He’s a good soldier.
The giant’s offensive attack, Nate Solder, agreed to the structure of a restructured contract on Saturday, according to the NFL Network, and is expected to return to the team after being out last season as a high-risk opt-out under the COVID-19 protocols.
The Giants could not afford to keep Solder, 33, on his maximum salary of $ 16.5 million, given the constraints of his budget for a free agency and his uncertain role and level of performance in the future.
The details of Solder’s new deal are not known, but the intention was to cut finances, so it would cost almost as much time to keep the veteran close as it would be to eliminate him. If the Giants cut Solder before June 1 or if he retired – the way things seemed to be going before the last two weeks of internal discussions – the $ 62 million former free agent would have cost $ 10.5 million against the limit and would have released only $ 6 million.
Solder received the third highest number of bags (11) in the NFL in 2019, but was admittedly battling injuries and a difficult space while his son underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. First round rookie Andrew Thomas replaced Solder as a starting left striker last season, and the Giants would be wise not to tamper with Thomas’s development after he found a late pace at the end of the season.
In that case, Solder will compete with Matt Peart – a third-round pick who played and played in other games off the bench as a rookie – in the right tackle. The loser of the competition would likely become the swing tackle and eliminate a need for a free agent from the long list of Giants.
Solder made 13 starts on the right tackle for the Patriots as a rookie in 2011, but moved to the other end of the line in the next 114 games of his career. He was part of the Giants’ virtual OTAs last season, but his relationship with coach Joe Judge dates back to his shared New England years, and Judge gives high priority to the character’s intimate knowledge entering the locker room.