DRC-YA LATER Giants jettison CB after pay-cut refusal
At the bye week last season, a proposal from the Giants coaching realm was suggested to the front office: The team is sagging and needs change. How about cutting Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Brad Wing and Bobby Hart? It would have sent a message to the team: Poor performance or bad attitude means you are not safe.
No, we will not do that, was the reply.
Five months later, all three are gone. The most recent to go is Rodgers-Cromartie, the veteran cornerback, who will not return to complete the fifth and final year of his contract. The Giants asked him to take a significant cut in pay from the $6.48 million salary he was scheduled to receive in 2018. Rodgers-Cromartie balked at that and Sunday his contract was terminated. Suddenly, the locker room is devoid of one of the team’s most popular players, especially to younger defensive backs who came to view him as a supercool older brother.
Rodgers-Cromartie confirmed the move on Twitter, posting, “Once a Giant always a Giant, right. Thanks for everything, Ima miss my dogs but y’all know me, SEE BALL, GET BALL!!!’’
Not long after Dave Gettleman took over as general manager, his first player transaction was to get rid of Hart, the young but inconsistent right tackle who was deemed to lack the professionalism needed to succeed as an NFL offensive lineman. On Saturday, the Giants released Wing, who was an excellent punter for two seasons but regressed badly in 2017. Now Rodgers-Cromartie is gone.
This new coaching staff would have taken Rodgers-Cromartie back, but not for the price tag he carried. He had a salary-cap hit of $8.5 million and his release will save the Giants $6.5 million on the cap. Heading into free agency, the Giants were only about $14 million under the cap, with many holes to fill. This inflates the cap money to about $20 million and the Giants are likely not done paring their roster. Brandon Marshall, the veteran receiver coming off ankle surgery, could be next to go if he does not accept a pay cut.
Reports surfaced at the NFL Scouting Combine that the Giants were moving Rodgers-Cromartie to safety, but those reports proved false. A 10year NFL veteran, Rodgers-Cromartie, who turns 32 on April 7, was moved from his preferred outside cornerback spot in 2016 to the inside slot corner role to accommodate rookie Eli Apple — a move many of his teammates did not understand or appreciate, given Apple’s many lapses. Rodgers-Cromartie put together an outstanding 2016 season for the resurgent Giants defense but nothing worked nearly as well in 2017. Rodgers-Cromartie was suspended one game by former coach Ben McAdoo after walking out of the team facility one day without permission. Rodgers-Cromartie was told he would be benched for the game against the Seahawks for his actions — storming off the field during the loss to the Chargers — and reacted by leaving the building.
After he returned from the suspension, Rodgers-Cromartie’s attitude improved greatly and he was one of the most team-oriented players in the locker room as the Giants continued their losing ways in a 3-13 season.
Defensive tackle Damon Harrison took to Twitter to decry the news of Rodgers-Cromartie’s release: “The realest in the building in East Rutherford. Wow. There isn’t a lot of [people] across the league like him. A baller and a real one.’’ Receiver Roger Lewis on Twitter called RodgersCromartie “One of the realist people ever met in life, helped my game grow with him giving the knowledge he knows.’’
The Giants are now in need of help at cornerback, with Janoris Jenkins and Apple their two starters — if Apple shows enough maturity to handle the job. They could re-sign Ross Cockrell, one of their 19 unrestricted free agents, as Cockrell played reasonably well when forced onto the field last season.