The New York Giants made a splash in free agency early on this offseason, spending a majority of their available cap in the first day of legal tampering. They gained several quality players, but it seems like GM Dave Gettleman and HC Joe Judge took a different approach to their signings this year.
Judge seems to have affected the way the Giants go about things, as they signed a number of tier-2/3 players with front-loaded contracts to ensure they can get out of them after two seasons. Their biggest free-agent signings, James Bradberry and Blake Martinez, are both on three-year deals with heavy dead-cap hits early on. What does this mean? It means the Giants brass don’t consider their team a winning one just yet.
Having made no big splashes in free agency on players like Byron Jones and Jadeveon Clowney, either they don’t believe it’s necessary to spend big money on single players during a rebuild, or they have adopted a different model, similar to New England.
However, recent moves might have changed their draft plans: Signing Fleming ‘could’ indicate that a position battle between the former Cowboy and Nick Gates could ensue. This would open up the ability for the Giants to land a player like Isaiah Simmons in the draft and land a tackle in the second round (develop for a year since both Fleming and Gates are on one-year deals).
New York Giants have made a series of smaller moves:
On Wednesday night, Big Blue signed Dallas Cowboys’ offensive tackle, Cameron Fleming, who serves as a swing option, starting 26 games throughout the course of his career. Fleming also spent time in New England when Joe Judge featured as the special team’s coach. Factor in his connection with Jason Garrett and Marc Colombo and you can justify this signing. The deal is one-year for up to $4 million.
The Giants also landed special teams ace, Nate Ebner, who is also a safety by trade. Judge is very familiar with Ebner and his abilities, having coached him the past several seasons. It’s seeming like the Giants might elect to let Michael Thomas go and make a change with their personnel. Thomas is also a great special teams player and would be deserving of another contract.