Giants general manager Joe Schoen made a stunning threat toward Nick McCloud and his agents while negotiating a potential pay cut for the defensive back November.
“Don’t pay October’s rent, all right? As soon as I can replace him, I’m going to replace him. I’m not f–king around,” Schoen told McCloud’s representatives via phone, according to ESPN.
Schoen then hung up, per ESPN.
These new details reveal how the Giants’ front office is operating amid back-to-back dreadful seasons.
McCloud, the veteran “Swiss-army knife” defensive back, was being lauded by team officials just a few months prior.
But McCloud — despite winning the starting job out of camp — quickly fell out of favor with team brass.
In September, it was reported that Schoen and company wanted the veteran to take a pay cut on the one-year, $3 million contract he had signed in March.
NFL executives told ESPN it was a highly unusual ask since it came directly before the team’s Week 4 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, a game McCloud was slated to start.
The veteran defender said no to the request.
McCloud was eventually cut, but not in September. Nor October.
The cornerback played his last game for the Big Blue on Nov. 3. He was cut two days later.
Between the phone call ahead of Week 4 and McCloud’s dismissal on Nov. 5, the cornerback made four more starts for the Giants.
The team saved $1.5 million against the cap with the move.
McCloud was a leader in the Giants’ locker room — a respected veteran presence who knew the playbook assignments for outside cornerback, safety, slot cornerback, linebacker and the hybrid “moneybacker” position defensive coordinator Shane Bowen frequently flaunted.
And yet, as ESPN reports, later in November, Schoen told members of the media that he didn’t think his maneuvering was alienating players.
Not the McCloud maneuvering. Not the Xavier McKinney maneuvering. Not the Saquon Barkley mis-maneuvering.
The Giants were 2-7 when McCloud was released and lost seven of their final eight games.
McCloud might not have been a part of the solution, but he certainly wasn’t the crux of the problem, either.
