The Giants are in decent cap shape. Sure it isn't pretty on the surface (around $126m against a proejcted $120m cap, but there are plenty of options.

Firstly I wouldn't expect Shawn Andrews back, that will save around $7mil in cap room, which will put us under the cap

There are a few players who we could look to rework some deals

Top of the list are Eli Manning and Corey Webster with salaries of $8.5m and $8m respectively for 2011 (Webster's goes up from $2.75m last year). By moving it into some kind of signing bonus or the like, room could be created.
You could probably add Canty and Rolle to that list, both with salaries of $5.25m

We could give McKenzie an extension, turning some of his $4.3m salary into a roster bonus.

I would also expect we would look at possibly reworking the salaries of guys like Bernard ($2.95m), Jacobs ($4.65m), Boley ($3.5m), O'Hara ($3.45m), Rosenfels ($3m) and Seubert ($2.25m). Potentially you could add Diehl with his $4m salary

Remember that while this year's cap is expected to be $120, it is expected to substantially increase in two years.

Sure we won't be frivilous with spending, but we can create a reasonable amount of cap room if we wish.

This is the kind think we could do

cut Andrews - suddenly we are slightly under the cap.

rework Manning and Webster's deals turning maybe $6m into future years as part of guaranteed bonuses. - adds $12m to work with

give McKenzie a 1 year extension converting $3mil of his salary into a signing bonus - adds $1.5mil in cap room.

rework the deals of O'Hara, Jacobs and Boley, shaving maybe $1m each.

Cut Hedgecock - frees up another $0.7m

That alone creates around $17.2m room against the cap to work with. And there are plenty of more options

Then we have to make decisions, do we keep Cofield if so Bernard is gone along with around $2.5m in cap room.

Do we extend the contracts of Osi, Manningham, Goff, Thomas or Ross?

There are certainly some options, and enough to be moderately active in free agency.

It has been mentioned in a few places that the 2011 salary cap will "be around $120M...but feel more like $130 with the allowed exceptions".

I would imagine that there will be some part of of contracts that will not count against the salary cap, most likely for resigning current free agents.

it could mean for example we could sign Bradshaw, Cofield or Smith for market value and only count part of it against the salary cap.

That would make the most sense as a comprise as owners wanted the right of first refusal for some of their guys off contract.

From what I read you can basically assume the cap will be about 130 million.

Pizan wrote:From what I read you can basically assume the cap will be about 130 million.

yeah that's what it seems, despite being nominally $120m.

It means effectively we are under the cap, and have plenty of possibilities to create cap space to resign key players we want and possibly bring in a free agent or two.