Giants UFA Signings and Roster Moves

ROSTER MOVES

Seubert to be released.  O’Hara to be released.  Andrews to be released.  See a pattern?  So when Chris Snee is chortling a day after the draft about how the Giants didn’t take any (high) offensive linemen, that his fun with this group was going to continue, well he probably didn’t expect all of this.  Obviously a lot of this is money.  But isn’t it always about the money, says George Young?!  And for all you Eli lovers, let’s remember that when the Giants have a tight cap and can’t keep some of these players, that it is our QB who is grabbing a ton of resources from this salary cap.  Dollar for dollar, he is not the biggest resource hog.   That claim probably goes to Chris Canty, in our opinion.  But nothing in life is free, and Eli Manning is expensive.  The Giants are simply shedding cap dollars so that they can make a run at some important Free Agents (Boss, Bradshaw?).  And maybe one or two of these linemen will be back with cheaper contracts.

UFA SIGNINGS

At the beginning of May, Wonder outlined his Top 25 UFA list for those undrafted players who were worthy of being signed to your team with a respectable shot at making the roster.

Yesterday, the Giants signed David Sims and Jarriel King, 2 of those 25.  That is a respectable haul, considering the avg NFL team is going to get less than 1.  Add Mark Herzlich, who Pete had ranked 67th overall on his board, and this set of UFAs is shaping up to be a good crop of signings.  Remember, any Undrafted Free Agent that makes your (final) roster is huge.

Wonder (on yesterday’s UFA move): “Watch out for King.. he could be a steal.”

Here is a link to NFL.com’s transaction tracker for all of the continuing offseason moves.

UFA VETERANS

LB Keith Bulluck (11 yrs)
S Deon Grant (11 yrs)
WR Michael Clayton (7 yrs)
QB Jim Sorgi (7 yrs)
LB Chase Blackburn (6 yrs)
OL Kevin Boothe (5 yrs)
DT Barry Cofield (5 yrs)
WR Derek Hagan (5 yrs)
DE Mathias Kiwanuka (5 yrs)
LB Gerris Wilkinson (5 yrs)
TE Kevin Boss (4 yrs)
RB Ahmad Bradshaw (4 yrs)
S Michael Johnson (4 yrs)
WR Steve Smith (4 yrs)
DE Dave Tollefson (4 yrs)

Posluszny to sign a 6 yr deal with the Jaguars.

VETERANS

Osi Umenyiora to hold out.  Sad, but not surprising.

Adam Schefter says that the Giants are talking about a return of Plaxico Burress.  “They are exploring the possibility,” he reports.  Considering the cap issues this team has, we don’t like the move.  We believe the Gmen will make a serious run at some important Free Agents, but probably not Burress.  Does it say something about WR?  Get Victor Cruz, Jerrel Jernigan, Ramses Barden and Domenik Hixon in there and one of those four will be having more of an impact by 2012 than a 35 year old Burress.  And a 34 year old Burress this year is going to have rust.  The great Michael Jordan had rust when he took a year off to play baseball.  A much younger Michael Vick took a year to get back to playing at the level he left the game.  If anyone needed June and July to be working with a team, it was Burress.  Maybe this is just a smokescreen to drive up the price on the Eagles, who may have a problem with a potential DeSean Jackson holdout.  The Eagles are also supposed to be going after Nnamdi Asomugha.  And our bet is that Plaxico Burress will want a longer (4 year, with enough $ guaranteed) deal than the Giants will want to commit to.  Sure, if you could get Plax cheap, that would change things.  But he won’t go cheap.  Summary- don’t invest significantly in 35 year old WRs.