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.