New York Giants: Five possible salary cap casualties

2. Kareem Martin, LB

He was one of Gettleman’s first signings as Giants GM. Martin got plucked away from Arizona for three-years and $15M. He has been quite a disappointment since arriving in New York. In 2018 he played in all 16 games, with seven starts and made 48 tackles. This year he opened the season on injured reserve. The G-Men activated Martin for the final five games and he was mostly ineffective.

There is no sense in eating up $6M in cap space on Martin. He isn’t likely to start in 2020, even if there are injuries. Taking a $1.66M hit of dead money is well worth it to free up the balance. There is almost no chance Martin is on the team by the first day of spring. GMDG is going to have to admit that he swung and whiffed on this signing.

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1. Alec Ogletree, LB

This one might be hard for New York Giants fans to understand. Since joining the team via trade in 2018, Ogletree has been one of the team’s leaders on defense. He’s played 13 games, each of the last two seasons, placing second on the team in tackles both times. Unfortunately, Ogletree failed to live up to the lofty numbers he put up in his first few NFL seasons. The G-Men probably don’t want to pay him the big money he’s due in 2020.

Ogletree has an $11.75M cap hit next season and $10.75M in 2021. Those numbers probably make him untradeable. Therefore termination is the best option. The G-Men would save $8.25M off the bat and $9M the next season. Big Blue could definitely get more bang for their buck with someone else. Besides, 2019 fifth-round pick Ryan Connelly showed great potential before being sidelined with a torn ACL after the fourth game.

The New York Giants can open another $20M-$25M in cap space if they so choose. It will be a busy start to the new league year for Big Blue.