The New York Giants are barreling towards a cap space issue in 2025. This was evidenced further by Brian Burns' contract restructure earlier this week, and the Giants still need to act fast and will be forced with difficult decisions over the summer.
One choice, for purely on-the-field and depth chart reasons, could be defensive lineman Rakeem Nunez-Roches, who started 15 games in 2024 and four of his 16 appearances in 2023.
The downside to cutting Nunez-Roches starts in the locker room. Nunez-Roches is a beloved team leader and a key veteran in the locker room for a Giants team that has a lot of young, inexperienced players.
Still, The Athletic's Dan Duggan called Nunez-Roches a "top cap casualty candidate" in an article on Wednesday detailing different ways Giants' general manager Joe Schoen could handle the cap problem prior to Week 1.
“Cutting Nunez-Roches would create $3.6 million in cap savings while leaving a $1.4 million dead money charge,” Duggan wrote. “That seemed like an obvious move before the Giants signed veterans Roy Robertson-Harris and Jeremiah Ledbetter, and drafted Darius Alexander in the third round.”
Nunez-Roches will have a tough time carving out a role with so many incoming players on the line who are expected to be contributors.
“Nunez-Roches, who turns 32 in July, is in the final year of his contract,” Duggan continued. “The Giants value his leadership, but a $5 million cap charge for a rotational defensive tackle seems excessive considering the Giants’ tight cap situation.”
Duggan concluded that “Nunez-Roches could land on the chopping block — or at least in position for a pay cut — if the cheaper defensive line options perform well in training camp.”