A pair of veteran offensive linemen are apparently on the trade block, but it’s sounding like there may not be any takers. Jason La Canfora is hearing that the Jaguars are shopping offensive guard Andrew Norwell, while the Giants are trying to move offensive guard Kevin Zeitler (Twitter link). The reporter adds that rival teams believe these two linemen will ultimately be released, at which time they’ll “generate significant interest” around the NFL.
Norwell parlayed his first-team All-Pro nod with the Panthers into a five-year, $66.5MM deal with the Jaguars in 2018. While the veteran hasn’t matched his production from that standout campaign, he’s still been a dependable presence on Jacksonville’s line over the past three years. The organization’s decision to shop (and, presumably, eventually move on from) Norwell is mostly financial; the veteran has a cap hit of $15MM in 2021 and $16MM in 2022, and cutting him would leave manageable dead cap hits of $6MM in 2021 and $3MM in 2022.
Zeitler, a former first-round pick, spent the first five seasons of his career with the Bengals, including a 2012 campaign where he earned All-Rookie Team honors from the Pro Football Writers Association. He inked a five-year, $60MM deal with the Browns in 2017, making him the highest-paid guard in the NFL. He spent a pair of seasons in Cleveland before getting dealt to the Giants as a part of the Odell Beckham trade.
The 30-year-old has played the past two seasons in New York, appearing in all but one game. The veteran has a $14.5MM cap hit in the final year of his contract, and the Giants would be left with only $2.5MM in dead cap if they decided to cut him.
Both will get picked up eventually but both will get cut
Thanks for summarizing that entire piece.
Lmao
I get that there are cap concerns, but the Giants desperately need cohesion and experience on the OL. OL is perpetually a need for them and Gettleman loves his Hog Mollies.
Not at $14m cap hit though. He has to go. Not like he’s been a stud with the giants.
Norwell is no surprise, but Zeitler is mildly surprising. Zeitler is still very capable and certainly is the most reliable option for New York up front in a make-it-or-break-it year for Daniel Jones and the Gettleman regime as a whole. This is the year for Gettleman to prove that he was right-about Jones, about Beckham, about the team in general. He’ll need a good guard to help with Saquon’s return and to protect Jones, and the perceptive value that Zeitler carries as being part of the Beckham deal in validating Gettleman.
Zeitler has been reliable since then, which should be reason enough on its own, but he’s just connected too much to what the Giants are trying to do this year. I get the money concern, but they really must have no better option. It’s not like a team couldn’t survive without Zeitler. It just seems odd that after all the set-up and patience to set this year up, they’d hurt their chances by relying on an unproven replacement on a similarly unproven line. It’s not catastrophic in my mind, just seems unnecessary, although I am less familiar with NYG’s cap situation than I should be.
“Norwell is mostly financial; the veteran has a cap hit of $15MM in 2021 and $16MM in 2022, and cutting him would leave manageable dead cap hits of $6MM in 2021 and $3MM in 2022.”
Probably just some typos but obviously the result of cutting him can not possibly be the “…manageable dead cap hits of $6MM in 2021 and $3MM in 2022.” It is one or the the other. Maybe an omitted “respectively,” somewhere?
Post june cut is the general assumption when you see 2 different years especially this year with such drop in the cap that you want to spread it between this year and next where hopefully it will be a much larger cap. .
Kind of a unfortunate photo for Norwell. Being helped off the field. But “Hey, who wants him!” Lol
Is a match between the two possible? Jags may need to throw in a pick since the Giants would be taking on extra salary.
Aren’t they freeing up money so they can keep both Dalvin Tomlinson and Leonard Williams? The last thing the Giants want to do is take on more salary. I’d like to see them keep Zeitler, but I don’t think they can unless he’s willing to rework his contract.