Big Blue says DRC ya later to veteran corner, saving $6.5M
THE Giants on Sunday released veteran corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, a move that saves the team $6.5 million against its 2018 salary cap, upping its available space to around $26.5 million entering the free agency negotiation period on Monday. Cutting Rodgers-Cromartie, a versatile defensive back who had played both the outside and slot corner positions and safety,
also thrusts the Giants into the free agent/draft markets for corner depth and perhaps for starters, too, depending on how they proceed with Janoris Jenkins and Eli Apple. Ross Cockrell is a Giants free agent DB who came on strong as a starter late last season and the club should re-sign him.
Rodgers-Cromartie became the second Giant released in as many days after punter Brad Wing was cut on Saturday, saving the Giants just over $1 million against the 2018 cap.
The Daily News confirmed Sunday morning that Rodgers Cromartie had been informed of his imminent release, news first reported by ESPN. Rodgers Cromartie then confirmed his departure on Instagram before the Giants officially announced the termination of his contract in the early afternoon.
“Once a giant always a giants right,” Rodgers-Cromartie typed on his @humblecro Instagram account, with a smiley face wearing sunglasses, below a photo of him warming up on the MetLife Stadium field before a past Giants game. “Thanks for everything, Ima miss my dogs but y’all knw (sic) me, SEE BALL GET BALL!!!”
Rodgers-Cromartie, who turns 32 on April 7, was a versatile playmaker and popular player the past four seasons in New York. But the Giants, the Daily News has confirmed, asked him to take a pay cut too significant for a player of his talent.
NFL Network first reported the Giants’ request of a pay cut to keep Rodgers-Cromartie in blue.
Rodgers-Cromartie last season was suspended in Week 6 for walking out on then-coach Ben McAdoo after being told he’d be inactive for that weekend’s game in Denver, with the team at 0-5. Rodgers-Cromartie allegedly had broken some team rules late the previous week in practice, before arguing with McAdoo on the sideline over playing time that Sunday in a home game against the Chargers.
But Rodgers-Cromartie later told ESPN that McAdoo’s explanation to him was “BS,” and his frustrations reportedly centered on the coach’s mid-stream and selective changes in rule enforcement. Players such as Odell Beckham Jr. and Ereck Flowers had not been similarly disciplined for more serious transgressions the previous year and a half.
Rodgers-Cromartie was the first of three Giants defensive backs ultimately suspended during the season, followed by Jenkins and Apple, and new Giants GM Dave Gettleman is determined to restore a healthier culture in the locker room headed by new coach Pat Shurmur.