Giants' official salary cap number update & important dates to keep in mind regarding the Victor Cruz situation

As of today, the Giants are officially $3,308,682 under the salary cap. This information is as per the League's Official Top 51 Cap Report.

We'll see how the victor Cruz situation impacts this number going forward if he agrees to a new deal before or right around the start of training camp, which begins on July 26th. the Giants are off until that time, so there will be plenty of time for Cruz and his agent, Tom Condon (who is also Eli Manning's and Tom Coughlin's agent), to talk turkey with the Giants' front office.

If Cruz doesn't report to camp on time, he'll be subject to fines. This is because he is now officially under contract by the team, as a result of his signing his tender for $2,879,000. If Cruz isn't in camp by August 6th, then he will lose a year's worth of eligibility towards unrestricted free agency. This happened to Titans RB Chris Johnson in 2011, even though it didn't really affect him that much. Here's an article about the topic:

"After Tuesday, Training Camp Holdouts Lose Year Toward Free Agency" - by Joel Thorman  @JoelThorman on Aug 9 2011, 10:52 am

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The two dates to keep in mind for Giants fans going forward with respect to this situation are the following:

1. July 26th
• The start of training camp.
• If he does not report on the first day, he'll be subject to $30,000 in daily fines.
2. August 6th
• The date he can lose his eligibility for Unrestricted Free Agency in 2014 if he is not in training camp.

For what it's worth, Joel Corry feels that Victor Cruz will eventually cave in as per this twitter conversation between himself and Patricia Traina:

Odds are that the Giants are going to have to free up some money under the salary cap too, not necessarily for Cruz's new deal, but to give the team more breathing room under the salary cap for when the Top 51 Rule ceases. I addressed this issue a little over a month ago, back on May 10th in this post:
What happens when the Top 51 rule ceases?

I'll say this: I don't think the Giants are going to cave in when it comes to how they're going to go about their business with respect to the Cruz and Nicks situations. They'll set a price, as I wrote about yesterday, and then stick to it pretty closely. If reports are true about the Giants increasing their offer to $8 million while Cruz is looking for $9 million, then salary guarantees, as opposed to bonus money, as Joel Corry states above will be key.

Up until now, I was thinking more about incentives being central to the situation, but what Patricia and Joel are saying about salary guarantees really does make sense when you think about it, since those guarantees are now being used more often, as Joel states. Keep an eye on how this situation changes because I have a hunch--just my opinion--that it'll carry over to the mid to latter part of July.

The Giants were supposedly going to reduce the Cruz tender from $2,879,000 to $630,000

This is according to Aditi Kinhawbala's tweet a short time ago:

Source: https://twitter.com/AKinkhabwala

If this were to have taken place on Monday, then the Giants would have gained $2,249,000 in cap space ($2,879,000 - $630,000). If Cruz's tender amount were to be dropped to $630,000 on Monday, then the Giants' cap number would have jumped from being $3,308,682 to $5,557,682---a much healthier cap figure. Generally speaking, teams with cap figures above $5 million are in good enough shape to begin the regular season since that amount of cap space now corresponds to a good enough number to deal with regular season operational expenses.

Lots of people--including myself--didn't think the Giants would do this, so Cruz's decision to sign the tender today to protect himself in case the Giants did decide to go this route proved the be the correct move (assuming of course that this was going to happen, which we have no way of knowing for sure unless someone in the giants' front office admits to it--which they obviously won't). If the Giants were able to gain this extra cap space, it would have given the Giant a more realistic chance to go after the services of FA Fullback Vonta Leach. Reportedly, the Giants have already told Leach's agent to keep them in the loop regarding his client's situation. If they had this extra room next week, who knows what would have happened on this front.

Going forward, the Giants will have to deal with both of their starting WRs potentially becoming Unrestricted Free Agents after next season if they aren't extended before then. As long as Cruz shows up at the start of training camp on July 26th, he won't be subject to any fines, but if he doesn't then the game could get ugly then. The only reason Cruz wasn't fined for missing OTAs and mini-camp was because he wasn't under contract. Although he counted against the cap at $2.879 M the moment the Giants tendered him, the fact that he didn't sign it protected him from potentially being fined for missing OTAs and mini-camp. Stevie Brown and Andre Brown--the Giants' other two Restricted Free agents this offseason signed theirs after waiting a little but, but had much less leverage then Cruz since they're not considered players with big money potential and were facing stiffly increasing competition in training camp.

Any way you slice it, Cruz will be a Giant in 2013 unless he decides to sit out the upcoming season and forgo a year of fee agency eligibility by not being with the team in training camp 30 days prior to the beginning of the NFL regular season on Thursday, September 5th, something which he will most certainly not do. We'll probably see Cruz with the club by that August 6th Unrestricted free agency eligibility deadline for 2014 for that reason alone. After that though, things may get interesting. We'll wait and see what happens with this rumored Cruz extension, but one thing is sure: the Giants set a price limit on their players, and don't go beyond it, as indicated in this tweet by Ms. Kinkhabwala:

Source: https://twitter.com/AKinkhabwala

Victor Cruz is signing his RFA tender today

He's actually at the Giants' facility now according to various twitter reports. Signing his tender only means that Cruz protects himself from not receiving that first round Restricted Free Agent (RFA) tender salary amount of $2,879,000 should the Giants decide to use their 24 hour window on Monday, June 17th reduce it down to $630,000. Read this part of Joel Corry's recent article on Cruz below for further details:

Source: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/eye-on-football/22395262/agents-take-looking-at-whats-next-for-victor-cruz



By waiting to sign his tender now, Cruz also protected himself from being fined by the Giants at the team's completed mini-camp that ran from Tuesday, June 11th to yesterday. It's a smart business for him in that sense. What it opens him up to though is being fined in training camp, which is something he would want to avoid since he's not a big money player to begin with, and because of the Giants' track record of dealing with hold outs in that past. Just go ask Michael Strahan. Joel Corry writes about that too from his article already linked above. Here's what he said about that:

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Hopefully, from both the Giants' and Cruz's perspectives these actions are leading up to an agreement for a new deal before training camp. Once camp starts, then things have a chance to begin to get ugly, as the Giants will be able to levy fines on Cruz at that point since he will be considered under contract, which he is not now. Once he signs his tender today (which he may already have as reported earlier), then things will get interesting. If press reports are truly accurate about the deal being on the "2-yard line" are true, then this will get done. USA Today's Mike Garafolo is saying that the Giants "aren't any closer" to a long-term deal, so take that for it's worth as well.

The Giants reportedly spoke to recently released Pro Bowl FB Vonta Leach's agent last night

Check out this article on the situation by Dave Hutchinson in today's Star Leger:

• Giants speak with the agent for fullback Vonta Leach

Leach is entering his tenth year in the league, and will turn 32 near the beginning of November. If he signs a Minimum Salary Benefit (MSB) contract, he stands to make a veteran minimum of $840K in salary for players with 7 to 9 years worth of accrued seasons (Leach has 9).

Source: http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/07/2011-2014-nfl-minimum-base-salaries/



In addition to that minimum base salary (paragraph 5 money), Leach would probably get a $65 K signing bonus, which is what the Giants have done with their 11 MSB players--the most in the league. He could potentially stand to make a salary of $905 K, with a $65 K bonus included, and only count $620 K against the salary cap. You wouldn't subtract that $620 K cap figure from a given team's cap though if he signs. You would subtract the difference between Leach's hypothetical $620 K cap number from that of the 51st ranked cap figure on the team, which in many cases is somewhere between $480 K and $555 K. If we take the low number, than the displacement differential would only be $140 K. Subtracting only $140 K from a team's cap number for a player like Leach is a no-brainer, particularly if there is a glaring need on the roster for a Fullback. There is no question that he should be able to find a job in the league under those circumstances.

His agent's job is to look for team's with openings on their rosters, whether through dearth of talent, lack of depth, or otherwise. It would also help if those teams have some cap room, so his agent could negotiate some extra dough for him. Odds are though that he'll probably wind up getting the MSB I mentioned above, unless he gets a team with salary cap room, like the Dolphins, to fork up some dough (he would reportedly prefer to return to Houston, but the money might not be right). Here are two good articles on the topic, one from Miami and the other from Houston:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/13/3448179/miami-dolphins-trying-to-lure.html

http://blog.chron.com/ultimatetexans/2013/06/vonta-leach-still-in-miami-agent-cites-mutual-interest-with-texans/

It'll be interesting to see what happens, but either way I'd consider it highly doubtful that he signs with the Giants, for two reasons:

1. Leach is NOT a stop gap type of FB; he's arguable the best blocking FB in all of football, hence there would be more of a demand for him, than that of the Tony Fiammettas and Evan Rodriguezs of the league. 

2. Even if Leach winds up signing a MSB contract, he will want to go somewhere where he can showcase himself for 2014 when he re-enters the FA market. Leach can only do that if he is the undisputed starter on a team WITHOUT someone looking over his shoulder, ready to take his job from him. He can't do that on a team like the Giants where the starter is expected to return early in the season after missing a few weeks at the start.

Besides those two reasons, teams don't usually care more than 1 FB in today's NFL. I would have loved Leach on the Giants if Hynoski wasn't here, but that ship sailed already (they tried to sign Leach to an offer sheet before the 2007 season). My money is on either the Dolphins, or the Texans. Going back to the Ravens makes little to no sense for Leach, especially because Baltimore drafted his replacement this past April in the 4th round, in the person Kyle Juszczyk out of Harvard.

Adjustment made to the Giants' Dead Money list

Thanks to some help from Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com, I figured out that the discrepancy in cap numbers over the last week or two on the NFL's Top 51 Cap Report was due to dead money added on to the cap from the release of RB Jeremy Wright.

The Giants signed Wright as an Undrafted Rookie Free Agent (UDFA) on May 10th, and waived him on May 31st, as per BigBlueInteractive.com, a favorite website of mine which I write Salary Cap Articles for under the handle of "Optimus-NY". Read about the list of transactions HERE.

Jason helped teach me how to decipher why the discrepancy was there as I indicated above. It turns out tat the Giants gave Wright a $5,000 signing bonus. The only other two UDFAs who the Giants signed this year after the draft who they gave signing bonuses too were as follows:

1. WR Marcus Davis out of Virginia Tech--who they cut during rookie camp between May 11th and May 13th after giving him a relatively whopping $15,000 (Davis was then signed by the Jets).
2. The other is blocking TE Chase Clement out of LSU, who got a $2,500 and is still on the Giants 90-man roster.

NOTE: The dead money numbers I have compiled below are just educated guesses based on numbers I've seen from spotrac.com and overthecap.com, along with figures I specifically recall dating from when Osi Umenyiora had a Voidable year tacked on to the final year of his contract last Spring.

I have the Giants' dead money figures estimated as follows (including Wright's updated dead money figure):

Check out this excellent article on how to play the cap game in the offseason, & hurt the competition

The article below, while almost two months old, is outstanding nonetheless. It references former Giants Ahmad Bradshaw, Plaxico Burress, and even LT in passing at the beginning. Check it out below:

"How Bill Belichick Screwed The Steelers" by Nik Bønaddio on Apr 15th, 2013


The main thrust of the article is how former longtime Giant and current Patriots Head Coach, Bill Belichick, turned the screws on one of his main competitors in the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Belichick did so by signing RFA WR Emmanuel Sanders to a one-year offer sheet.

The Steelers, who have had lots of cap trouble this offseason, (now being $4,438,618 under the cap) are in bad shape unlike the comparatively healthy Patriots (who are now $8,391,859 under the cap), tendered Sanders at the original tender level amount, which in Sanders' case was the third round. The three tenders are for a first round pick, a 2nd round pick, and the original round that the player was drafted in. their corresponding tender amounts are as follows, as per Albert Breer's tweet about 5 months ago:

The Steelers drafted Sanders out of Southern Methodist University in the third round of the 2010 NFL draft with the 82nd overall pick. They made a tactical error in electing NOT to tender Sanders at the 2nd round level.



It would have cost them $700,000 more than the original tender, but as it turned out, the Patriots made them pay approximately $1.2 million more than that original tender amount when they agreed with Sanders to the $2.5 million offer sheet that he signed with them on April 10th, which the Steelers ultimately matched 4 days later.

This helps to explain why the Giants offered Andre Brown a 2nd round tender instead of the original round tender that I was speculating that he'd get:

I was wondering why the Giants paid Brown more than they had to, but after looking at this whole Emmanuel Sanders affair--who'll probably bolt Pittsburgh next offseason with their cap being as tight as it is--it makes sense. It's better to pay a little more, and be prudent, than to get caught with your pants down by your competitors. You can bet that teams in direct competition with the Giants (read good teams in the NFC, especially NFC East teams) would have loved to do the same thing to the Giants that the Pats did to the Steelers.

Look at what happened to the Redskins and Cowboys the last two offseasons, with all the cap room each team had to give up. Washington gave up $18 million in cap room each of the last seasons, while Dallas gave up $5 million. That cap space was divided up 28 ways, and redistributed throughout the league (only the Saints and Raiders didn't benefit from this since they committed minor cap infractions of their own). You can bet good money that the Cowboys and Redskins would ESPECIALLY love to stick it to the Giants, particularly with Giants' co-owner John Mara, who is also a prominent member of the NFL Competition Committee, being painted as the main reason behind those two clubs being penalized--their own negligence aside of course.

In summary, we can see how direct competition is not just something which exists during the regular season, but is also prevalent at all times, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This competition extends off the field during free agency, the Draft, Rookie Free Agency, the waiver wire--with the salary cap being the main thread that runs through all of these subdivided mediums of competition.

Giants' cap number & unofficial list of free agents

The Giants' official salary cap figure has not changes since the last time I posted it a three days ago. The Giants are $3,308,682 under the salary cap now as per the League's most up to date TOP 51 CAP REPORT.

That number will obviously change once Justin Pugh signs. Once that happens, it should go down approximately $961,436 (Pugh's expected cap number of $1,517,436 - the 51st ranked cap number on the team now belonging to Spencer Paysinger of $556,000). If all things stay as they are now, then the Giants' cap number in that instance would be $2,347,246.

As stated previously numerous times here, Nassib's cap number will not effect the Giants' salary cap at this time due to the Top 51 Rule being in effect. Once the Top 51 Rule ceases on Thursday, September 5th at midnight EST, then team salary caps will include the 52nd and 53rd men on the roster, to go along with the practice squad, players on the PUP list (expect Kuhn and maybe even Hynoski to be on that list, with the possibility of JPP being on it also), and IR. Since Nassib will be on the team come opening day, his cap number will count then, but won't until then, assuming of course that he signs with the team and he stays off of IR.

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Here is an unofficial list of NFL Free Agents from Adam Caplan, including FB Vonta Leach, who was released by the Ravens yesterday. Check out this article by Mike Garafolo on the topic yesterday in USA Today:

Vonta Leach moves quickly after release from Ravens - by Mike Garafolo, USA TODAY Sports, 2:22 p.m. EDT, June 11, 2013

Here are unofficial lists of players on OFFENSE & DEFENSE:

• NOTE: Remember that Ahmad Bradshaw signed with the Colts yesterday.

1. Best Available NFL Free Agents - Offense | by Adam Caplan; Last updated: June 11, 2013, 11:34 am ET
2. Best Available NFL Free Agents - Defense | by Adam Caplan; Last updated: June 10, 2013, 11:46 am ET