New York Giants: Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie homecoming?
By Zac Wassink
Veteran cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie remains available on the market. Should the New York Giants bring him home for one more run?
Perhaps the New York Giants would do well to toss anything not nailed down from the lost 2017 season out the window. Head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese are gone. Replacements Dave Gettleman and Pat Shurmur presented fresh starts for alleged problem players such as defensive back Eli Apple. Veterans like cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie became salary cap casualties.
Rodgers-Cromartie remains available and unsigned as of July 19, leading some fans posting on social media platforms to wonder if the new New York regime would consider sparking a homecoming. During the 2017 campaign, the 32-year old veteran showed signs of slowing down and of his age catching up with him. Rodgers-Cromartie also earned a team suspension in October following a meeting of the minds between player and McAdoo.
By Christmastime, that suspension wasn’t worth the email used to announce it to beat reporters and other members of NFL media. McAdoo, the man responsible for the decision, had already been shown the door, and Rodgers-Cromartie played up through the Week 17 victory over the Washington Redskins. As Edward Lewis of NFL.com wrote, the idea as of early March was for Shurmur to move Rodgers-Cromartie to safety. That plan changed once the franchise cut ties with the player.
Why bring someone back who was part of arguably the league’s most disappointing secondary? For starters, Rodgers-Cromartie should see the writing on the wall at this stage of his career. It’s obvious his phone isn’t blowing up with offers from other teams. Art Stapleton of the Bergen Record reported in June that Rodgers-Cromartie teased returning to the Giants during the celebrity softball game hosted by New York safety Landon Collins. Any contract offered by the Giants may not be much worse than what he’ll receive elsewhere.
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Familiarity breeds comfort, particularly for an athlete closer to retirement than to his physical prime. Rodgers-Cromartie still has friends inside the New York locker room. If anything, a dust-up with McAdoo may have only grown his popularity among players who clearly weren’t massive fans of the former coach by the end of November.
What Rodgers-Cromartie can offer the Giants on the field as of August 2018 is unknown if only because the team was an absolute mess the last time members of the roster played a meaningful down of football. Theoretically, DRC can play on the outside and the slot. While he finished the 2017 season without an interception, he registered six picks in 2016. It’s likely his powers and physical attributes all didn’t magically disappear in less than a year.
Shurmur seemingly agreed with that assessment. Otherwise, whispers of Rodgers-Cromartie switching positions wouldn’t have leaked roughly a week before he and the team parted ways. The Giants filled a hole on the roster by using a supplemental draft pick on cornerback Sam Beal, who received high praise from Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller earlier this month, but that shouldn’t prevent the team from re-signing Rodgers-Cromartie at the right price.
The Giants wisely freed funds earlier this year, but money is still tight. According to Spotrac, only six clubs have less available cap space than the Giants at the moment. Both sides in the equation would need to blink in negotiations. New York’s front office realizes the team will likely need help in the secondary because of injuries and/or poor play between the first exhibition contest and Week 1 of the regular season. Rodgers-Cromartie, meanwhile, may want to wait until other teams experience similar setbacks.
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This transaction isn’t a must ahead of training camp. Both sides can sit tight. Rodgers-Cromartie can bet on himself in search for one last decent payday, and the Giants can hope those on the roster remain healthy and capable of replacing the veteran. The team could also look at a younger product such as Bashaud Breeland. A famous cliché teaches there’s no place like home. Will the Giants and DRC concur?