Thursday, July 4, 2013

Giants official cap update for today PLUS some other expectations for the next 3 weeks

The Giants are still $3,308,682 under the salary cap as of today. The source, as usual, for the number given above is as follows: NFLPA Top 51 League Cap Report

Happy 4th of July to everyone out there. There are 22 days left until the start of training camp on July 26th, and there are exactly 63 days (or 9 weeks from today) left until the Top 51 rule expires on Thursday, September 5th at 12:00 am New York time.

The Giants are reportedly thisclose to signing Victor Cruz before the start of training camp. The odds are that they'll officially come to terms at the last minute on July 24th or 25th, so that Cruz's agent (Tom Condon, also the agent for Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning) can get as much as he possibly can out of the Giants before they can start to fine Cruz $30,000 a day for missing training camp if he doesn't report on time on July 26th. Odds are that they'll get it done by then, rendering that type of situation involving the fines moot. Cruz is playing this as expected so far (patiently), as are the Giants.

The Giants will also need to sign their remaining two unsigned draft picks (1st rounder Justin Pugh, and 4th rounder Ryan Nassib). Approximately 87% of the draft picks in the league have signed contracts as of 4 days ago according to this tweet by Ralph Vacchiano:














They'll get these two deals done before the start of training camp, with Pugh's deal being the only one of the two to have an effect on the team's salary cap since we're still in the Top 51 phase of salary cap accounting. Both will count on the Giants' cap though once the Top 51 rule expires on September 5th since Nassib is a shoe-in to make the team, pending an act of God, or a season ending injury during the preseason thereby causing this salary to split.

I would also expect to see a move made by the club with respect to clearing more space under the salary cap before the Cruz signing is announced before the start of training camp. I'd expect to see a restructure done to either Punter Steve Weatherford's contract before that time, and/or Eli Manning's contract at some point in the next 3 weeks before the Cruz deal is finalized and training camp starts.