The New York Giants have done an excellent job shedding bad contracts in recent years, but they’ve also added a few that could be considered legitimate snafus.
One of those is the contract given to left tackle Nate Solder, who became the highest-paid offensive lineman in the NFL at the time of the deal in 2018.
Since then, Solder has had two down seasons and is persistently dealing with injuries. Accordingly, Brad Ganon of Bleacher Report recently named Solder the worst current contract on the books in East Rutherford.
The player: Offensive tackle Nate Solder
The bad contract: Four years, $62 million with $34.8 million guaranteed (expires in 2022)
Why it stinks
Easy arguments can be made that New York Giants wide receivers Golden Tate and Sterling Shepard are overpaid, but those two are off the hook thanks to the off-the-charts pending cap hits associated with Solder, who was a turnstile in 2019 and is declining dramatically at age 31.
Solder is the only player on the Giants’ payroll slated to make more than $12.5 million per year, and his backloaded contract is a problem. He’ll count $19.5 million against the cap in 2020 and $20.5 million in 2021—both of which are high-water marks at left tackle.
There’s no way the rebuilding Giants can pay that kind of money for a player who appears to be running out of gas and wasn’t even a Pro Bowler when his tank was full. And they probably won’t, but it’d still cost them $13 million to move on this offseason or $6.5 million to part ways in a year.
This was a terrible free-agent signing in 2018, and it’ll continue to bite the Giants in the behind as they enter a new decade.
The Golden Tate argument could also be had here, but lumping Sterling Shepard in seems extremely curious, especially considering he dealt with serious concussion issues all season.
As it relates to Solder, yes, he was given a poor contract, but it’s extremely important to remember that most pundits (and fans) agreed that it was a necessary evil at the time. Everyone recognized the contract was a bad one, but they also recognized the Giants had no other choice.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but Solder’s addition was key at the time.
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