Is ILB Micah McFadden NY Giants’ Most Important Contract Extension?

NY Giants linebacker Micah McFadden has been a solid starter for the team ever since midway through his second NFL season. 

With McFadden entering the final year of his rookie contract this season, the Giants’ 2022 fifth-round draft pick out of Indiana was tabbed as the team's most important contract extension.

Whether the Giants agree is another story, but there’s no denying that since entering the league, McFadden has improved steadily and is now a key component of the Giants' defense, more specifically, the run defense.

In 47 games and 35 starts, he racked up six sacks, 267 tackles, 26 for loss, and 96 total tackles, including consecutive seasons with 100+ tackles.

Last season, the third-year pro piled up 41 stops at the line of scrimmage, which led the team and finished within the top 25 at the linebacker position. He also earned a 66.0 run defense grade and had a career-high 107 tackles.

McFadden has shown that he can be a sideline-to-sideline linebacker against the run and even get in the backfield to blow up plays. Throughout his career, he has 26 tackles for losses and has even forced two fumbles.

Despite solid production against the run, he could be even better. He has 46 missed tackles for a 15.7% missed tackle rate in his career. In addition to limiting missed tackles, McFadden has to improve in coverage. 

Last season, he allowed 32 catches on 37 targets (86.5%) for 298 yards and one touchdown. His 53.5 grade in coverage ranked 123rd out of 189 eligible linebackers. Throughout his career, his completion percentage rate has never been below 80%.

An underrated aspect of McFadden's game is his leadership and football IQ. But with all that said, given that the Giants last year drafted Darius Muasau in the sixth round, plus they have rookie Abdul Carter capable of giving them snaps at inside linebacker, there is some doubt as to whether the Giants will re-sign McFadden, particularly if, as is anticipated, he becomes a two-down player starting this year. 

What happens next with the NY Giants? Find out! Follow and like us on Facebook. Visit our YouTube channel for the latest videos. Want to send a question in for our mailbag? You can do so here.

Should the Giants extend McFadden?

The Giants have minimal cap space heading into the season. They have just $3,822,588 left after a huge spending spree this offseason. They could gain more cap space by restructuring contracts, but general manager Joe Schoen probably won’t do that just for the sake of extending McFadden early.  

McFadden is in the final year of a four-year, $4.015 million rookie contract, and thanks to the performance escalator, which bumps up the base salaries of Day 3 draft picks when they play more than what was expected, he will have a $3.4 million base salary this year as part of a $3.494 cap hit.

Interestingly enough, Shoen has been part of a trend in which players who reach a performance escalator are asked to take a pay cut to help the team’s cap situation, lest they face being cut from the roster. That happened to receiver Darius Slayton, who agreed to a cut, and cornerback Nick McCloud, who did not agree to a cut and hence was released by the team last year.

While it’s unlikely that the Giants would cut McFadden should he refuse a pay cut, given that he’s a starter, the linebacker has some leverage in that if the team were to seek some cap relief from him, they’d likely have to convert part of his base salary into a signing bonus and tack on another year to his contract (perhaps a voidable one) to make it work.    

That’s certainly an option to consider, as is simply extending McFadden. If you look around the league at his counterparts, he could make up to $10 million per year. But again, would the Giants be willing to pay that kind of money for a player who is likely to be a two-down contributor this year?

Probably not, given that Bobby Okereke is currently holding a $10 million APY on his contract with a year left to go plus with Muasau and Carter capable of taking on some of those snap moving forward.

So, what is the Giants’ most important contract extension?