Why cornerback James Bradberry is still a Giant — and what's next

The new NFL year has open, free agency has officially begun, and cornerback James Bradberry is still on the Giants’ roster.

Just how long he stays there remains to be seen.

Despite fielding multiple calls about one of his best defensive players, according to multiple league sources, new Giants GM Joe Schoen did not trade Bradberry before the free-agent market opened at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. And he didn’t cut him either, even though that would’ve immediately cleared $12.1 million in much-needed salary cap space off the Giants’ books.

Instead, the Giants will carry Bradberry and his hefty, $21.9 million cap charge, at least for the time being. One source said the Giants are likely to keep Bradberry at least through the NFL Draft, unless they get a satisfactory trade offer. And they are expected to continue pursuing possible trades along the way.

It’s unclear if Schoen got any firm offers for Bradberry before the market opened, but several NFL sources said there didn’t appear to be much of a market for him, due to a widespread belief that Schoen was—and perhaps is -- going to have to cut him. The feeling was the Giants were stuck, knowing they had to clear money for things like their draft class and practice squad, and dumping Bradberry would be the easiest way to do it.

The best guesses around the league were that Schoen might have to settle for a late-round pick in return. But if he was offered one, he decided not to settle – at least not yet. The deadline of 4:00 p.m. Wednesday was always a bit artificial anyway. Once Bradberry was still on the roster then, $2 million of his $13.4 million salary for 2023 did become guaranteed. But that has no financial impact on any trade. And while it does technically lower the Giants’ cap savings by $2 million if they cut him, they’d surely get it right back due to offset language in his contract as soon as he signs with another team.

It’s easy to see why Schoen would want to hold onto the 28-year-old Bradberry, though. He is one of the Giants’ best defensive players and easily their best cornerback. And given the importance of cornerbacks in new defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale’s scheme, Bradberry is the kind of player the Giants should want to keep.

Unfortunately, former GM Dave Gettleman restructured Bradberry’s contract twice in a seven-month span last year, which caused his bloated cap number for 2022 – and which is hard to fit in given the rest of the cap mess Gettleman created. It’s why Schoen said he needed to clear $40 million off the Giants’ books in order to operate – something that might be impossible to do if he continues to keep Bradberry around.

Schoen has already cleared about $12.4 million by cutting four players (tight end Kyle Rudolph, tight end Kaden Smith, running back Devontae Booker and punter Riley Dixon). He also cleared what a source said is an estimated $12 million more by getting receiver Sterling Shepard and linebacker Blake Martinez to accept pay cuts.

Since the Giants were believed to be around $10 million over the $208.2 million salary cap when this process began, those moves figure to have put the Giants approximately $14 million under the cap, though still about $15.6 million short of Schoen’s goal.

Since then, the Giants have agreed to terms with several free agents, including guard Mark Glowinski (who has a $3.7 million cap number for 2022) and quarterback Tyrod Taylor ($2.7 million). They also signed offensive linemen Matt Gono and Jon Feliciano and receiver Robert Foster and re-signed receiver C.J. Board and long-snapper Casey Kreiter, all of whom are expected to carry cap charges of less than $1 million.

In total, those account for about $11.4 million in cap space. However, due to the “Top 51 rule” – where only the top 51 cap hits count towards a team total during the offseason – each time a new player is added, someone is knocked from the bottom of the list. So the actual cap cost for all the new additions so far is more like $6 million.

Though the final, official numbers aren’t all in, that appears to leave the Giants roughly around $8 million under the salary cap, which is fine for now – and why they’re able to hold onto Bradberry for the moment. But they will eventually need approximately $12.5 million in cap space for their draft class, according to OverTheCap.com, plus money for a practice squad and for signing other players during the season.

Right now, they don’t have the space for that. But by the time they start signing their draft picks this summer, they’ll need it. And that’s why cutting or trading Bradberry might be a necessity.

Of course, Schoen does have other options. He has fielded calls to gauge his interest in trading running back Saquon Barkley, according to sources, and that would clear $7.2 million in cap space. In theory, he could lower Bradberry’s cap number by getting him to agree to a contract extension, though Bradberry would seemingly have little incentive to accept. He could also restructure some of Giants’ bigger contracts, like those of Leonard Williams, Kenny Golladay and Adoree’ Jackson, though Schoen has said doing that is a “last resort” since it creates cap problems in later years.

Since he seems unlikely to deal Barkley or choose that “last resort” option, it seems likely that at some point Bradberry will have to be moved. The next flash point for that figures to be in late April, since NFL trades are often made right around the draft.