Getty Julian Love of the New York Giants warms up before a 2022 NFL game.
The New York Giants weren’t feeling the Love.
Former team captain and starting safety Julian Love will sign a two-year, $12 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks, according to CBS Sports Senior Insider Josina Anderson and ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
The move ends Love’s four-year run in New York. He led the team with 124 tackles in 2022, his first as a starter, but the Giants had to make a few tough calls in a pivotal offseason.
“(The Giants) told me they had to deal with the big dogs, Daniel (Jones) and Saquon Barkley,” Love told Sirius XM NFL Radio last week, via the New York Post. “I was kind of in the next list of players they need to get done.”
A return couldn’t be worked out like it was with Daniel Jones, Saquon Barkley, receiver Darius Slayton, and defensive lineman Jihad Ward, though.
According to the New York Post’s Michael Blinn, the Giants approached Love about an extension during its 2022 bye week. Love declined that offer, Blinn wrote.
“There’s a sense of wanting to finish the job with the team that drafted you,” Love told Sirius XM NFL Radio, according to Blinn. “But at the same time you just can’t settle. Football careers are so short that you have to get what you feel is fair in the time you are in it.”
Replacement Options for Love?
Xavier McKinney will be entrenched at one safety spot if he’s healthy; the other spot is up for grabs.
Big Blue could turn to another fourth round pick — Dane Belton — for more responsibilities there. The team was also “impressed by what they saw last season from preseason waiver claim Jason Pinnock,” according to ESPN’s Jordan Raanan.
Veteran safeties still on the market include Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, John Johnson, Taylor Rapp and Adrian Amos. The Giants have more space for signings after newly acquired tight end Darren Waller reworked his contract on Friday, according to ESPN’s Field Yates.
Following the trade to New York, the Giants have converted $9.835M of TE Darren Waller’s 2023 base salary into a signing bonus, creating $7.868M in cap space, per source.
New York also owns 10 picks in the upcoming 2023 NFL draft. They picked Illinois safety Jartavis Martin at No. 172 overall in Heavy’s seven-round Giants mock draft.
In Other Giants News
Warning: This is Nacho average reaction video.
Defensive tackle Rakeem Nunez-Roches — also known as “Nacho” — was captured by the Giants content team as he enthusiastically arrived to the Quest Diagnostics Giants Training Center to sign his new three-year deal.
The end result? A video showing a reaction so pure you just have to watch it.
Giants fans, MEET NACHO!
Nacho’s smile is enough to make the video go viral. The fact he’s beaming like that in an all-lavender sweatsuit while pushing one of his kids in a stroller makes it that much better.
“This is different,” Nunez-Roches proclaims as he walks by the Giants’ four Lombardi trophies. “This is way different! Oh, golly!”
Golly is right. In the flurry of free agency, it’s easy to lose sight of players like Nunez-Roches as more than names on the NFL’s transaction wire.
But real money is exchanging hands here. Families are uprooting to new homes and situations. And dreams are being realized.
It’s just plain awesome to see that realization all play out for Nacho in real time.