have built a nice foundation here; they just need a few more pieces before the arrow points in the right direction.

I’ll point to two stats within the salary cap picture as the reason why: reserve list and dead money. If you rank in the top 10 in one or both of those categories, that usually means you have players whose salaries are on your books that are not contributing either because they’re hurt or because they’re no longer with the team.

Looking at 2022-2024 (the Schoen-Daboll era), the Giants were sixth in reserve lists payouts and 22nd in dead money in 2022; 11th in reserve list and ninth in dead money in 2023; and are currently 29th in reserve list payouts and sixth in dead money.

You can’t necessarily plan for injuries, but dead money is something you can control, and the way to control it is not to push cap money into future years. Unfortunately, when you get into that cycle where you have to restructure deals every year to create more space, that all eventually catches up to you.

How do you justify trading a talented player like Azeez Ojulari? When the Giants were good, they had Strahan and Osi at DE, yet instead of trading Justin Tuck, they signed him mid-season to an extension. 

That is how you build a winning team, by keeping talented players, not trading them away for “possibilities” We’ve seen how draft picks are a crap shoot, see Evan Neal, Jalin Hyatt, etc. So again, I am curious about the justification. – Richard G.

Easy. You get draft picks for a guy who likely isn’t in your plans that you can use next year. You can then use those picks to move up the board in the earlier rounds. Your logic suggests that this team shouldn’t even bother drafting players. 

Secondly, you’re assuming that both sides want each other. You don’t think a young pass rusher like Azeez Ojualri won’t get a handsome payday next year? And there is no guarantee of getting a comp pick, either. So you get what you can or them if the price is right.

What you don’t do–and every time I saw this proposal, it drove me crazy–is trade away your core foundation pieces like Dexter Lawrence or Bobby Okereke. But for guys in the final year of their contract and are unlikely to be back, you make the move if you get a good deal from another team.

Should the Giants have released Daniel Jones and used the money to sign Barkley, McKinney, and a journeyman quarterback? – Bob C.

No. Jones was owed $36 million in guaranteed money this year, regardless of whether he was on the roster. There was no way this team was cutting him.

Why not put in Tommy Devito, who would rally the fans and at least have some fun? With great fan support, he could develop into their starting quarterback. – Walter W.

Would he really, Walter? If they thought DeVito could develop into a starting quarterback, then why did they bench him last year for Tyrod Taylor after they were eliminated from playoff contention instead of allowing him to continue to develop?

Looking on Spotrac, the Giants currently have ~$44M free cap space with only $5M dead cap. If (when?) Daniel Jones is cut, which would go up to ~$63M free and $27M dead cap, or 44M for free agency + ~$30M that frees up after 6/1 if they use that designation. Then $63M (or even 44M if they kept DJ for some reason) should be more than enough cap to handle all their short-term needs unless I’m missing something.

Also, Schoen avoids using void years. Do you think that is his cap management philosophy? Or is it just a tactical move to clear all the dead cap money from the previous regime? — Daniel P.

Daniel, let me address your second question about voidable years. Voidable years are a way to inflate the signing bonus while lessening the hit on your cap. It’s not recommended to go nuts with voidable years unless you have a superstar on your roster–guys like Andrew Thomas or Dexter Lawrence, for example–who receive large signing bonuses. 

(Note: That’s why you try to work with roster bonuses where possible, as that lets you ease up on the signing bonuses.)

When you throw in voidable years and cut that player, depending on when you take the cut, the remaining prorated funds either accelerate into the current cap as dead money or, if you make him a post-June 1 transaction, you get to spread out the remaining proration over two years. 

(Note: see my response later in this column about dead money and reserve money and their toll on a team’s salary cap). 

Okay, now for the cap question. You are looking at the total space and not the effective cap space, of which Over the Cap has the Giants with $29.564 million. The effective cap space is the amount under the cap a team has for its Top 51 and its annual draft class. 

(The Top 51 begins on the first day of the new league year–this is how teams can afford to carry 90-man rosters in the offseason through training camp.) 

Also, according to Over the Cap, the Giants have 37 players under contract for 2025, meaning they have room for 14 more players under the Top 51 with varying salaries. Per Spotrac, the minimum salary for a player in 2025 is $840K. 

So, for argument’s sake, the Giants added 14 players at that minimum. That comes to $11.760 million and knocks the projected effective cap space (based on what it’s projected to be as of this writing) down to $17.8 million. 

If you cut Daniel Jones and make him a standard transaction (pre-June 1), you’ll have to eat $22.21 million in dead money while saving $19.35 million.  

Granted, the 2025 cap is projected to be $272.5 million per team plus whatever carry-over they have from this year. In 2024, the cap took a bigger-than-expected jump to $255.4 million, so it’s certainly possible that next year’s cap will do the same. 

But working with the information we have–which again is fluid–this is why, as of right now, I have some concerns about the cap, though I suspect that in addition to Jones, there could be a few other cost-cutting moves made before the start of the 2025 league year. 

But I also can’t help but wonder if there will be some contracts restructured to make more room, which as Joe Schoen has said in the past, you don’t want to get into the habit of doing frequently given the impact on future cap years.