The Giants restructured cornerback Adoree’ Jackson’s contract on Monday to free almost $6 million in salary cap space.
GM Joe Schoen would prefer not to kick any more salary cap pain down the road. He only wants to restructure contracts as a last resort.
But the Giants are in such dire need of cap space for 2022 that they’ve now restructured two players in the last two weeks: kicker Graham Gano and Jackson.
Monday’s restructure of Jackson converted $8.965 million of his contract to a signing bonus and added a fourth void year in 2024, per ESPN, to create $5.98 million of cap space this season.
That followed the Gano restructure, which converted $2.63 million of his salary to a signing bonus and added a fifth void year in 2024 to create $1.753 million in cap space.
It’s important to note that the Giants’ decision to restructure Jackson, 26, was not just financial. It also reflects their personnel preferences.
They could have saved cap space instead by extending James Bradberry to reduce his untenable $21.8 million cap hit. But the team has shown no interest in doing so.
They prefer Jackson the player to Bradberry, with new defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale bringing an aggressive, press-man scheme.
“I think he’s a good player for us,” head coach Brian Daboll said Monday of Jackson. “The restructures and all of that stuff, I think that’d probably be a better question for Joe. Just happy [Adoree’] is here. Energetic. Good being around him this morning.”
The Giants also are carrying $11.45 million in dead money for Logan Ryan to not be on the team. That was a release motivated by a desire to get the defense’s leader off the field and out of the locker room.
Jackson has not played well enough yet to justify his initial three-year, $39 million contract. He’ll have to elevate his performance significantly to match the team’s current investment.
League sources still expect Bradberry to be traded soon, meanwhile, with the Chiefs, Texans and Colts as teams to watch. The veteran corner is doing his own thing while he waits for the Giants to find a resolution to their predicament.
Safety Xavier McKinney said it “sucked” to see Ryan released and acknowledged Bradberry was not with the team for the start of the offseason program. He said this is typical of the turbulent NFL start he’s experienced with the Giants.
“I was actually talking to J.B. a day ago and I told him these two years, it has felt like I’ve been in the league for six years,” McKinney said. “Just with all the COVID stuff and just the staff movements and things going around in the organization.”