Rashad Jennings Blackballed For “Dancing With The Stars”?
Rashad Jennings had a strong showing on “Dancing With The Stars” Monday night, or at least that’s what this recap from USA Today tells us. The Giants free agent running back used his “quick-footed Cha Cha” and stylish golden blazer to win over judges, putting him into DWTS frontrunner status. 
His performance netted him four “sparkle points” out of five from USA Today, but the rest of the league isn’t going wild over his newfound hobby. Word is that the free agent running back is being blackballed for participating in the show, longtime NFL reporter Howard Balzer tweets.
Jennings is the latest in a long line of NFL players to take a shot at ballroom dancing on network television. Calvin Johnson, Antonio Brown, Chad Johnson, Hines Ward, Warren Sapp, Kurt Warner, Lawrence Taylor, Emmitt Smith, Donald Driver, Jason Taylor, Michael Irvin, Jerry Rice, and Von Miller have all strutted their stuff, with varying degrees of success. Most of those players did the show after retiring and only one, Miller, went on DWTS during a critical time for contract negotiations.
No one questioned Miller’s commitment to football during his reality show stint, but that might be because Miller was in his prime and one of the league’s very best defensive players. Jennings, on the other hand, is a soon-to-be 32-year-old coming off of an injury-riddled season. Teams probably expected that Jennings would be spending the offseason working out and meeting with interested teams. Instead, teams might be left with the impression that he is trying to follow the path of ex-Giant Michael Strahan. As a charismatic and good looking guy, Jennings could be zeroed in on a broadcasting career and that could detract from his commitment to football.
I have Jennings ranked as the fourth-best running back left in free agency.
Giants To Re-Sign Keenan Robinson
Keenan Robinson paid visits to the Bengals and Bills this month, but his most recent NFL employer looks to have made a suitable offer. The Giants reached an agreement to re-sign the linebacker, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com reports (on Twitter).
Robinson spent one season with Big Blue, 2016, after playing three with the Redskins. He will continue to serve as a key component on the Giants’ second level, which has by far the least capital allocated to it on a team stacked with high-end defensive end and cornerback contracts. The Giants categorized Robinson as a lower-tier priority this offseason but engaged in talks with the UFA before free agency’s outset. After tending to bigger business, Big Blue agreed to retain the former fourth-round pick.
[RELATED: Latest On DT Johnathan Hankins]
The Bengals signed Kevin Minter soon after Robinson’s Cincinnati summit, and the Bills used a second-round pick on Reggie Ragland last year. The Giants aren’t especially keen on paying linebackers big deals. That trend should continue, with Olivier Vernon and Jason Pierre-Paul having $17MM-AAV contracts. Robinson’s deal will likely be a midlevel accord.
A former multiyear Redskins starter, the 27-year-old Robinson made 79 tackles and deflected a career-high seven passes. Pro Football Focus, though, assigned Robinson a grade that placed him among the 10 worst full-time ‘backers last season. Playing on 71 percent of the Giants’ defensive snaps, Robinson started six games and played in every contest for a defense that made immense strides after a putrid 2015 performance.
Giants Re-Sign Mark Herzlich
For the third time in four years, the Giants reached an agreement to bring back Mark Herzlich. The Giants re-signed the reserve linebacker and special-teamer today, Ralph Vacchiano of SNY.tv reports (on Twitter).
A former UDFA, Herzlich has spent six seasons with the Giants. Last year, though, marked the only one that did not feature at least two Herzlich starts. The inspirational cancer survivor functioned strictly as a backup and special teams presence in the 14 games for which he was active during the 2016 regular season.
The Giants re-upped Herzlich on a two-year deal in 2015 and kept him on a one-year accord in 2014. The 29-year-old recovered a fumble last season but has been credited with just 17 tackles the past two years. He made 52 in 2014, which featured a career-high eight starts.
Giants Sign CB Valentino Blake
The Giants have signed cornerback Valentino Blake, the team announced. Blake will provide the Giants with cornerback depth after Coty Sensabaugh signed with the Steelers on Monday. 
Since entering the league as an undrafted free agent out of Texas-El Paso in 2012, Blake has appeared in all but two possible regular season games. After spending his first year with the Jaguars, he found his way to the Steelers and ascended to a starting role in 2015. Last year, he hooked on with the Titans and reverted to a reserve job.
In 16 games with Tennessee, he totaled 38 tackles and five passes defensed. Blake was ranked by Pro Football Focus as the No. 80 cornerback in the NFL last season out of 112 qualified players. His 62.5 score wasn’t great, but it was far ahead of Sensabaugh’s 48.4 posting. Blake is now projected to serve as the Giants’ No. 4 cornerback behind Janoris Jenkins, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, and Eli Apple.
Steelers Hosting CB Coty Sensabaugh
UPDATE – Steelers Sign Sensabaugh
The Steelers are hosting cornerback Coty Sensabaugh on a visit today, Mark Kaboly of DKPittsburghSports.com tweets. Meanwhile, the Giants also have interest in retaining him, according to Dan Duggan of NJ.com. 
[RELATED: Steelers To Sign RB Knile Davis]
Sensabaugh, 28, joined the Rams last offseason on a three-year, $14.5MM deal. Unfortunately, they dropped him just three games into the season, bringing him to the Giants. All in all, he had 24 tackles in 13 games for the two teams. Pro Football Focus gave him a poor 48.4 overall score, his third consecutive year with a poor showing. The Steelers presently have four corners on the roster: William Gay, Artie Burns, Senquez Golson, and Al-Hajj Shabazz.
Sensabaugh, Leon Hall, and Trevin Wade are all free agents and the Giants still need to add cornerback depth behind Janoris Jenkins, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, and Eli Apple.
Jared Odrick On Giants’ Radar
Jared Odrick is “one to watch” for the Giants if they don’t re-sign Johnathan Hankins, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Odrick, as Rapoport notes, appears to be healthy after he passed a physical with the Patriots. 
The Giants want to retain Hankins but they want him to hurry up and make a decision. After gunning for $10MM+ per year, Hankins has found a very soft market this month and the Giants aren’t about to bid against themselves or hold up the rest of their offseason to accommodate him. Odrick obviously wouldn’t offer the same kind of upside as Hankins, but he could probably be had on a less expensive one-year deal.
After signing a five-year, $42.5MM contract with the Jaguars in 2015, Odrick recorded 32 tackles and 6.5 sacks in 22 games (all starts). Unfortunately, he played in only six games last year, ending a streak of five straight 16-game seasons.
Odrick is our No. 2 ranked interior defensive lineman left on the board, behind only Hankins.
Latest On DT Johnathan Hankins
Johnathan Hankins has been trying to hard to top the Giants’ standing offer to retain him. He hasn’t done it yet and the G-Men are getting antsy. The Giants want an answer from him soon, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. 
[RELATED: JPP’s ’17 Cap Number Saves Giants $9MM]
Over the weekend, we heard that the Giants have a “50-50” chance of keeping the defensive tackle. The Giants’ exact offer to the 25-year-old is not known, but Ralph Vacchiano of SNY says they’re unlikely to offer him anything more than a one-year, $4MM deal because of their cap situation. That would be a crushing blow to Hankins who came into March looking for a deal worth more than $10MM per year. After Dontari Poe settled for a one-year deal with an $8MM base, a lucrative multi-year deal seems unlikely for Hankins, even though he’s younger.
So far, the incumbent Giants, Redskins, and Dolphins have been the only teams to be linked to Hankins. However, the Redskins have already made defensive line upgrades and the Dolphins’ interest might not be all that serious. Right now, all signs are pointing towards Hankins returning to the Giants, but their offer might have an expiration date.
JPP's '17 Cap Number Saves Giants $9MM
- Jason Pierre-Paul‘s Giants extension will count $7.5MM against the cap in 2017, Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com notes. JPP’s deal created more than $9MM in cap space for 2017, since the eighth-year defensive end would have been attached to a $16.9MM figure due to being franchise-tagged for the second time. As of Sunday, Big Blue has $12.7MM in cap space remaining.
- Jason Pierre-Paul‘s Giants extension will count $7.5MM against the cap in 2017, Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com notes. JPP’s deal created more than $9MM in cap space for 2017, since the eighth-year defensive end would have been attached to a $16.9MM figure due to being franchise-tagged for the second time. As of Sunday, Big Blue has $12.7MM in cap space remaining.
- Eli Manning has three years remaining on his latest Giants contract, but Raanan does not anticipate the team targeting his successor in this draft. Although Raanan could envision a mid- or late-round pick coming to New York as a developmental candidate, the Giants will likely target the 36-year-old Manning’s heir apparent in a future draft. Jerry Reese said in January the team has started to look for their next quarterback, but the team having signed Geno Smith and agreeing to re-sign Josh Johnson may have assembled the Giants’ QB depth chart for this season.
ESPN On Hankins, RBs
- Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com believes there is currently a 50-50 chance that DT Johnathan Hankins returns to the Giants. He also hears that Big Blue wants to add a physical power back to complement Paul Perkins, and LeGarrette Blount could be an option in that regard.
Contract Details: Marshall, Jerry, Ellison
- Brandon Marshall‘s Giants cap charges will be $4.5MM in 2017 and $6.5MM in 2018, Dan Duggan of NJ.com reports. The 12th-year wide receiver will make a fully guaranteed $3MM this season. Marshall is due a nonguaranteed $5MM for 2018, which will be his age-34 season.
- New York’s John Jerry re-up will see the veteran guard stand to earn a $925K fully guaranteed base salary in 2017 and have a ’17 cap hit of $1.75MM, per Duggan. Jerry will count $4.125MM against the 2018 cap, although only $925K of that is guaranteed — and that guarantee is for injury only. If Jerry is still on the Giants in 2019, he’ll have a $3.05MM base and a $4.125MM cap charge.
- Rhett Ellison‘s four-year Giants pact has the tight end’s cap charges at $2.25MM (2017), $3.75MM (2018), $5.75MM (2019) and $6.25MM (2020), according to Duggan. Ellison’s $975K base salary this season is fully guaranteed, as is $2.025MM of his $2.475MM base salary for 2018.