Top 3 Offseason Needs: New York Giants

In advance of March 9, the start of free agency in the NFL, Pro Football Rumors will detail each team’s three most glaring roster issues. We’ll continue this year’s series with the New York Giants, who exceeded expectations in the first season of the Ben McAdoo era. After four straight non-playoff years – including three consecutive sub-.500 campaigns – to close out Tom Coughlin‘s tenure, Big Blue went 11-5 in 2016 en route to a wild-card berth. The Giants were one and done in the postseason, though, as the Packers trounced them at Lambeau Field, 38-13.

Depth Chart (via Roster Resource)

Pending Free Agents:

• Will Beatty, OT
• Orleans Darkwa, RB (RFA)
• Zak DeOssie, LS
• Larry Donnell, TE
• Ben Edwards, WR (ERFA)
• Robbie Gould, K
• Leon Hall, CB
• Johnathan Hankins, DT
• Mark Herzlich, LB
• John Jerry, G
• Josh Johnson, QB
• Matt LaCosse, TE (ERFA)
• Ryan Nassib, QB
• Marshall Newhouse, OT
• Jason Pierre-Paul, DE
• Bobby Rainey, RB
• Keenan Robinson, LB
• Coty Sensabaugh, CB
• Kelvin Sheppard, LB
• Robert Thomas, DT (ERFA)
• Will Tye, TE (ERFA)
• Trevin Wade, CB (RFA)
• Nikita Whitlock, RB (ERFA)
• Kerry Wynn, DE (RFA)

Top 10 Cap Hits For 2017:

1. Eli Manning, QB: $19,700,000
2. Olivier Vernon, DE: $16,000,000
3. Janoris Jenkins, CB: $15,000,000
4. Damon Harrison, DT: $10,600,000
5. Victor Cruz, WR: $9,400,000
6. Justin Pugh, G: $8,821,000
7. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, CB: $8,500,000
8. Shane Vereen, RB: $4,916,668
9. J.T. Thomas, LB: $4,000,000
10. Ereck Flowers, OT: $3,925,045

Current Projected Cap Room (via Over the Cap): $31,936,507

Other:

• Twenty-third overall pick in draft
• Must exercise or decline 2018 fifth-year option for WR Odell Beckham Jr.

Three Needs:

1.) Acquire more offensive weapons: Quarterback Eli Manning took a step backward this season, though it didn’t help his cause that the Giants had such a non-threatening ground game. Only two teams finished with a worse yards-per-carry average than the Giants’ 3.5, and the club went until Week 17 without a 100-yard rusher. That was Paul Perkins, who had a decent rookie season in a limited showing, but it’s debatable whether he did enough over 112 carries to earn a role as the Giants’ featured back going into 2017. No one else on the roster appears capable of filling the position, especially with Rashad Jennings and Shane Vereen looking like potential cap casualties. It would make sense to move on from Jennings, who averaged a paltry 3.3 yards per rush in his age-31 season, in order to clear $2.5MM in spending room. While cutting Vereen would save $3.75MM, that might come down to whether New York is confident he’ll be able to bounce back from an injury-plagued season. The soon-to-be 28-year-old has been eminently useful as a change-of-pace, pass-catching back throughout his career, but he went on injured reserve twice because of triceps issues in 2016.

If the Giants look for a No. 1 back via free agency, Eddie Lacy, LeGarrette Blount and Latavius Murray stand out as the best soon-to-be available options (forget about Le’Veon Bell), while Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles could end up on the market if their teams cut them. In at least some of those cases, however, it’s questionable whether the Giants would actually be upgrading over Perkins. Regarding Lacy, it’s worth noting that he and McAdoo are familiar with one another. Before McAdoo joined Coughlin’s staff in 2014, he worked as the Packers’ quarterbacks coach during Lacy’s rookie year.

In the event the free agent crop doesn’t appeal to the Giants, there will be several early round possibilities available in the draft. Bleacher Report prospect guru Matt Miller currently places six backs (including the controversial Joe Mixon, whom the Giants probably wouldn’t dare take in the wake of the Josh Brown fiasco) in the top 50 of his player rankings.

Turning to the passing game, the Giants have an all-world receiver in Odell Beckham Jr. and a promising one in Sterling Shepard, but not much else. To Victor Cruz‘s credit, the longtime Giant bounced back from two straight lost seasons to play in 15 games in 2016, though he’s far from the star-caliber producer he was from 2011-13. The G-men could move on from Cruz this offseason and open up an extra $7.5MM in cap room. Regardless of his 2017 status, the Giants need at least one more legitimate option in their receiving corps – preferably someone with size.

With Beckham around to serve as the alpha dog among their receivers, it’s difficult to imagine the Giants pursuing either of the best soon-to-be free agent WRs, Alshon Jeffery or Terrelle Pryor. There will be plenty of other veteran choices with size, however, including Vincent Jackson (like Cruz, his health is a concern), New Jersey native and ex-Rutgers star Kenny Britt, Kamar Aiken, Brandon LaFell, Brian Quick, Justin Hunter and Terrance Williams. Any of those players would be a good fit for the Giants, who would be better off signing a free agent than investing another high pick in a receiver after taking Beckham and Shepard in the top two rounds in two of the past three drafts.

On the other hand, the Giants haven’t selected a tight end prior to Round 3 since 2009. Their incumbent starter, Will Tye, has back-to-back 40-plus-catch seasons under his belt, but he’s not an impact player, evidenced by both his 8.2 yards-per-reception mark and third-worst ranking among Pro Football Focus’ qualified tight ends this season. As a result, the likes of O.J. Howard (Alabama), David Njoku (Miami) and Bucky Hodges (Virginia Tech) could be on the Giants’ radar during the first couple rounds of the draft. In free agency, the Patriots’ Martellus Bennett should at least pique New York’s interest if he reaches the open market.

2.) Decide Jason Pierre-Paul‘s future: The Giants’ two Super Bowl victories earlier in the Manning era came thanks in large part to dominant defensive fronts, which the team once again possessed in 2016. Signing Olivier Vernon and Damon Harrison to big-money contracts in free agency last winter has gone swimmingly thus far, but their paydays could help cost the Giants Pierre-Paul this offseason. The soon-to-be free agent end finished second among Giants D-linemen in snaps in 2016 and was stunningly effective as he continued to distance himself from a gruesome July 2015 fireworks accident. The 28-year-old bounced back from an eight-game, one-sack 2015 to take down opposing QBs seven times in 12 contests this season, though he went on the shelf for good in early December on account of sports hernia and groin surgery. Despite missing a quarter of the season, Pierre-Paul ranked 13th among PFF’s 109 qualified edge defenders and totaled the league’s 15th-most QB hurries (24).

JPP signed a one-year pillow contract with the Giants last offseason, but he’s unwilling to do that again after reestablishing himself as a top-tier pass rusher. Those players come at premium prices in free agency (Exhibit A: Vernon’s five-year, $85MM deal with $52MM in guarantees), so Pierre-Paul doesn’t have much incentive to sign before the market opens if his motivation is to secure a massive contract. Of course, the Giants could keep Pierre-Paul from leaving by applying the estimated $16.955MM franchise tag to him. That would cost the Giants a significant chunk of spending space, but they might not be averse to using it on Pierre-Paul. After all, they were willing to hand JPP $10MM last winter despite both his off-field accident and dip in production.

3.) Address the offensive line: The Giants have two clear solutions among their front five in left guard Justin Pugh and center Weston Richburg. Everything else is up in the air as the offseason approaches in earnest.

Although Ereck Flowers was the ninth overall pick in the draft just two years ago, the Giants are already considering moving him off the left tackle position. While Flowers has been durable (31 appearances and starts) and strong in the running game, he hasn’t been a particularly effective pass blocker. The 22-year-old was disastrous for a large part of this season, as he allowed 59 QB pressures and took a league-high 13 penalties.

Going forward, the Giants could shift Flowers to the right and relegate Bobby Hart to the bench to take the place of pending free agent Marshall Newhouse. That would still leave the team bereft at left tackle, though, and free agency won’t offer much help aside from the Bengals’ Andrew Whitworth and maybe the Lions’ Riley Reiff. Despite his age (35), Whitworth remains one of the game’s sturdiest tackles and, given both that and the lack of competition in free agency, could encounter a bidding war on the market. If the Giants do pursue Whitworth and/or Reiff but don’t land one of them, would they use yet another high draft pick on a tackle? As is the case with free agency, the tackle class in this year’s draft isn’t strong, so general manager Jerry Reese is going to have a difficult time finding a better option than Flowers if he moves the still-young lineman (he’ll be 23 in April) away from the blind side.

Elsewhere on the line, Reese will have to determine whether to bring back right guard John Jerry, who’s without a contract after starting 16 games, playing 99.7 percent of snaps and grading as PFF’s 34th-best guard among 76 qualifiers in 2016. Jerry shouldn’t break the bank, which isn’t true for fellow pending free agent right guards like T.J. Lang and Kevin Zeitler, so it would likely behoove the Giants to re-sign him and avoid creating another need.