Giants Will Need to Make More Room Under the Salary Cap

Teams are operating under the Top 51 Rule until 4 pm ET on Wednesday. At midnight ET on Thursday, September 5th, regular season salary cap rules will be in effect. Regular season cap rules will include the following cap expenses besides those which are already in effect that include a team’s top 51 cap numbers:

• The entire 53-man roster will count on the cap instead of just the to 51 cap numbers.
  • at minimum this will take up an extra $810,000 in cap room.

• The Practice Squad will count.
  • at minimum this will count an extra $816,000.

• Players on the Reserve/PUP List
  • Markus Kuhn’s 2013 cap number is $491,474.
  • He very likely has a salary split though which reduces his cap hit $177,000 down to $314,474.

• Players on Injured Reserve.
  • The Giants have two right now: Stevie Brown (his cap number is $2,023,000) & Ramses Barden (who has a cap number of $620,000).
  • Barden is probably going to receive an injury settlement in the coming weeks though instead.
  • Right now, the total amount for the Giants is $2,643,000.

• Players who receive Injury Settlements (see the table of Roster Designation below).
  • Injury Settlements work as stated in the article below:
  • What Exactly are Injury Settlements? – by Jason Fitzgerald of overthecap.com | August 29, 2013
  • The Giants have 8 players who were waived/injured; all of them are going to receive injury settlements.
  • They are Antonio Dennard, Jeremy Horne, Kris Adams, Chris DeGeare, Keith Carlos, Laron Scott, Tyler Sash, & Selvish Capers.

Teams will need to be cap compliant with regular season salary cap rules though by 4 pm ET on Wednesday, when league business hours cease. The Giants will need to make some moves based on the numbers I have below. First here is the Salary Cap breakdown with respect to the Top 51 Rule:

Now here are the Salary Cap Calculation projections with the Regular Season Salary Cap Rules in effect:

There are three prime candidates that can help the Giants out: Chris Snee, Antrel Rolle, & Eli Manning. The Giants could also turn to Justin Tuck & Steve Weatherford, but they are not as ideal. Here are the contractual breakdowns for each of these five players courtesy of the Giants’ salary cap page from overthecap.com (click HERE to see the Giants’ page with the list of each player’s contractual breakdown):

• Justin Tuck is in the last year of his deal, so the Giants’ only option with him would be to tack on a voidable year and create some cap room that way (they gave Osi Umenyiora this kind of deal last year, only not for the puupose of creating cap room), but then that would create Dead Money for the team on it’s 2014 salary cap, so that option is not the best.
• Steve Weatherford’s contract would up to $738,750 in cap room, which wouldn’t be enough for the Giants to get by. It would help, and could be a complimentary option in addition to restructuring another big money player, but is not a primary option to create the necessary $4,158,236 in cap room, although it would reduce the total to $3,419,486 making it easier to restructure the deal of a guy like Snee, Eli, or Rolle.
• Eli Manning’s contract could be restructured or extended to help this year, but it is more likely that the Giants will wait to change his contract around by extending him next year, giving the Giants the much needed room that they will need then to attempt and re-sign players like JPP, Nicks, and Joseph. I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned to Eli for help this year, but I think it’s more likely that they wait until next ear to do so, and instead turn to Snee or Rolle.
• Antrel Rolle is a guy who does not like to get his contract restructured; he hasn’t had it changed since he has signed here a little over 3 years ago, so while he would be an ideal candidate for a restructure, it may not be the most realistic. An extension is possible with him, but may not be optimal due to his age. This then leaves us with one more option: Snee.
• Chris Snee has consistently helped the Giants out in recent years when it comes to restructuring his deal. He did it last year by agreeing to having his contract restructured on September 8th, just before the Top 51 Rule ceased and the Giants’ season opener against Dallas at MetLife Stadium. I think he’s the logical choice to help out again this year.

• Snee/Rolle + Weatherford/Tuck
• Snee + Rolle

All these permutations and combinations are a moot point unless the Giants go to the Bank Eli tomorrow. They could simply restructure or extend his deal now, and gain the room they need as a result. Eli’s cap number of $20,850,00 is by far the highest on the team. He has 3 years left on his deal, including this season, so there’s room for them to work with if they go that route. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next 24 hours or so in this regard. During the season, the Giants can also go back to any of the same players that they restructured before (if they still have enough leeway in their contracts of course), and ask them for more cap help if the need should arise. One way or the other, we’ll see an announcement made about what happens with regards to these possible contractual restructures or extension(s) by Wednesday for sure.