Wait ’til next year.
While that’s not exactly the rallying cry the Giants are offering as the free-agency signing period nears, it’s close to the reality the club takes into the annual NFL shopping spree that commences on Friday.
It comes as no surprise that the Giants, as usual constrained by the salary cap, do not expect to be wheeling and dealing for attractive, high-priced free agents. But come 2001, the Giants are confident they will be able to leap in with both feet.
“We really have a chance to finally solve this problem with the cap for next year,” general manager Ernie Accorsi said, “but we’re going to have a tough year this year.”
Fans may cringe at these words, but that’s the way it is. Accorsi has spent the past few weeks agonizing over his bloated salary cap, and he won’t get the Giants below the cap unless players are released. Re-working the contracts of Cedric Jones and Ron Stone help, but not enough, and a handful of veterans will be gone in the next few days or weeks in a sweeping attempt to find available money to use in free agency.
A fair question is this: Why is a team that is 8-8 and 7-9 the past two seasons so starved for salary-cap room? The answer is not very complicated. The club, insisting on continuity, paid too much for marginal players. Pro Bowlers like Michael Strahan and Jessie Armstead were locked into huge deals before they became free agents. Players owning hefty salaries (Stone, Jones, Brian Williams, Scott Gragg, Robert Harris, Jason Sehorn) for one reason or another did not match production with cost.
“I think the way things work out, we’re in pretty good shape for next year, as long as we don’t mess it up,” Accorsi said. “That’s why we want to bite the bullet in a lot of cases this year. If we had more money, we would be more active. We’re just not going to have a lot of money to be free-wheeling in free agency; we’re just not. But we have a chance to do some things like we did last year.
“It’s not patience, I have no choice. It’s reality. The situation was caused because we paid a lot of average players pretty good salaries. What happens is that comes back to haunt you, because they increase the minimums and they don’t increase the cap much.
“We have to make sure we get out of this, and we should be out of this after this year. We’re going to do the best we can to improve this team any way we can, but we have to do it with what we have. A lot of times the public just doesn’t understand that, but I have to deal with reality every day with this, and that’s the cold, hard facts.”
Before players will be added, some will have to exit. Figure running back Gary Brown and linebacker Marcus Buckley will be released, which will save nearly $2 million on the cap. If Kent Graham, now the backup quarterback to Kerry Collins, does not accept a cut in salary from the $1.3 million he’s scheduled to make next season, he too could be gone. Others, such as Gragg, Lance Scott or Corey Widmer, could be salary-cap casualties, although Scott could be cut and then re-signed at a cheaper price.
As far as free agency, the Giants want to add a running back, a linebacker and a cornerback, but do not expect them to get into a bidding war for anyone, not even James Stewart, the Jaguars’ running back who figures to command a big contract.
Last year, the Giants targeted two players, Collins and tight end Pete Mitchell, and got both.
“It will probably be like we did last year, where if we get a player we want we’ll have to get rid of another player,” Accorsi said. “That’s the way it’s going to go. We will be able to compete for a couple of players. We’re not going to be able to sign eight players with all these big names. We usually have been very successful when we go after somebody. You also have to try to be patient; sometimes, players came back to you.”