Giants place franchise tag on Williams again
For the second straight year, the Giants are keeping Leonard Williams off the free-agent market.
The team announced Tuesday that it placed the non-exclusive franchise tag on the defensive lineman again. It had until 4 p.m. to do so.
Williams was slated to become an unrestricted free agent March 17, but now any other team that wants to sign the 26-year-old would have to give the Giants two first-round draft picks as compensation — essentially ensuring Williams isn’t leaving New York.
The Giants have until July 15 to come to a long-term contract agreement with Williams. Otherwise he will play the 2021 season on the one-year tag, which would be approximately $19.4 million against the salary cap. But if Williams wins his ongoing position grievance to be classified as a defensive end rather than a tackle, that number would jump to $21.3 million.
The Giants are very much motivated to negotiate a longterm deal with a lower annual salary because the 2021 cap is projected to be about $183 million — about $27 million lower than was projected before the
COVID-19 pandemic impacted the NFL.
“Obviously it certainly makes it a little more difficult, but we’ll operate and we’ll manage,” general manager Dave Gettleman said Tuesday of Williams’ potentially lucrative salary impacting the Giants’ free agency plans.
It won’t be easy, though, because the Giants are currently projected to have about $11 million in cap space entering free agency — only seven teams have less — without accounting for potential roster cuts.
The Giants failed to come to an agreement with Williams last offseason, which burned them in the long run because Williams’ price tag went up after he delivered a career-high 11.5 sacks last season.
Whatever happens, the Giants desperately needed Williams back in the mix because he’s a key part of a pass rush that’s still in a rebuilding phase.
Attention now turns to free agency and the draft, which are particularly crucial in what is a make-or-break fourth season at the helm for Gettleman. He said the Giants started video interviewing three draft prospects per day on average, which has become the norm in a world still coping with the coronavirus.
As much as fans may like to see the team splurge on playmakers at wide receiver, edge rusher and cornerback — arguably the Giants’ most pressing needs — head coach Joe Judge reiterated Tuesday that the process is not that simple.
“The reality is it’s not fantasy football,” Judge said. “You can’t just grab a player, put him on your team and think everything’s going to work out. It has to be the right fit for your team going forward, and that’s a fit culturally and a fit schematically.”
Judge’s regime wants to build the franchise the right way for sustainable winning, but there’s a fine line because ownership is tired of losing. Six wins in 2020 was merely incremental improvement from the previous three seasons, so a big jump next season should be a priority.
Judge and Gettleman offered few hints on the team’s plans for tweaking the roster. One of the most notable comments, though, came from Judge when asked specifically about Evan Engram. There’s been speculation that the Giants could move on from the fifth-year tight end and draft Florida’s Kyle Pitts with the No. 11 pick, but that appears unlikely.
“I love Evan. I have a ton of confidence in Evan,” Judge said. “He’s fun to coach, the guys have fun playing with him, he gives everyone in the locker room a ton of confidence. This guy goes out there every day and this guy works tirelessly, I mean tirelessly. This guy is a tank every day, so in terms of confidence within the program, absolutely we have confidence in him, 100 percent. He’s a guy that obviously we have to keep continuing to feature in the offense.”
On the other hand, Nate Solder could indeed become a cap casualty. The 32-year-old left tackle reportedly intends to play in 2021 after opting out of the 2020 season, but the Giants can create $6 million in cap space by releasing Solder.
Gettleman indicated Solder may not be in the Giants’ plans when asked if he’s comfortable with Andrew Thomas, a firstround pick last year, and Matt Peart, another rookie who played limited snaps in 2020, as the team’s starting tackles.
“I am, yes,” Gettleman said before later adding regarding the offensive line, “They’re young and they’re talented, and things take time.”
One player the Giants may lose unwillingly is Dalvin Tomlinson, who is set to be one of the top nose tackles on the market. He’s started 64 straight games in New York as a key run stuffer to begin his career, but Williams’ contract and other needs could prevent the Giants
from having enough financial flexibility to re-sign him.
“We’d love to have all of our guys back,” Judge said. “There’s a process every team has to go through this time of year through free agency, and all that stuff will be addressed when the time comes.”
Judge also addressed a few coaching staff changes, most notably on the offensive line.
The Giants hired longtime college assistant Rob Sale, who has no prior NFL experience, as offensive line coach. The 42-year-old previously worked with Judge at Alabama from 2009-11. Sale will be assisted by new consultant Pat Flaherty,
who was the Giants’ offensive line coach under Tom Coughlin from 2004-15.
That’s in addition to returning assistant offensive line coach Ben Wilkerson and senior offensive assistant Freddie Kitchens, who coached the tight ends last season and will now be working primarily with the line.
“I think Freddie is going to be an asset up front working directly with them and helping bring together the game planning, like all of our coaches will, but working directly with (offensive coordinator) Jason (Garrett) with some of the things that are going to happen up front,” Judge said.
ATLANTIC CITY » Behind by double digits in the second half of its Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament firstround game, the Rider men’s basketball team never lost belief.
“We got this,” players kept saying in the team huddle.
Despite what has been a down season overall, the Broncs are still alive in Atlantic City.
“We’ve been a 30-minute team a lot this year and it’s the reason why we haven’t won nearly as many games,” coach Kevin Baggett said. “This group is still trying to learn how to close out games, trying to learn how to play defense, trying to learn how to communicate better.”
The victory on Monday night over Canisius that advanced Rider to the quarterfinal round against Saint Peter’s on Thursday was a thrilling moment in a season short of them.
“We can play with anybody,” said junior guard Dwight Murray Jr., who scored 22 points and assisted Dontrell McQuarter for the winning basket with 28.3 seconds left. “I knew we were a great team, we just needed to learn how to play together.”
Murray was left off the AllMAAC first team despite ranking third in the league in scoring, 10th in rebounding and second in assists. That snub was presumably because Rider slumped to a last-place finish.
“It just gives him something to prove that he belongs,” Baggett said. “He’s made first team all-conference plays for us. It’s unfortunate, but it’s motivation.”
Murray said the Broncs were able to close out Monday’s win because they finally played team defense. That end of the court has been leaky all season, with the team’s defensive efficiency ranking near the bottom of Division I.
“We knew that we could have been up a couple times, but we just weren’t playing defense at the time,” Murray said. “When we would, we wouldn’t get the rebound. Coach was telling us in the huddle that we have to get the rebound, we have to play defense because we’re scoring easily. The last seven minutes, that’s when we started playing defense, talking on the court and started playing together.”
Baggett also had his side pick up full court to take Canisius out of rhythm and prevent it from getting into clean offensive sets.
“We just kept re-emphasizing that if you would talk on defense, call out some of the screens
— some of the back screens, in particular, that were hurting us
— and have a little bit more ball pressure you don’t allow them to be comfortable in what they’re doing,” Baggett said.
“We started pressing a little bit, forcing the tempo and forcing those guys to (have) a shorter clock by not letting them
get into their offense nearly as long. We got a few turnovers out of it, we got them sped up to take quick shots. Anytime you can throw them out of their rhythm, I thought it gave us an opportunity to get down and be able to get some baskets. We finally got some transition layups and shots, so that always helps when you don’t have to grind in the half court.”
Now it’s on to the quarterfinals, the round that has stumped the Broncs for years. They haven’t advanced out of the quarters since 2010-11 and Baggett is 0-7 all-time at this stage of the tournament.
“I don’t think anybody is scared,” Murray said.