LINE CHANGE
The Jets could have a totally new offensive line when the 2020 season begins
INDIANAPOLIS — Dave Gettleman is the Giants’ GM, but there is a sense here at the NFL Scouting Combine that coach Joe Judge will have a strong voice in personnel discussions to attempt a makeover of this flawed team.
Another way of saying that is that the Giants hired Judge because they believe in him. And so the organization, from co-owner John Mara to Gettleman on down, is therefore wide open to empowering and supporting his vision of how the 2020 Giants should look.
Wednesday’s releases of veteran linebackers Alec Ogletree and Kareem Martin were good signs, then, that the new coach clearly saw his most obvious opportunities to cut underperformers while also clearing $13 million in cap space.
They were demonstrations of Judge going full steam ahead on making unemotional decisions in the best interest of his roster, either cutting a backup like Martin or a captain like Ogletree.
Judge already is setting a grueling, yet exciting, tone for the Giants this week in Indy, in fact, even after confounding the public on Tuesday by refusing to mention any of his players’ names.
The coach is working practically non-stop himself. He is expecting the same from his staffers. And he has them working smartly, too.
He might have some assistants skip sitting idle at player weigh-ins one morning, for example, since they can meet or watch film instead at that time, accomplish more work, and still double back later on the eye tests and measurements necessary to complete their evaluations.
Judge’s directed, detailed, no-nonsense approach is generating internal enthusiasm for what the Giants could turn into under his leadership.
While Tuesday’s press conference evoked Judge’s former New England employer Bill Belichick, in fact, one person also used Tom Coughlin’s name to laud and describe how Judge is setting high expectations in a demanding but promising fashion.
It is still early, and Judge’s reluctance to even say the names of players like Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley has created plenty of questions about whether such a Belichickian tactic to promote the greater group will work.
But the focus isn’t on Judge’s returning players now; it’s on the free agents that he and Gettleman are about to re-sign or pursue with their ample cap space.
Cutting Ogletree saves the Giants $8.25 million. He was acquired from the Rams by Gettleman for fourth- and sixth-round picks in 2018.
Cutting Martin saves them $4.8 million. Gettleman signed him to a threeyear, $15 million deal in 2018. The team retains just $4.6 million in dead money for 2020 due to both moves.
The Giants’ projected available cap space jumps, then, from $61.9 million to $74.95 million, per overthecap.com. And that matters because NFL teams expect this free agency period to be especially expensive.
“Everybody fell off their chair when the first $20 million (per year) position players started,” Gettleman said Tuesday. “Let me tell you something: It’s not going to be just pass rushers. Now it’s going to be other positions. They’re going to jump up because there’s so much money.”
Factor in the Giants’ draft class costing them a projected $13.09 million, per overthecap — plus around $20 million Gettleman wants available in-season for rainy days and re-signings — and that brings the Giants’ total cap number down to $41.86 million.
That’s still a lot, but it’s far from unlimited. And Mara believes in building through the draft and supplementing through free agency. So the Giants intend to be selective and smart.
That’s where it will be interesting to watch Judge’s influence on how they proceed with his seat at the personnel table.
If free agent Leonard Williams walks, for example, Gettleman knows he will get crushed publicly for dealing third-and-fifth-round picks to watch him play eight games for a 4-12 team.
“Oh, absolutely. I’ll get killed. I have thick, rhino hide,” Gettleman said Tuesday.
But Judge’s Giants are not going to re-sign a player to save face. They’re only going to do it if it’s at the right price and it makes the team better. And so if the market for Williams gets too pricey, I’d fully expect Judge to cut the club’s losses and move on.
They’ll certainly pursue pass rushers
on the edge, looking to both spend big and possibly find bargains. The Jaguars’ Yannick Ngakoue, the Seahawks’ Jadeveon Clowney, and the Ravens’ Matt Judon are big names headed to the market, pending teams’ use of the franchise tag.
A player like the Falcons’ Vic Beasley maybe could come available on a shortterm, high-salary prove-it deal. Familiar and reliable faces like the Patriots’ Kyle Van Noy are targets, too, though again, remember teams are expecting everyone to cost some extra coin this year.
And the Giants’ own Markus Golden could price himself out of town if he commands top pass-rusher money and the Giants are looking for him to be their No. 2 and pay him like it.
They’ll have to assess the risk of overpaying for players at certain positions of need. Judge will have a strong voice behind the scenes, though, just as he did publicly in Tuesday’s NFL Combine state of the union. And his plan promises to shape how Gettleman and the Giants operate in these next few weeks.