The New York Giants have made very little transactional noise thus far this offseason, only grabbing a few headlines with they slapped the franchise tag on defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul. They entered the offseason with around $11 million available in cap space, a relatively modest number that gave them enough room to nab a couple upper tier free agents or make one major splash, but they elected for a conservative holding pattern. Co-owner John Mara believes it is partially because this is a very mediocre free agent class.
The 2015 free agent included (or still includes) the likes of DeMarco Murray, C.J. Spiller, Randall Cobb, Jeremy Maclin, Julius Thomas, Jordan Cameron, Bryan Bulaga, Doug Free, Mike Iupati, Ndamukong Suh, Jerry Hughes, Justin Houston, Greg Hardy, Nick Fairley, Byron Maxwell Darrelle Revis and a host of other big-time players.
As much as we’d like to give Mara the benefit of the doubt on his claim, as he actually understands the ins-and-outs of the business, it’s hard to comprehend how this would be considered a mediocre class (via New York Post):
There were obviously some star players out there, but for the most part I thought it was a mediocre free-agent class. And I think a lot of guys got paid more money than maybe they would have in other years because there was a lot of cap room out there. I think the guys who we got will help us, but we still have a long way to go.
There were absolutely some stars out there but there were also some solid upper tier players that contributed to the overall depth of this class. In addition to those listed above, we also had (or have) the likes of Torrey Smith, Terrance Knighton, Brandon Spikes, David Harris, Orlando Franklin, Frank Gore, Percy Harvin, Andre Johnson and Brandon Flowers rumble through free agency.
Photo Courtesy: Giants.com
