After being relatively quiet in the free agency market, the New York Giants made a huge splash with the signing of wide receiver Kenny Golladay. The wideout was snapped up by the franchise in a 4-year $72 million deal with $40 million in guaranteed money.
And this sort of money obviously made a lot of noise in the NFL. The free agency market has been hit by the reduced salary cap size. The league set the salary cap at $182.5 million for the 2021 season. A steep decline from the $198.2 million set for the previous season.
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The decrease was brought about due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus according to an NFL reporter, opting to give Golladay such a big contract was one that took many by surprise.
New York Giants break the bank for Golladay
During a segment of SportsCenter, NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler said that the New York Giants splurging the way they did for Golladay was definitely something that a lot of people did not expect.
“Pure shock. I mean, people I’ve talked to are shocked because they thought in this depressed free agency market because of the pandemic that he would have to take a hit,” said Fowler.
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Sep 27, 2020; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants head coach Joe Judge shouts out to his team against the San Francisco 49ers. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Providing further context on why the deal came as a shock, Fowler referred to the contract that the Detroit Lions had offered Kenny Golladay.
“The context is, a few months ago, the Detroit Lions offered Golladay, a contract of around $18.5 million per year. About $40 million over the first 2 years. He turn that down, he bet on himself,” Fowler explained.
With many people expecting Golladay to lose out on money by rejecting the contract, he, along with his agent, proved everyone wrong by landing the bumper contract.
“So a lot of people were thinking he might have just cost himself millions of dollars. But clearly, Golladay and his agent, Todd France, had a number in mind they were going to hit around that 18.5 benchmark and they did exactly that.”
With Golladay raking in the big bucks, do you think he’ll be able to live up to the price tag the New York Giants paid for him in the coming NFL season?
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