Why Giants CB Darnay Holmes Got a Pay Raise This Year

New York Giants cornerback Darnay Holmes, entering the final year of his rookie deal, is the lone member of the team who is eligible for a pay increase under the league’s annual Proven Performance Escalator program.

According to Article 7, Section 4 of the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement, there are three levels of qualifications. Level 1, for which Holmes qualifies, is earned if a player participates in a certain percentage of a team's offensive or defensive snaps in two of his first three seasons or averages that percentage of offensive or defensive snaps over his entire first three years.

In Holmes’ case, as he is a fourth-round draft pick, that percentage is 35 percent; hence his base salary rises to the Right of First Refusal (ROFR) Restricted Free Agent (RFA) tender, $2.743 million.

Level 2 is earned if a player participates in at least 55 percent of a team's offensive or defensive snaps in all of his first three seasons. Players who qualify for this level get their base salary increased to the amount of the ROFR RFA tender plus $250,000.

Level 3 is earned if a player is selected to a Pro Bowl on the original ballot (not as an alternate) in any of his first three seasons. Players who qualify for this level see their salary raised to the equivalent of the second-round restricted free-agent tender.

Holmes has played at least 37 percent of the Giants' defensive snaps in his first three seasons in the league, including a career-high 50.6 percent last season. He missed part of the 2021 campaign with a knee injury, playing just 24 percent of the defensive snaps that year, a drop from the 40.5 percent he played as a rookie.

His average snap defensive count comes to 38.4 percent, thus making him eligible for the Level 1 escalator.

With the pay raise, Holmes, the Giants’ primary slot cornerback in his first three seasons with the team, now has a 2023 salary cap of $2.94 million, including $197,972 of prorated money from his signing bonus.

Holmes remains the incumbent in the slot but will likely face some competition for his job from the likes of Aaron Robinson and Cor’Dale Flott, to name a couple of possibilities.

 If Holmes survives the roster cuts, the team could ask him to take a pay cut, similar to what they did last year with receiver Darius Slayton, whose contract was amended at the start of last season to include a lower base salary and several easily attainable incentives to make up the difference.