The New York Giants are in for another wild offseason with the very unpredictable Dave Gettleman as their GM. The currently have in the excess of $69 million in usable salary cap space heading into free agency and that number could grow if they decide to release some veterans.
Here are a few ‘cap causalities’ that we could see over the next two months as we get ready for the league new year on March 18. The NFL waiver system for 2020 begins on February 3. Here’s a quick list of candidates for release from my colleague Chris Bisignano of The Giant Insider.
Four Giants who are in serious danger of getting the axe:
Alec Ogletree …….Dead $3.5 Cap savings $8.25 mill.
Rhett Ellison……….Dead $2.1 Cap savings $5 million
Kareem Martin……Dead $1.1 Cap $4.8
Antoine Bethea…..Dead $125,00 Cap $2.75— The Giant Insider Podcast and Newspaper (@GiantInsider) January 16, 2020
Ogletree is way overpaid at this point and incoming head coach and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will have other ideas about the schemes hey want to run and about the inside linebacker position, which would make Ogletree expendable.
Ellison is coming off a season marred by injury and missed the last six games of the regular season with a concussion. The emergence of rookie Kaden Smith and the steadiness of Scott Simonson as a blocker give the Giants a reason to part ways with Ellison.
Martin has been a non-factor since he was brought in before the 2018 season. His main purpose was to help with the transition to James Bettcher’s system. How did that go?
Bethea will turn 36 right before camp. He played fairly well at times but with all the young bucks in the secondary with a year of service under their belt, he may not be needed going forward. They can always re-sign Michael Thomas if they need an veteran voice in the mix.
Outside of that, there’s no other big ticket names for the Giants to futz with. They are pretty much locked into Nate Solder for one more season (he has a 2020 dead cap hit of $13 million) and Kevin Zeitler and Golden Tate are two players they plan on keeping in the fold for now.