Giants, Joe Schoen aim to clear $40 million in cap space this offseason

The New York Giants and GM Joe Schoen will look to clear upwards of $40 million in salary cap space this offseason.

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The New York Giants may have a new regime in place but they still have many of their old problems.

Peter King of NBC Sports reports the Giants’ new general manager, Joe Schoen, will be concentrating on repairing the team’s out of control salary cap situation he inherited from his predecessor, Dave Gettleman.

The Giants have to either fix Daniel Jones or replace him in 2023, and Schoen told me Saturday he’ll have to clear out $40 million from a bloated and mismanaged salary cap this spring.

“When we first got to Buffalo,” said Schoen, “we had $55 million in dead cap money we had to manage. We had a plan there, and we’ll have one here. We may have to make some decisions that hurt, but I do not want to kick the can down the road with the cap. I want to get it fixed.”

How Schoen intends to do that is unknown. At his introductory presser he briefly mentioned there would be tough decisions ahead, but looking at the team’s salary cap table, there’s very little to be saved by simply cutting players.

Because of that, the Giants will have to get some of their higher-paid players to agree to restructures or pay cuts.

“It’s a concern and it’s real,” Schoen said of the cap situation last week. “Kevin Abrams and I haven’t talked about it yet. We looked at it, we’re going to get together at the end of the week or first of next week to start formulating a plan, but we’re going to have to get below the salary cap.

“Obviously, we’re going to have to clear some money, but when the new head coach gets in here, the new staff, we’re going to get together, we’re going to watch the film, we’re going to evaluate everybody, we’re going to talk to the support staff. Who are the guys that kind of fit the vision that we’re looking for? Who are the guys that are going to buy into the program? Then, we’ll make educated decisions once we have more information. There are going to be difficult decisions that are going to have to be made.”

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