New York Giants 2024 Mock Off-Season

This is a full mock off-season for the New York Giants. Sometimes you get an idea and just have to run with it. For this mock, the objective is to provide the New York Giants with an identity: Establish one of the best inside zone run blocking units in the NFL. The offensive line was undoubtedly a weakness last season, but there is a way to completely turn it around in just one singular off-season.

Along with the objective of winning by taking the ball out of the hands of Daniel Jones, we want to fill out the roster with high-value contracts in free agency as to not cripple the already mediocre cap situation in upcoming years. Improving the offense will create a good situation for a rookie quarterback either this year, depending on how the draft falls, or next year when we inevitably cut Daniel Jones.

Starting Point

Below is the current state of the roster and cap situation:

Clearly, there is work to be done.

We will start with cuts, trades, and restructures. We will then get into internal free agency, followed by external free agency, and culminate with the draft. All free agents will be signed using Pro Football Focus’s Free Agent Predictions for this exercise, and the PFF mock draft simulator will be used for the draft.

Cap Relief

We started by cutting Mark Glowinski to save $5,682,353, resulting in only $1,500,000 in dead cap. We ideally would trade him, but figured a trade with his contract would be disingenuous.

There was then one trade where we shipped off Darius Slayton to New England for their fifth round pick (136). Slayton’s contract is not egregious, and Darius Slayton may already be a significant improvement to what they currently have over there. The trade saves us $6.4 million in cap this season.

Finally, we restructured two players: Andrew Thomas and Bobby Okereke. Thomas is signed through 2029 with all guarantees ending in 2027. Saving $15,228,235 this season at the expense of roughly $3 million per year for the duration of his contract seems like a no-brainer.

Bobby Okereke’s restructure saves us $4,583,334, which we are converting into a signing bonus that will be applied over the next two years as to not add void years. This one is a bit smaller, but we are confident that he will remain a contributing member of this team for the duration of his existing contract and have no worries regarding adding more guarantees.

We are not extending any players who are on the last year of their deals. There is no one other than Azeez Ojulari who would be considered, and he would likely prefer to try and play himself into a bigger contract this season regardless.

Internal Free Agency

We are bringing back six members of our previous roster. The two most impactful players are Xavier McKinney and Saquon Barkley. The secondary needs stability, hence keeping Xavier McKinney, and Saquon is a face of this franchise regardless of how the last few seasons have gone. He is still wildly talented, and our identity is going to be rushing the ball for the foreseeable future. While paying a safety and halfback may not be considered the best use of resources, they both should be key contributors for the next few seasons.

A’Shawn Robinson, Isaiah Hodgins, Casey Kreiter, and Jarrad Davis were brought back as well. With Kreiter and Davis not having PFF recommended contract values, they each were paid with the Veteran Salary Benefit with the assumption that they tested external free agency and did not get the market they desired. Here is a summary of Internal Free Agency:

External Free Agency

External Free Agency was a bit wild. We focused the majority of our resources on the offense, but gave all except for one of the eleven players we signed one-year contracts. Finding valuable depth pieces while taking shots on guys who may have lower contract demands due to previously underperforming gives much needed upside to our roster while not locking us into too many deals that could be detrimental to our future cap outlook. Here is a summary of External Free Agency:

Calvin Ridley was the only player given a multi-year contract. While he was not the number one alpha receiver that people wanted him to be after returning from his extended absence, $17 million per year for a player who can still heavily contribute and immediately become our number one target in this ridiculous wide receiver market seems like great value. Plus, we are not going to be as reliant on our passing offense as Jacksonville was in 2023.

Gabe Davis was our biggest one-year deal in free agency. While this may feel like a lot for Davis, we need that bigger-bodied deep threat who can make plays when needed. Davis did not show up to each and every game in Buffalo with the desired dominance, but we do not need him to take on a possession role. If he can make big plays here and there across from Calvin Ridley, then he is well worth the one-year flier.

Josh Uche was our only other larger signing, and it is still just a seven figure contract. Thibodeaux and Ojulari just did not hit home like they needed to last season, so Uche coming in as a designated pass rusher should be the perfect complement to our existing edge group.

Four defensive backs were signed to smaller deals in hopes that one or two of them can overperform. Jeremy Chinn, for instance, will likely be our starting strong safety from day one. The secondary still probably needs some draft attention, but this is an improvement from where we started since we elected to not bring back Adoree’ Jackson.

A low-key very important signing is Jon Feliciano. Feliciano can play any interior line position, and was excellent in the run game this last season with San Francisco. Perhaps this spike in performance was due solely to the scheme and players surrounding him, but only $2 million for someone who played the way he did this last season is a tremendous value.

The final two signings are Shelby Harris and JK Dobbins. Harris is solid rotational defensive lineman who should give Lawrence some help on the interior. Dobbins may not even make the final depth chart, but he is among the best pure runners in the NFL when healthy. If he can be even half of what he was coming out of Ohio State, then he will be an excellent addition for a very low cost.

I understand that some of these deals are going to be very far off, but using a singular source for contract predictions, such as PFF, helps to eliminate inherent bias towards the players that you want to sign for the purposes of this exercise.

NFL Draft

This is where the plan really comes to life. The plan going into the draft is to select Taliese Fuaga at pick 11. Here is my scouting report on Fuaga: Click Here.

The thought process is that Fuaga is a downhill mauler who can single-handedly change the way the offense operates at the line of scrimmage in the run game. Evan Neal has been struggling big time over his first two seasons, but he is still a giant downhill monster who can help open up space with the right players around him. Neal taking more than double the amount of pass blocking snaps to run blocking snaps in 2023 did not help him either.

Fuaga can play at either guard or tackle, and the two behemoths can get to work opening up space on the right side for Saquon. If pick 11 roles around and Fuaga is off of the board, then JC Latham is a good backup plan. Latham may struggle as a pass blocker in certain schemes, but he is the best run blocking offensive lineman in the draft behind only Fuaga, and could probably fill the same role in this offense nearly as well. Here is my scouting report on JC Latham: Click Here.

With three second round picks, we want to keep hammering away at positions of need now that the offense is shaping up. When pick 39 was on the clock, we saw Jordan Morgan staring us in the face. Morgan is a mean run blocker, and would be a menace in this system that we are building. Is drafting two potential guards with our first two picks great value? Not necessarily, but just take a look at this starting offensive line:

Thomas is on contract through 2029, Fuaga through 2028 with his 5^th year option, Morgan through 2027, John Michael Schmitz through 2026, and Neal through 2026 with his 5^th year option. This line could be absolutely dominant for a minimum of three more years if the players can live up to the expectations set for them when they were drafted.

Additionally, backup offensive tackles are extremely valuable in today’s NFL. With Evan Neal and Taliese Fuaga being able to play right tackle, and Andrew Thomas and Jordan Morgan being able to play left tackle, the threat of the line severely worsening with injury decreases drastically. If Morgan is not there when this pick is on the clock, then we could pivot to another position with our offensive line already being much improved from last year. Some pivot options could include Chop Robinson, Darius Robinson, or Braden Fiske to add to the defensive line, or we could just take BPA depending on how the board fell up to this point. With our signings in free agency and drafting Fuaga in the first round, we have the flexibility with this pick to take a good football player who will help our team regardless of position. For this simulation, Jordan Morgan remains the best option available. Here is my scouting report on Morgan: Click Here.

For the second 2^nd round pick, we selected Kamari Lassiter to help with the secondary. Deonte Banks was a good pick a year ago, but he is a more of an athletic project. Kamari Lassiter lacks the absurd physical profile of Banks, but makes up for it in skill at the position. Lassiter is, in my opinion, the second best Cover-3 corner in the class behind Quinyon Mitchell. Him being able to come in as a stable force as the number two across from Banks to mitigate a lot of the variance and provide stability at the position just seems like proper teambuilding. An alternative for this pick would be Ennis Rakestraw Jr. Rakestraw fell a bit in the eyes of the public with the combine, but still would provide a solid number two option at corner assuming he is able to play more press coverage than what would be asked of Lassiter. Here is my scouting report on Kamari Lassiter: Click Here.

The third 2^nd round pick may be the most interesting pick of the draft. This football team wants to win on the ground, mitigate turnovers, and play with timing to eliminate a lot of the time-to-throw sacks and fumbles seen over the last five years. Bo Nix is still on the board and could run this offense beautifully. Many people don’t like him, but I personally see him as a very high floor quarterback. He can add an RPO element to this offense, and has significantly better accuracy on short and intermediate routes than Daniel Jones.

Bo Nix may not become a top 5 NFL quarterback, but he is an immediate upgrade in our eyes for this system specifically. At absolute worst, we see him as a high-end long-term backup to anyone we bring in next. Having a backup who can come in and win football games in this league is highly important, and the chance that he becomes something more is worth the shot at this point in the draft with how far he has fallen. If we really wanted to go a different direction with this pick and keep building the foundation for next year, we may have gone with someone like Kris Jenkins who could significantly help in run defense and start immediately at 3-4 defensive end next to Dexter Lawrence.

Our next pick was Xavier Legette. Again, this is becoming a downhill, quick timing offense. Legette is not the most polished route runner, but he is a mean blocker and can take slants to the house. He is the definition of a big-bodied slot receiver, which is a prototype that this team is lacking, and has the versatility to be a threat on the outside with back shoulder fades, comebacks, and go routes. While Legette is the best pick for how we envision this roster operating, some other receivers on the board that people really like are Devontez Walker and Malachi Corley. We feel that Jalin Hyatt and Tez Walker have redundant skill sets, and that Wan’Dale Robinson and Malachi Corley have redundant skill sets as well. Going wide receiver here is not 100% necessary regardless, but we still believe that Legette adds to this roster in a way that no other player still on the board could. Here is my scouting report on Xavier Legette: Click Here.

Getting into day three, we selected Leonard Taylor III with pick 108. We initially thought that this pick would not be possible, but his tape in combination with a rather poor off-season process may leave him as a day three pick. Taylor should play well alongside Dexter Lawrence, and really help as a one-gap interior defensive lineman on pass rush situations. Another option here could have been DeWayne Carter, but we see Taylor as having the potential to become an every down IDL whereas Carter is exclusively a DPR one-gap defensive lineman. If we went another direction with this pick, it would have been Matt Goncalves to be our backup swing tackle in the even of injury along the offensive line. Here is my pre-combine scouting report on Taylor: Click Here. He has since moved a bit down the draft board with a late third round grade since the combine.

Pick 128 is where we really want to take the best running back available, and Trey Benson fits our scheme perfectly. He is a big bruising back with elite contact balance and surprisingly good speed with a 4.39 40-yard-dash. He is very hard to bring down once he gets going, and we think that we can really open up the space to get him going with our upgraded offensive line. We could also look at Braelon Allen, Tyrone Tracy, or Kimani Vidal with this pick to spare Saquon Barkley when needed. If Benson was not around, then we may have waited until our next pick at 136 to select one of the other available backs depending on how the board fell. Here is my scouting report on Trey Benson: Click Here.

Our next pick may seem disingenuous, so I will provide some alternative names. Cooper Beebe is oddly low on the PFF mock draft simulator. He is clearly our pick based on how we are trying to build this offense. He is an inside zone, downhill mauler who latches onto defenders and drives them into the dirt. Because he likely will not be here, another player we would go with is Isaiah Adams. Adams has a similar skill set as a downhill mauler, but lacks the girth of Beebe. Other plays still on the board who we would consider are Zak Zinter and Sataoa Laumea, but Beebe would be the jackpot. Either way, drafting a day three backup interior offensive lineman would provide more long-term security to this roster in case of injury. Here is my scouting report on Cooper Beebe: Click Here.

With pick 140, we drafted Caelen Carson. Carson is an aggressive tone setter who flies downhill and can stick with just about anyone in pure man coverage when he is locked in. He does not read the quarterback well from zone or look for the ball in the air, but his aggressive playstyle and quick feet to burst in any direction in man coverage should make him an excellent slot corner in the NFL with potential outside versatility. Cordale Flott was the primary slot corner in 2023, and may have his job taken in year one by a fifth round rookie. That is how much we love this dude. Here is my scouting report on Caelen Carson: Click Here.

At this point in the draft, our alternative options are just going to be high upside guys at positions where they could eventually contribute if they continue to develop. For instance, we could look at Xavier Thomas at edge, Ben Sinnott or Theo Johnson at tight end, or look into taking a better third down back like Dylan Laube despite drafting Benson just a round earlier if Carson is not on the board.

Our final pick of this draft is AJ Barner. Barner is a classic in-line tight end who can still provide some value on every down if necessary. In order for this scheme to work as planned, we need a stronger in-line run blocking tight end. Barner is still improving, and may be able to provide immediate value in the run game that Bellinger does not. In all honesty, Barner falling this far is a blessing, and we should have invested in a more traditional in-line blocking tight end during free agency.

After the draft , we still had fourteen roster spots to fill. Many of these players may end up being drafted, but they were all remaining on the PFF Mock Draft Simulator at the conclusion of the draft. Below is a summary of the draft, along with our selected undrafted free agents:

We did not go in-depth on guarantees and prioritization of undrafted free agents with the assumption that they would not significantly impact the existing cap space. For our UDFA selections, we only took players who have a path to make the 53-man-roster.

Blake Watson may immediately be our best third down back, aside from Saquon of course. If Benson can show improvement in pass protection and the receiving game, then we may not even need a pure scatback. Saquon is obviously the primary third down back, but it would be beneficial to have someone else on the roster who could help on passing downs when needed. Keilan Robinson could become the RB3 on this roster if Dobbins appears to not be in a position to contribute at any point this season based on how his rehab is going in camp.

Trey Knox has a path to overtake Bellinger as the TE3 on this roster. Matt Lee could earn a spot as a backup guard based on the development of Jalen Mayfield and company, although Lee admittedly does not fit our scheme very well. Ezirim and Glaze could also earn spots as backup tackles with Joshua Ezeudu as the only remotely safe second sting offensive tackle currently on the roster.

On the defensive side of the ball, we picked up Cedric Johnson and Khalid Duke at edge. The only three edge players completely locked in are Thibodeaux, Ojulari, and Uche. The rest of the spots are open for competition, and anyone who can add an element of run defense should have an advantage considering our current players.

Along the interior, we added Jaden Crumedy. The defensive interior is a distinct weakness aside from Dexter Lawrence, so bringing in some additional competition could pay off.

Dallas Grant and Jordan Magee were added at linebacker. It is more than likely that at least one of these players ends up making the final 53-man squad. Our depth at the position is horrendous, so a strong showing should give each of them a good chance at winning a spot on the roster.

Finally, we brought in Kitan Oladapo, Jarius Monroe, and Donte Kent. The secondary is up for grabs with one-year fliers making up the majority of our depth. Oladapo even has the opportunity to earn a starting spot at strong safety with a good enough showing.

Summary

Below is our final 90-man roster, and here is a link to a full visual summary: Click Here.

Overall, we stuck to the game plan. It even went better than initially anticipated with Jordan Morgan staring us down in the second round. After a lackluster off-season process, it is getting more and more likely that Morgan will make it this far in the draft.

If none of the trades had occurred and Fuaga was drafted at pick six, then the identity of the roster would still not change. Lassiter, Benson, and Beebe would be replaced, which is not the end of the world. As is stands, the offense should be able to maintain continuity and develop together over the next three years at least. Gabe Davis is the only starting player on offense who is not on contract through at least 2026, and our future cap situation is optimistic for having constructed a roster in this capacity.

This will allow us to focus primarily on building the defense for the next few years if the rookies pan out as expected. Even if they do not, minimal offensive changes would be needed compared to the previous state of the roster. Either way, adding playmakers on defense next season along with replacing Gabe Davis in some capacity (or extending him if he performs well enough) should make this a well-rounded team for years to come. The players hitting free agency next season are not high impact starters. The most notable player with one year left on his contract who was not signed this off-season to a one-year deal is Azeez Ojulari. The roster continuity is very promising for future development.

Here is the state of our cap:

While it does not look optimal on a superficial level, there are several things to consider:

      1.      The cap projections are probably much lower than what the cap will actually be.

      2.      Daniel Jones will be cut. This will save $19,395,000 in 2025 and $58,605,000 in 2026.

      3.      We have 39 players on contract next season, including 10/11 offensive starters and all of our impact players on defense: Kayvon Thibodeaux, Dexter Lawrence, Bobby Okereke, Deonte Banks, Xavier McKinney, and (hopefully) 2^nd round rookie Kamari Lassiter. All offensive and defensive players mentioned are still on contract through 2026 as well assuming fifth year options are picked up.

All things considered, we are thrilled with our cap management. If Bo Nix can live up to expectations and we do not have to pay a quarterback, then this roster has the ability to be one of the best in the league in 2025 and 2026 with the cap space to bring in some real difference-makers next season. We would have the means to sign a true number one wide receiver and draft an edge rusher in the first round, or vice versa. While rookie quarterbacks don’t win Super Bowls, this team is ready to compete and still has significant room to improve once Bo Nix has a full season under his belt.

Post-Exercise Critiques

I like doing these mocks for just about every team when given the opportunity so that I can fully understand the state of the roster from an outside perspective, or at least have a firm grasp on team needs. While this one was one of my favorite outcomes, there are definitely areas that could be altered based on preference.

Changing the entire path of a franchise with our fourth pick and not trying to get a potential top-5 NFL quarterback may be a mistake. The quarterbacks who perennially win Super Bowls are guys like Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady. Because the purpose of this exercise was to see what the team would look like with a new and improved offensive line, I was never going to draft a first round rookie quarterback in this mock. What may have been better to avoid becoming a perpetual 10-7 team is drafting Kris Jenkins with pick 47, then assume that we will draft our franchise quarterback via trade up or with our existing first round pick. This would improve biggest theoretical weaknesses on the roster and potentially give us a higher upside quarterback next season.

The downside to this is that it would even further delay our winning window. Again, rookie quarterbacks do not win Super Bowls. Our roster is built to win for the next three years before some significant changes will be needed, and we are not in the best position to pay a top-of-the-market quarterback next off-season if any even become available. I am content with the route we took based on who was available at the time, but understand why it may be a less popular opinion.

Another area we could have addressed more thoroughly is linebacker. Denzel Perryman is a fine addition, but he is not a coverage linebacker. Okereke is solid in coverage, but we may get eaten up over the middle of the field, especially with our lack of depth if Okereke goes down.

We completely revamped the offense and will focus more on the defense next season assuming the rookies pan out. If Bo Nix is clearly not the answer, we still are in a position to go get one in the 2025 NFL Draft. If all goes well, then we should be able to shine a positive light back on Brian Daboll and legitimately compete in a tough division for years to come.