New additions to Giants' 90-man roster, and cuts to accompany them along with their estimated & projected cap numbers

Rookie mini-camp concludes today, and with it's conclusion comes news of cuts and signings that accompany it's ending. The Giant's 90-man roster (click HERE for it) reflects changes in 6 roster spots, with the following players being cut (keep in mind that none of these moves will be official until tomorrow):

Since none of the six aforementioned players who were cut fall into the category of the top 51 cap numbers on the club's roster at present, they do not count towards the Giants' salary cap. Charles Dieuseul and Marcus Davis were signed as undrafted rookie free agents two weekends ago at the conclusion of the 2013 NFL Draft. However, over the course of the rookie mini-camp they did not stick.

A cursory evaluation indicates that Dieuseul was replaced on the 90-man roster by vet LB Aaron Curry, and that WR Marcus Davis was beaten out at his position by Jeremy Horne, who spent some time in 2010 and 2011 with Todd Haley's Kansas City Chiefs. This is interesting to note since it was reported that Davis received a $15,000 signing bonus just to sign with the Giants. Davis had a reputation for disappointing play at times during his collegiate career; it looks as if he he got outplayed for a roster spot over the past 2 days by Horne.

WR Jeremy Horne out of UMass--Victor Cruz's alma matter--was cut in August of 2012 ("Chiefs cut Jeremy Horne to get down to 75 players on their roster"). According to pro-football-reference.com, he only appeared in three games in 2010, and nine in 2011. Under the new CBA (click HERE for it), agreed upon in 2011, players need 6 games on the active 53-man roster to qualify for an accrued season. See section 8, article 1 below for reference:

He did not gain enough credit to garner an accrued season in 2010, thereby making him a player with only one accrued season's worth of experience under his belt instead of two, even though he spent time on the Chiefs' practice squad in 2010.






 The new additions are as follows (along with Aaron Curry).

These 6 new additions include two Undrafted Rookie Free Agents (UDFAs): Junior Mertile from Florida International--teammate of highly regarded Jaguars' 2nd round draft pick Safety Jonathan Cyprien--and Safety/LB John Stevenson out of Georgia Southern. Listed below are articles about both Mertile and Stevenson:

Junior Mertile article
John Stevenson article


The years of accrued experience are listed next to the new roster additions. Neither Mertile, nor Stevenson count towards the Giants' cap at the moment since they do not fall into their top 51 cap numbers. The same applies to veteran DT Frank Okam, originally a fifth round draft pick of the Houston Texans who didn't play last year; WR Jeremy Horne out of UMass mentioned earlier in this post who like Okam, also didn't make a team last year (he was cut in late August by Kansas City, as noted above); and first round bust Aaron Curry (assuming he gets no signing bonus). Veteran TE Michael Palmer is a different story however.

Palmer has 3 years worth of accrued experience with the Atlanta Falcons, which means that without any bonus money, he would be getting a bare-bones veteran minimum contract of $630,000 if he makes the team. He counts against the salary cap now since his cap number fits into the Top 51 contracts presently on the team's roster. The difference between his cap number and the 51st ranked cap number on the roster would then be subtracted from the Giant's overal cap number to determine the new adjusted cap number.

Check out this great article on Rookie Contract Sticking Points, and how it effects the Giants' unsigned draft picks

"A Primer on Some Rookie Contract Negotiating Sticking Points " by Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com | May 10, 2013

The article linked above is from the best salary cap website there is: overthecap.com. I recommend this website to everyone who reads this blog who is fascinated about the inner-workings of the salary cap. Jason Fitzgerald runs overthecap.com' please support him and his great work on that website by clicking the link above. You won't regret it.

Now, on to Giants business. Yesterday we saw 4 of the Giants' 7 draft picks from last month's draft sign contracts with the Giants. They are as follows:

2nd round pick Johnathan Hankins, DT (Ohio State)
3rd round pick Damontre Moore , DE (Texas A&M)
5th round pick Cooper Taylor, S (Richmond)
7th round pick--second 7th rounder--Michael Cox, RB (Massachusetts)

The players who remain unsigned are as follows:

1st round pick Justin Pugh, OT/OG (Syracuse)
4th round pick Ryan Nassib, QB (Syracuse)
7th round pick--first 7th rounder--Eric Herman, OG (Ohio)

What are the issues with the Giants?

We should see a quick resolution to remaining unsigned players since their salaries are basically slotted. Jason Fitzgerald points out in the article above that picks 17 to 22 will have only a partially guaranteed salary in the 4th year of their deals. This is applicable to Justin Pugh since he was the 19th overall pick in the first round.

The issue with 4th round pick Ryan Nassib, and 7th round pick Eric Herman will be salary splits. Salary splits are essentially protection for the club if the player(s) in question winds up on Injured Reserve. What happens is that players get paid less than their base salary of $405,000 if they get hurt. It applies differently to players in rounds 3 through 7. The players drafted in round 3 will have less of an issue to deal with regarding splits than their counterparts drafted in round 7.

Players drafted in round 7, like Eric Herman, will have to deal with salary splits for both the full 2013 and 2014 seasons, whereas a player drafted in the 3rd round, like Damontre Moore, will probably only deal with the possibility of a salary split for the preseason of his rookie year, in 2013. Basically, a guy like Moore is in a better position to deal with getting his full salary if he's injured than a guy like Herman. If a player like Herman gets hurt in the regular season of his rookie year, like last year's 7th round pick did (Markus Kuhn), the salary split would be in effect. This would mean that he'd get less than his base salary. Jason points out the figure of $288,000 in the article above as the number that a salary would be reduced to if a split is in effect. This is cut and dry with a guy like Herman, which is why his deal won't take long to get reached, especially since the Giants' other 7th round pick--Michael Cox, who was chose 28 picks after Herman with the penultimate pick of the entire draft already signed. Herman really has no ground to stand on when it comes to negotiating his rookie contract; however, 4th round pick Ryan Nassib, is another issue.

Jason points out in the subsection of the article above titled "Split Salaries" that players drafted in the 4th round, like Nassib "should fight hard to for only having a split salary in 2013 rather than both years. Doesn’t mean it will happen but its worth an extra day or two of fighting with the team." This is probably why he hasn't signed yet. The idea that Nassib probably thinks that he should have been picked in a higher round might also play into his agent's negotiating with the Giants' Kevin Abrams regarding salary splits for 2013 and 2014. Nassib's agent will probably only argue for 2013, whereas the Giants might argue for both 2013 and 2014, or something along those lines. Either way, none of this should linger. I'd be surprised if Herman and Nassib aren't signed in the next couple of weeks, unless they have issues at school. Pugh's agent might wait a little before his client signs on the dotted line (sometime in June at the latest), but that shouldn't be an issue either, especially since he has a good chance to start on this year's offensive line.

What's the potential impact of the Aaron Curry signing on the Giants' salary cap?

•With the Curry signing, the 51st cap number will be displaced if he received a $65,000 signing bonus.
•That 51st ranked cap number, if displaced, belongs to OL Brandon Mosley, and amounts to $555,146.


•Curry has 4 years of accrued experience.
•I'm assuming for the sake of this post that Curry got the Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) deal, to go along with a bonus that the Giants have given to 9 other vets with 4 or more years worth of experience---the most in the league.

•Whether or not Curry received that $65,000 signing bonus is a point of contention until it is found out for sure (this is a speculative post by it's very nature).
•If Curry did not receive this bonus, then his cap number would not fall into the Giants' top 51 cap numbers, thereby not making him count towards the cap at this time since the "Top 51" rule is in effect until the first game of the regular season begins in September. 

•The $555,000 MSB plus a $65,000 bonus equals a cap hit of $620,000.
•Subtract $555,146 from $620,000 and you wind up with $64,854.

•This figure of $64,854 would then be subtracted from the total cap number as well.
•If Curry's cap number is indeed in the top 51 on the team's roster, then the Giants' official cap number will change on Monday after they cut a player to get back to the 90 roster limit.

•They're over that number by one now, but since the signing occurred after 4 pm on a Friday, as per Ralph Vacchiano, the Giants have until Monday (which is May 13th) to announce who it is that they cut in order to sign Aaron Curry.



•At that point, the Giants' cap number would decrease by $64,854.
•It would go from being $3,927,958 to $3,863,104--pending any other signings who would count towards the salary cap.
•As stated above, if Curry's signing does not include the $65K signing bonus mentioned above, the his cap number will simply be $555,000 and will not count towards the Giants' salary cap at this time on account of the "Top 51" rule being in effect.

What happens when the Top 51 rule ceases?

•The "Top 51" Rule is in effect from the time time the season ends to when the next regular season begins.

•Once the regular season begins on Sunday, September 8th, 2013, the "Top 51 rule" will cease.

•When the regular season begins the Giants, and all other clubs in the league, will have to be cap compliant with respect to the following mandatory things:

I. They must make room for the cap numbers that belong to players 52 and 53 on the 53-man roster.

II.They must also make room for the players on the 8 man practice squad.

•The last two guys at the back end of the 53-man roster will probably be rookies making something around the absolute league minimum of $405,000, so after you multiply that figure by 2, you'll have to create another $810,000 in cap space when it's time to begin the season.

•As far as the Practice squaders are concerned, they make $6,000 a week (1 player making that rate x 17 weeks = $96,900---Multiply that by 8 players and you get $775,200).

•If you add the CAP HIT money for the last 2 men on the 53-man roster and the practice squad, you get another $1,585,200 that you have to account for AT MINIMUM when the bullets start flying again.

•It should be noted, however, that teams are allowed to pay their pay their "taxi squaders" more than the weekly rate of $5,700 if they so choose.

•Tampa Bay's Markus White earned well over the $96,900 figure noted above (see the quote below).

"Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Markus White is currently (beginning the 2012 season) the NFL's highest-paid player on a practice squad, earning $17,647 per week, or $300,000 over the season. (see the article below):

•The Patriots are an example of a team that pays their practice squaders generously, as indicated in the article below.

 

•New England Patriots have top-paid NFL practice squad" by Brian McIntyre, Around the League writer | Published: Sept. 7, 2012 at 12:18 a.m. | Updated: Sept. 7, 2012 at 07:52 a.m.

•The Giants will need to make about $1 million in room for injury settlements as well that inevitably occur in training camp as well as players who go on IR (hopefully not too many).

•The Giants will also need to clear some "fudge money" too later on this offseason; this is 1 to 2 million dollars left over in cap space which the Giants can use in case of an emergency.

•If you add this 2 to 3 million dollars to the amount mentioned of $1,585,200 for the last 2 men on the 53-man roster and the practice squad, then there will be between $3,585,200 and $4,585,200 that the Giants will have to be prepared to make room for under the cap when the season begins.

•As of this moment, the Giants are $3,927,958 (not including the Aaron Curry signing announced a few hours ago).
•If you take into account the rookie signings (mentioned in another post), the Giants' cap number will be $2,754,977.

•If you subtract the low end number of $3,585,200 from the Giants' adjusted rookie cap number of  $2,754,977 after signing all their rookies (of which they have signed 4 today: Hankins, Moore, Taylor, & Cox), you'll get -$830,223.

•This means that the Giants are going to have to make another $830,223 to $1,830,223 in cap room by the time the regular season starts.

•Don't forget that this figure does not include any further free agent signings, which are likely; we already saw one today in Aaron Curry.
•I wouldn't be surprised if we see at least 1 more before the season starts.
•None of this has to do with a potential new deal with Victor Cruz, but that's a topic for another post...