Kevin Zeitler says goodbye to New York following release

Originally posted on Empire Sports Media | By Cay North | Last updated 3/11/21

The New York Giants will have a different offensive line this season and one of the biggest changes will be that their top performer from last year is gone. That top performer, of course, is Kevin Zeitler. The Giants acquired him when they moved Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon to the Cleveland Browns, and Zeitler for the most part kept up his level of play that started with his previous team.

And he was one of the better members of the line during the time that he was with the Giants, starting almost every game since arriving in the trade. Now, however, the Giants have deemed his salary too much to keep on board amid their need to stay under the lowered salary cap. The Giants failed to renegotiate Zeitler’s contract and released the guard because of it, leaving them with a new need to address on the offensive line this season.

Thank you to the @Giants organization and the fans. I really enjoyed my two years in NYC. I’m excited to get to work with my next team. #onceagiant pic.twitter.com/vgBrfRfDpb

— Kevin Zeitler (@kzeit70) March 11, 2021

Zeitler has posted his goodbye to the Giants organization and the fans on Twitter already. The team that he’s saying goodbye to is one that he started 31 games for in two seasons, for two different head coaches.

The fans of course, will likely miss Zeitler’s presence on the line – after all, the Giants don’t have a clear replacement lined up just yet and it seems like the in-house option Will Hernandez has fallen off since his promising rookie season. The offensive line has been a problem for the Giants to figure out and now they have yet another spot on that line to reconsider.

However, at the end of the day, it just didn’t work out money wise. The Giants will save from cutting Zeitler, and he’ll head elsewhere and find the contract he’s looking for. That contract unfortunately won’t be with the Giants, and Zeitler apparently wasn’t willing to take less money to stay.

This article first appeared on Empire Sports Media and was syndicated with permission.

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