Fixing the New York Giants: An offseason blueprint for Joe Schoen

It’s time to offer the Giants’ GM some roster-building guidance

The NFL Scouting Combine is next week in Indianapolis. That means decision-making season is about to kick off in earnest for the New York Giants and the league’s 31 other teams.

Teams will be interviewing draft prospects, putting them through medical exams and watching them go through athletic testing all week. That, though, won’t be the only business conducted.

We know that Giants’ GM Joe Schoen has said he will speak with Saquon Barkley’s reps to try and work out a contract agreement. The same discussions will likely happen with reps for safety Xavier McKinney. Teams throughout the league will be having those conversations with reps of their own players.

The other dirty little secret that isn’t really a secret is that a lot of the groundwork for free agent deals will be laid in Indianapolis. Deals won’t officially get made, but a whole lot of information about who might be willing to go where, which players teams are interested in, and what certain players are looking for will be exchanged.

So, with all of that said let’s lay out my offseason plan for the Giants. Memo to Schoen: Joe, I’m always here to help. Ring me up anytime. Better yet, I’m happy to offer suggestions over beers at High Velocity in Indy. Oh, and I’d love credit if you use any of my ideas.

Cuts

Shaping the 2024 roster starts with trimming players from the 2023 roster that you don’t want to go forward with.

Cutting veteran guard Mark Glowinski is a no-brainer. The Giants seemed to have little use for Glowinski last year, when they were desperate for decent offensive line play and Glowinski still had guaranteed money on his three-year $18.3 million contract.

The Giants can save $5.7 million against the cap by cutting Glowinski. There seems to be little doubt they will. I would.

A smaller move I would likely make that would save $1.3 million on the cap would be to cut cornerback Aaron Robinson. Want to improve the Giants’ always troublesome injury situation? Stop rostering players who are almost always hurt.

One move I am not making is to release tight end Darren Waller. Yes, Waller is hurt too often. No, he didn’t give the Giants everything they hoped for last season. Yes, cutting Waller would save $6.6 million against the cap.

Who replaces him, though? If you can sign or draft someone to be a pass-catching tight end option I would consider it. Not without filling his role first, though.

Restructures

The Giants currently have $19.462 million in salary cap space per Over The Cap, based on a $242 million 2024 cap. There is some thought the cap might rise as high as $250 million.

The cuts outlined above would save the Giants some cap space. The other way to gain cap space is to restructure contracts, lowering the current cap hit and pushing money into future years.

Schoen is not a big fan of this approach. Neither am I. It is, though, a necessary evil at times in a league with a hard salary cap.

Spotrac lists the following Giants as restructure candidates:

Daniel Jones, Darius Slayton, Andrew Thomas, Dexter Lawrence, Bobby Okereke, Graham Gano.

I am not interested in restructuring Jones’ deal. I don’t want to lengthen my commitment or push more money into the future when he might not be with the team after 2024. I’m also not interested in a Gano restructure, and only peripherally interested in doing so with Slayton.

I would consider restructures for Thomas, Lawrence and Okereke. Those are cornerstone players who will be Giants for at least the next few seasons. Spotrac says the Giants could save as much as $14.4 million in a Thomas restructure, $11.9 million in a Lawrence restructure and $5.4 million in an Okereke restructure.

Those three moves, plus cutting Glowinski, would add roughly $38 million in cap space.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

The quarterback conundrum

I have vacillated throughout the offseason regarding how aggressively the Giants should approach quarterback this offseason. In the end, though, I have to follow my own rules — the Big Blue View rules for draft success.

Rule No. 2 is the one that applies here. That rule?

If you don’t have a franchise quarterback, get one.

I have always supported Daniel Jones. I have always felt he was a better quarterback than he has shown during most of his career. I have always thought the Giants were right to continue to give him opportunities. I still believe the Giants did the right thing a year ago when they gave Jones the four-year, $160 million contract. Sometimes you make the right decision and things still go sideways. That, in my view, is what happened here. It is also why the out in Jones’ contract after two seasons was a smart move by the Giants.

After five seasons it is time to stop arguing about the reasons things have not worked out as hoped with Jones. It is time to simply face that they haven’t, and try to plan for what will come next.

All of that said, let’s get back to rule No. 2:

If you don’t have a franchise quarterback, get one.

The Giants don’t have one. At least not one they can afford to blindly go forward with. At least not one Schoen and Brian Daboll should be willing to bank their Giants legacies on.

The Giants, in my estimation, need to come out of the 2024 NFL Draft with a quarterback they think has a chance to be the guy in a post-Jones era that seems destined to begin in 2025.

This feels like the right time to make a quarterback move.

Jones has one year of guaranteed money left on his contract. He is coming off a season during which he suffered a second neck injury, tore his ACL and played atrociously. He may be capable of being what the Giants saw in 2022, or perhaps better. The 2022 season, though, might be the best it gets for Jones. That’s not going to be good enough, especially with what is now an alarming injury history.

The Giants have the No. 6 overall pick. One of the top three quarterbacks could conceivably fall to them, though that seems unlikely. They have a pair of 2024 second-round picks and could use one or both to move up for one of those three.

They could take one of J.J. McCarthy, Bo Nix or Michael Penix Jr., perhaps even by maneuvering back into the middle or later portions of Round 1. There are some analysts who have a first-round grade on Spencer Rattler.

To this point, I have been reticent to endorse the idea of moving up for a quarterback. I wonder if the Giants, under pressure to win in 2024, can make that move. I have said before that I would want assurances from ownership that 2024 isn’t a win or be fired year before I make that long-term move. The flip side, though, is that if they don’t move for a quarterback this time will Schoen and Daboll ever get the opportunity to draft their guy?

I have to again refer to the rules, which state:

“If you need a franchise quarterback, and you think there is one available when it is your turn to draft and pass on drafting him, shame on you.”

The rules should also state, and will in a future version, that if you need a quarterback and love one no price is too steep to go and get that guy.

The precedent for a move from No. 6 to No. 3, which would guarantee the Giants one of the top three quarterbacks was set in 2018 when the New York Jets gave the Indianapolis Colts three second-round picks (two in 2018, one in 2019) to move up and select Sam Darnold.

That, of course, did not work out. The Jets, though, took the big swing. Which, since they had a conviction about Darnold, they should have.

I would be ecstatic to land either Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye. If it’s me, I try to swing a deal that lets me keep one of the 2024 second-round picks so I can supplement the 2024 team. If the price is too high, or if the pressure to win in 2024 makes taking a quarterback with the first pick untenable, I try to come out of the draft with someone from the McCarthy-Nix-Penix-Rattler group. Full disclosure: The more I watch McCarthy, the more I like and the more I’m convinced he isn’t getting out of the top 10 or 12 picks in the draft.

What to do about Saquon Barkley

I have been over this one a number of times. I would offer Barkley two years, $20-22 million with about $15 million guaranteed, using a void year to lower the cap hit. If he won’t take that, I would let him test free agency with the caveat that he would bring any offers back to the table to see if I wanted to compete with that.

If Barkley gets an offer well above 2/22, I am wishing him well and letting him go. As good as he is, with his injury history and heavy usage over six seasons he is a declining asset. I’m not getting into an expensive bidding war. If the Giants were a team in position to make a Super Bowl run in 2024 I would feel differently. They aren’t.

If Barkley leaves, add a low-cost free agent and a middle round draft pick to 2023 fifth-round pick Eric Gray and go from there.

Re-sign Xavier McKinney?

If I’m the Giants, I don’t want to lose McKinney. He’s talented. He’s young. He’s a home grown second-round pick. When he is playing well, he can be a difference-maker. I also don’t want to pay him top five safety money, meaning $15 million or more. I don’t believe the sum total of his four years with the Giants makes him worth that.

I do like the transition tag idea that has been floated if a deal can’t be reached by March 5. That is a $13.97 million charge against the salary cap rather than the $16.22 million franchise tag.

It tells McKinney that you value him and want to have a chance to keep him. It lets McKinney shop his services to the open market, and it gives the Giants the opportunity to continue negotiating and to match any offer McKinney receives.

What it comes down to is if I can keep McKinney without breaking the bank, I would like to. If someone out there wants him badly enough to pay him $15 million or more per year, so be it.

Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images

Offensive line

However the Giants want to approach reconfiguring their offensive line in 2024 revolves around how they choose to proceed with Evan Neal. Will they give the 2022 No. 7 overall pick one final opportunity to show he can be at least a competent NFL right tackle? Or, will they throw in the towel on that idea and move him inside to guard (probably left guard) in hopes of salvaging something from their use of such high draft capital.

If it’s me, I give Neal one more chance at right tackle. Some of you won’t want to hear it, but I believe injuries made it impossible for Neal to show last season whether or not he had made significant improvement last season. His season was stop and start from the beginning.

I want to give him one more opportunity working with new offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo. That said, I’m not putting all of my right tackle eggs in the Neal basket. I want a better backup plan than the Giants entered last season with. I want a better backup plan than Tyre Phillips, an adequate fill-in but not a guy you want starting week after week.

Maybe that is Jermaine Eluemunor or Mike Onwenu. Sign one in free agency, begin with him at guard and slide him out to tackle if Neal can’t do the job. I would also use a mid-round draft choice on a right tackle. Roger Rosengarten of Washington or Blake Fisher of Notre Dame come to mind as possibilities.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have an issue working Neal some at left guard as soon as he is able to get on the field following his ankle surgery. That is something Justin Pugh recently suggested. If he clearly moves more comfortably there, fine. Still, to do that a solid right tackle option has to be in place.

I would bring back Ben Bredeson in free agency, preferably as a backup at both guard and center, while letting Justin Pugh go. Love the leadership Pugh gave the Giants last season, didn’t like what I saw from him as a player. Pugh wants to believe that a full training camp and some weight gain will help him. Maybe he is right. I’m not sure.

I would try to add guard depth on Day 2 or early Day 3 in the draft, and there are any number of possible choices depending on how the draft falls. I’m a fan of both Christian Haynes of UConn and Christian Mahagony of Boston College.

I would make sure I had a swing tackle I trusted. Maybe Eluemunor could fill that role if signed. The Giants, though, have to do better than Josh Ezeudu, Justin Pugh, Matt Peart if they need a left tackle to fill for Andrew Thomas. I don’t mind bringing Tyre Phillips back to compete as a multi-position reverse. I just want a better right tackle option if Neal moves inside.

My line ends up looking something like Thomas, John Michael Schmitz, Evan Neal, a free agent signing and someone from the group of that would include a draft pick, Ezeudu, McKethan and Bredeson.

If that free agent signing winds up being a true guard like Kevin Dotson or Robert Hunt, I still want to be sure I have a Plan B for Neal at right tackle.

Point is, a lot of resources and attention have to be given to the offensive line. How those get allocated depend on the decision made regarding how Neal will be employed. I am planning as though he is getting one more shot at tackle.

One other thing I want to do: I want the configuration of the line settled long before Week 1. I can appreciate the need for versatility and allowing players to practice at different spots. It was a mistake, though, for the Giants not to decide on their starting offensive line until after the preseason a year ago.

Upgrade the edge

I say this again and again. The Giants need more pass rush, and the best place to get that is from the edge defender position. I’m not waiting around and hoping Azeez Ojulari can have a healthy, productive season.

If new defensive coordinator Shane Bowen is on board, I am making a play for explosive pass rush Bryce Huff of the New York Jets. If I can’t get him, or if Bowen would prefer a more well-rounded if less explosive player, I am making a pitch for Andrew Van Ginkel of the Miami Dolphins.

Van Ginkel, a 2019 fifth-round pick by the Miami Dolphins, will be 29 next season. He is coming off a six-sack, 69 tackle season in 17 games (11 starts) for Miami last season. Remember Kyler Fackrell, who had a nice year for the Giants in 2020? Van Ginkel reminds me of an upgraded version of Fackrell.

Pro Football Focus ranks Van Ginkel as its No. 59 free agent and expects a contract value of two years, $13 million ($6.5 million annually).

PFF says:

Van Ginkel has been a productive player in a rotational capacity and closed out the 2023 season with strong efforts in a bigger role following the Jaelan Phillips loss. Van Ginkel makes up for a slender frame and shorter arms with good burst off the line and plus movement ability in space, but he can get swallowed up by blockers. When he does get a free release upfield, he’ll make the play more often than not in the backfield. Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio asks his outside linebackers to drop in coverage rather frequently, and Van Ginkel was up to the task in 2023, including recording three batted passes and a pick-six against the Washington Commanders after reading a screen perfectly and taking it to the house unassisted.

Get Dex some help

Dexter Lawrence is a great player. He needs help on the interior of the defensive line, though.

I would start by bringing back A’Shawn Robinson on another one-year deal. Robinson gives nothing to the pass rush, but he is a good run defending defensive tackle who played well in 2023.

I would try to sign former Texan Denico Autry. He is 34, and technically an edge defender. He plays with his hand in the ground more often than not, though, at 6-foot-5, 285 pounds. I would bet on the fact that at 34, Autry would take a one-year deal.

That would be worth it. Autry had a career-high 11.5 sacks for Tennessee last season, and has 28.5 sacks over the past three seasons. He is also been a capable run defender.

I would look to use a mid-round draft pick to add to the defensive tackle rotation, as well.

Cornerback

I feel strongly that Tae Banks is going to be an outstanding cornerback for the next several years. The Giants, though, need a quality starter on the opposite side from Banks.

That isn’t, or shouldn’t, be Adoree’ Jackson. Jackson has been a good NFL cornerback for several years, but did not play well in 2023. He gave a 65.9% completion rate, worst full season of his career. He also surrendered a career-worst 13.9 yards per catch and missed 15.7% of his tackles. Of course, those last two numbers may have been caused by the fact that Jackson at times seemed allergic to tackling.

Point is, I’m not spending relatively big money on a 29-year-old cornerback who might be in decline.

Still, though, it feels like a free agent play for a veteran is the right move. The Giants remain optimistic about the future of 2023 sixth-round pick Tre Hawkins III, but I’m not counting on him as a starter. I have doubts, considering the many areas that need to be addressed, about the ability to find a starting-caliber cornerback in the draft.

I think I would target Sean Murphy-Bunting, who played for new defensive coordinator Shane Bowen with the Tennessee Titans last season. Murphy-Bunting will be 27 next season, knows Bowen’s defense, fits the description of a veteran starting cornerback and would ease the transition to Bowen’s scheme.

Murphy-Bunting should not be expensive. Spotrac projects his market value at $13.508 million over two years, $6.7 million annually. Pro Football Focus, which has Murphy-Bunting as its 149th-ranked free agent, expects him to be even cheaper. PFF projects a one-year, $4 million deal.

Murphy-Bunting is not a perfect player. He would, though, bring familiarity with Bowen and buy the Giants time to draft and develop a young player at the position.

A few other things

• In all of my points above, I never addressed wide receiver. If I am at No. 6, though, and not taking a quarterback I am absolutely drafting a wide receiver before Joe Alt or Olu Fashanu. I have no issue with moving guys from left tackle to right tackle, but in a year where wins will matter for Brian Daboll I am not using a rookie conversion project at that spot. I will take the difference-making wide receiver, whether that be Malik Nabers or Rome Odunze, and supplement the line another way.
• If I am running the draft, I am looking to work the board. Up from No. 6 for a QB if it’s the right guy and the right deal. Down a spot or two from No. 6 if it’s not a QB and the return is right. Do what I have to do get a quarterback somewhere along the way if it isn’t at No. 6. In the right spot, I would be comfortable using a Round 2 or Round 3 pick to move down and add assets. Extra swings are always welcome.
• In the grand scheme of things, this is small. The roster, though, needs more NFL-caliber tight ends. You can’t have just two, which is what the Giants had last year with Waller and Daniel Bellinger.
• Whether I keep Barkley or not, I’m adding a better backup to the roster than Matt Breida or Eric Gray.